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May 19 2010
The market size for erudite and philosophical wine books has to be a very small sub-set of wine lovers, resonating with the odd librarian who nestles in with a couple of cats that offer familiarity with her glass of Sauvignon Blanc and, perhaps, the unrequited liberal arts major that pines for a lover with an equally exhausting love for the Socratic Method.
At least that’s what you might think if you didn’t know three quasi-philosophical wine-related books have published in the last year, joining two other titles published in 2007.
And, while I’m neither a spinster librarian nor a Kierkegaard-toting hipster looking for a verbal joust, I do read these well-intentioned wino philosophical books.
The Psychology of Wine, Wine Drinking for Inspired Thinking and Use Wine to Make Sense of the World join the pantheon of thinking man’s wine books on the shelf next to Wine and Philosophy: A Symposium on Thinking and Questions of Taste: The Philosophy of Wine. And, each of the three recent titles takes their own tact on the thinking man’s pursuit of the grape … with mixed results.
Let’s start with the good first: Use Wine to Make Sense of the World by Elliot Essman. Using wine as the crucible for viewing the intrinsic elements of the human condition, Essman manages to be at once smart, glib, personal, and accessible in a first person narrative weaving insight and anecdotes into a coherent whole– no easy feat, particularly when the book could have easily leaned preachy and boorish in lesser hands.
Notably, Essman nails this genre of book correctly in the introduction (ensuring that readers who dig into the balance of the briskly paced 153 pages won’t be disappointed) when he says, “Wine involves science, nature, history, geography, language, business, culture, law, government, sensuality, and sense. Wine involves people. Wine involves questions of aesthetic taste. Wine weaves a path through our entire civilized life.” In those 32 words he manages to encapsulate the very different, but uniquely binding ties that bring people together around the good grape.
If the book has a flaw it’s that it’s too brief without a level of research that pushes it beyond the entertaining first person monologue. He is missing an editor that could stretch him into new directions, and challenge his table of contents, helping him build this book into a peer of other broad-based, modern day classic wine books like Lawrence Osborne’s The Accidental Connoisseur.
Regardless, If Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people” she might have been referring to Essman and his ideas that transcend not only events and people, but wine, as well. A recommended read.
Less notably, and frankly pretty bad is: Wine Drinking for Inspired Thinking: Uncork Your Creative Juices by Michael J. Gelb.
Gelb, author of a business bestseller in the 90s called, How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci swings and misses by a Venetian mile on this effort (while bordering on the fraudulent based on the title and premise of the book), making me wonder what kind of pictures he has of Parker in order to get the Emperor to provide a book jacket starburst quote that says, “Highly Recommended.”
What is “highly recommended” isn’t clear. Perhaps the portion of the quote left out is, “to use as kindling.”
The premise is based on Gelb’s creativity consulting practice in which he leads seminars and corporate training sessions and uses one creative session tactic where he has participants drink wine and write poetry. Thus a book was born. Bad idea. The problem is that one consultant exercise does not a book make. Therefore, the unsuspecting reader is left with a grab bag of content geared towards the complete novice with pearls of wisdom on how to give a toast, complete fluff on wine and philosophy, wine and music and wine and art, and finally 52 pages of glossaries, recommended reading, acknowledgements and blank pages for notes.
Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg, authors of the twin classics, What to Drink with What you Eat and The Flavor Bible, offer in the book Forward, “…Wine Drinking for Inspired Thinking is destined to take its place as a classic for thoughtful readers in search of wisdom and insight into the art of living.” Um, not so much. But credit to Gelb for getting Parker, Zraly, Natalie MacLean, Page and Dorenburg, as well as Vaynerchuk to give jacket blurbs for this completely misleading, total dog of a book. Paybacks are a bitch Michael J. Gelb.
Finally, in the “ugly” category is The Psychology of Wine: Truth and Beauty in the Glass by Evan Mitchell and Brian Mitchell.
Where to start on this book? It’s like reading the CliffsNotes to The Iliad and still having no clue what is going on.
William Faulkner is notorious to college students for being a virtually impenetrable author. Indeed, Faulkner has nothing on the father and son Mitchell team.
Perhaps the most telling quote for the authorly expectations of this book is, “Wine, more than any other organism, aesthetic object, or experience, reflects what it means to be human.”
Ahem, I love wine, certainly as much, if not more than the next guy, but to place wine on a higher plane than, say, childbirth is a bit of ridiculous hubris.
