WINE BLOG
Life Long Learning #1
Life Long Learning #1
Part of the fun involved with learning about wine is the industry changes and evolves all the time. That means avid collectors and wine lovers have to do the same. My early wine education came from sitting in on tastings at Malaspina College in Nanaimo. Later on it was endless reading of a now extinct BC Wine Newsletter called The Wine Consumer. Then I started collecting wine books. The following list represents my earliest and most useful additions to my collection.
The Wild Bunch (Great Wines from Small Producers) Patrick Matthews 1997
Virgile’s Vineyard (A Year in the Languedoc Wine Country)Patrick Moon 2003
A Wine and Food Guide to the Loire Jacqueline Friedrich 1996
Love by The Glass(Tasting Notes from a Marriage)Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher 2002
Wine & War (The French,The Nazis & The Battle for France’s Greatest Treasure) Don & Petie Kladstrup 2001
Languedoc Rouissillon(The Wines and Winemakers) Paul Strang 2002
The New France (A Complete Guide to Contemporary French Wine)Andrew Jefford 2002
Adventures on The Wine Route(A Wine Buyers Tour of France) Kermit Lynch 1988
The Wine Regions of Australia John Beeston 2000 Very serious with historical context
American Vintage (The Rise of American Wine) Paul Lukacs 2000
A Short History of Wine Rod Phillips 2000
Wine and The Vine(An Historical Geography of Viticulture and the Wine Trade)Tim Unwin 1991 Scholarly
Red Wine with Fish(The New Art of Matching Wine With Food)David Rosengarten and Joshua Wesson 1989
The Taste of Wine(The Art and Science of Wine Appreciation)Emile Peynaud English Translation1987
A Century of Wine( The Story of a Wine Revolution) General Editor Stephen Brook 2000
Vines Grapes and Wines Jancis Robinson 1986
Vintage The Story of Wine Hugh Johnson 1989
The World Atlas of Wine (5th Edition) Hugh Johnson & Jancis Robinson 2013
Then along came the internet and access to tons of really great information. Unfortunately a lot of dreadful stuff is out there as well.
There are a few really well done newsletters /writers that are worth following. I’m going to start with two free sources.
In 2012 I heard about a newsletter called Loam Baby . http://vinous.com/products/loambaby
There are three PDF examples of this letter that focus on Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz and Napa. They are 4 years old but the information is still valid and worth adding to your Kindle for those longer flights.
My other source of free fantastic wine writing is Terry Thiese http://www.skurnik.com/terry-theise/
Terry is an import partner for Michael Skurnik Wines based in New York City. His area of expertise is Austria, Germany and Champagne. The PDF versions of his catalogue read like a novel. The wines a beautifully described and the producer profiles add a great deal of insight to your wine drinking enjoyment. If you are an aspiring importer or student of wine these are a must read.
Cheers
David Lancelot