The text of the book, chock full of scholarly analogies, isn’t so much a look into the Psychology of wine, as much as it’s like a liberal arts Ph.D with wine as your principal area of study. To me, it’s virtually unreadable for anybody except east coast bluebloods, or, alternatively, the type of person who keeps a quarter bag of Mendo Purple Haze on hand for the water bong.
It’s not all bad, a couple of chapters do shine – notably chapter 4 on points scoring and chapter 25 on the Judgment of Paris. Each have a crisp, understandable lucidity, but the balance of the book is tedious, full of obscure, scholarly reference points and a point-of-view that alienates even the most learned of readers.
Overall, my peek into these wine and philosophically leaning books was a very mixed bag. Perhaps the best advice related to these types of books comes from 19th century scientist and wine lover Louis Pastuer when he said, “A bottle of wine contains more philosophy than all the books in the world.” Good advice. My recommendation is to drink a bottle of wine quiet with your thoughts instead of spending any time with two out of three of these books.
May 17 2010
Sunday, May 16th marked the unofficially official Robert Mondavi Day, the 2nd anniversary of his passing.
In observance of and memorial to Mondavi’s leadership to the California wine industry, I ran a prize giveaway in conjunction with wine accessory company True Fabrications in order to maintain an annual pebble size ripple of awareness, particularly for wine enthusiasts both new and old for whom a historical benchmark is critical, akin to understanding that Dr. J pioneered the slam dunks that Michael Jordan perfected.
Based on random number selection, I’m pleased to announce that Good Grape reader Ranndy (yes, two n’s) Kellogg from the greater Chicagoland area is the winner of the $150 prize package, with a very generous late addition of a one year subscription to Wine BlueBook (WBB) from friend of Good Grape and WBB publisher Neil Monnens ($25 value).
Ranndy, already a wine enthusiast, now has a number of accessories to add to his wine fandom arsenal. Thanks to all who entered the contest by leaving a comment.
For my own observance of Robert Mondavi Day, I wanted to drink a California wine that, if not quintessential (a Reserve To Kalon, perhaps), at least typified all that is great about Robert Mondavi’s contributions to the domestic wine world as we know it.
I selected the 2007 Continuum red blend from Mondavi’s son, Tim Mondavi – a wine project also supported by Mondavi’s widow, Margrit Biever Mondavi.
Provided by the winery, the 2007 blend from Oakville and mountain fruit is a precursor to entirely estate grown mountain fruit for Continuum in the ‘08’s and beyond—though if the 2007 is any indication, there isn’t much sense messing with a good thing. The wine is a 60% Cabernet / 22% Cabernet Franc / 18% Petite Verdot blend and the best review by score I’ve ever given a wine. To call it stunning is to suggest that Audrey Hepburn might have lacked refinement, as in “stunning” isn’t an adequate enough descriptor.
The Mondavi legacy certainly lives on, a modern day manifestation befitting the name of a legend. In Tim’s words, “For four generations our family has created a continuum of wine excellence, enhancing the celebration of life.”
Indeed.
May 13 2010
Sunday, May 16th marks the 2nd anniversary of Robert Mondavi’s passing.
Last year, in memorial to Mondavi and his legacy (and cleared by the Robert Mondavi Winery brand stewards), I started the unofficially official “Robert Mondavi Day” to mark the anniversary of his passing, and, more importantly, his everlasting contributions to the California wine industry and, to a large extent, the domestic wine business as we know it.
I have a deep and profound respect for Mondavi’s leadership, vision and indefatigable nature in raising the 1960s California wine industry up by its bootstraps through the dint of hard work and moxie, something I’ve written about a number of times and retrievable by searching “Robert Mondavi” on this site.
In paying homage, however humbly, I hope to keep his spirit alive on the internets, especially as a new generation of wine drinkers come online, long on passion and short on historical wine perspective.
A year ago, we had a communal celebration with the theme, “California Inspiration” for Wine Blogging Wednesday. This year, I’ve partnered with wine accessory company True Fabrications for a prize package offering ($150 value w/ free shipping)!
What better way to celebrate the Godfather of California wine than by offering a prize package that celebrates wine enthusiasm?
Special thanks, of course, go to True Fabrications for their generosity in sponsorship. Started in 2004 by three college buddies and a little friends and family seed money, the company set out to create custom wine bags for wholesale. Mission accomplished as their designs can be found in wine shops and other retail outlets across the country. They also have a consumer ecommerce site with a well-curated selection of wine enthusiast essentials. Check them out, it’s hard not to like a small company of young entrepreneurs who pride themselves on sublime customer service while offering everything a wine lover needs(except the wine).
Here are the details for the prize package:
• Enter by leaving a comment on this blog post answering the very simple question, “What is your favorite California wine, varietal or winery?”
• There is no right answer to the prize question. A winner will be selected by a random number generator based on the number of total comments. Therefore, if the first commenter says, “Zinfandel” and the 91st commenter says, “Ridge Zinfandel” both commenter’s have an equal chance of winning based on random number selection. Only one comment per person, please.
• Entries are open from the time of posting until Midnight on Saturday, May 15th EST
• The prize package offering has a $150 value and shipping is fully paid. I will contact the winner for their mailing address based on the email they leave in the comment field. If I cannot reach that person by the end of the day Tuesday, May 18th, I will select another winner.
• Finally, a lot of people read this site. Very few people leave a comment. For all of the lurkers, this is your chance to say hello and win a fabulous prize package. And, most importantly, hoist a glass of California wine to your lips this weekend and pause to thank a man who saw the possibilities for California wine on the world stage.
The prize package (each item was hand selected by me and the total offering is worth $150 + free shipping and handling) includes:
• 4 Duet wine tasting glasses
• 1 display quality bell corkscrew
• VacuVin pump kit and two stoppers
• Two extra VacuVin stoppers
• 1 can Private Preserve wine preserver
• 1 Soiree wine aerator
• A deluxe cheese board and knife set
• 1 Red wine “Wine Away” wine stain removal kit
• 2 bottles of SanTasti wine palate cleanser
• 1 tin of Wine Wipes
* Update* Friend of the site Neil Monnens, Publisher of Wine Blue Book, will also include a free 1 year subscription to Wine Blue Book. As a paid subscriber to WBB, I can attest that it’s a great value and resource for navigating the world of wine and the myriad of choices related to wine scores! WBB distills the scores into those with the highest Quality-to-Price Ratio (QPR).
Thanks for entering and thanks for celebrating Robert Mondavi Day with me ... now, go leave a comment!
May 13 2010
Like a cool uncle with a card trick, or a boy scout with compass skills, sometimes it’s just good to know something in the event you ever need to pull the proverbial rabbit of the hat, enliven a boring weekend, throw an assault on a lame party or, better yet, find your way out of the wilderness.
The notion of making wine on your countertop with retail purchased ingredients – juice from Whole Foods and a yeast additive is guaranteed to earn you DIY street cred, and, perhaps, the admiration of nieces and nephews if you cut the results with water, cool Uncle paisano-style.
My notion of countertop wine is a state-side homage to Federweisser, a sort of less-polished German equivalent of Beaujolais Nouveau. The first press of grapes from harvest (typically lower quality grapes) are quickly fermented to 5% alcohol and upwards and then quaffed as a seasonal German fall equivalent of our (non-alcoholic) apple cider.
Taking a page from the Federweisser book is “Spike Your Juice, Inc.” a California company that has created a yeast nutrient that, when added to any fruit juice with at least 20g of sugar per serving, will turn the juice into a fizzy, slightly carbonated adult beverage.
Separately, and launched a couple of years ago, is First Blush Juice – a juice company that packages and markets non-alcoholic Cabernet, Chardonnay, Syrah and, Merlot juice, which can be found in the bottled beverage aisle of your grocery story. Marketed as sort of a healthy juice with antioxidants, First Blush seems like the perfect companion to “spiking.”
Spike Your Juice costs $9.99 for six packs of yeast that will ferment three gallons of juice. First Blush varietal juice can be found on the internet for around $33 a 12-bottle case.
Forget for a moment that the results will likely be serviceable at best and the cost is seemingly prohibitive (especially when you consider can actually buy a couple of good bottles of wine for the same amount of money) and revel in the fact that sometimes “just because” you can do something is reason enough …
May 11 2010
I made my first visit to the Finger Lakes region last weekend. There’s an electric vibrancy with a pastoral sense of community in the area, an everyman’s humility coupled with the notion that sooner or later the rest of the world will catch up with the amazing Riesling that comes from the region, but until then they’re going to keep doing what they’re doing. Oh, the Riesling. High acid and racy with notes of lime peel, grapefruit, green apple and peach with a wet stone mineral inflection.
My visit was a revival meeting. I came languidly with no expectations and left a believer.
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