The Booklovers' Guide to Wine
Page 32
Other wines, like Romani Conti, Stag’s Leap, and Château Latour, you might as well accept and resign yourself to the fact that you can only dream about them unless you win the lottery—or cultivate rich friends and, by using this book, impress them with your superior knowledge and appreciation of wine.
Otherwise, by being open to experiment, you can drink a wide variety of very fine wines from all over the world between the $5 and $15 price range with the occasional $25+ splurge for that special wine on a special occasion.
In most parts of the US, you should be able to find a local wine store where you can develop a relationship with the staff or the owner—but to begin with, please do not dismiss the big box retailers or your local supermarket. Wine has become a consumer commodity; it is widely available, and the big retailers are all competing to sell it to you—take advantage and embrace it!
America in the 21st century is a wine drinker’s paradise. Enjoy.
Conclusion:
If you have read this far, you will now be aware of many serious facts about the history and culture of wine, where it is grown, and how it is made. I have written this book and you have presumably read it in the belief that such knowledge increases the pleasure we get from wine. But never forget that we drink wine for pleasure—for our own pleasure, and for the pleasure of the people we drink it with. Don’t take it too seriously—drinking wine is fun. Perhaps nobody puts this in better perspective than that great Floridian writer and philosopher, Dave Barry.
“How to Order a Bottle of Wine in a Restaurant,” by Dave Barry
1. Look at the wine list and tell the waiter which wine you want.
2. When the waiter brings it to you, take a sip.
3. If it’s OK, say it’s OK.
4. Then shut up about the wine.
5. Don’t talk about the wine anymore.
6. Nobody gives a damn how much you know about wine, OK?
7. And above all, don’t keep sloshing the wine around and looking at it as if it’s magical unicorn blood.
8. It’s wine, for God’s sake.
9. In an hour it will be urine, same as Bud Light.
Acknowledgements
“I have drunken deep of joy, And I will taste no other wine tonight.” — Percy Bysshe Shelley
I could not have written this book without Mitchell Kaplan, the owner of Books & Books in Coral Gables, Florida, who offered me his legendary bookstore to host the wine appreciation course I’d originally developed for the University of Miami. So it is to Mitchell and his supportive staff, especially his greatly-loved restaurant manager Irving Fields, that I offer my thanks for over six years of wonderful classes. And of course it was Mitchell, the incorrigible booklover, who suggested that the six week class would also make a great book.
I will always be indebted to a number of far more experienced wine writers; giants, upon whose shoulders I have been standing on order to write this book.
Hugh Johnston has been writing and rewriting The World Atlas of Wine since 1971 when I bought my first copy. He is by far my favorite writer on wine. He is passionate, amusing, and has a strong sense of history. His Vintage: The Story of Wine is a marvelously fascinating exploration of the history of the grape that no other writer can surpass. Like Johnson, Paul Lukacs is another wonderful historian, and his Inventing Wine has proved invaluable to my understanding of wine’s commercial development as an industry. Another favorite writer is Jancis Robinson, whose expertise on varietals in particular is second to none. Karen MacNeil’s Wine Bible is another favorite book, and her creative metaphors when describing wines are as delightful as they are descriptive. George Tabor’s Judgment of Paris gives not only one of the best background descriptions of the development of the California Wine industry, but also offers the only glass-by-glass, eyewitness
description of that watershed moment in 1976 when the world of wine changed forever.
The books of Mike Veseth and Tyler Colman in particular have helped unravel for me the economics and the politics of the modern wine industry, and they are listed, with a few other wine authors, in the bibliography—to all of whom I am greatly indebted, and from each of whom I have learned a great deal. And of course, I owe an immeasurable debt to my faithful and tireless fact checkers, Google and Wikipedia—who are never wrong!
I will be forever grateful to my most patient and eagle-eyed editors at Mango Publishing, Brenda Knight and Sara Giusti, whose good natured encouragement and professional advice helped turn a rough manuscript into a finished book,
Finally, I must thank my wonderful and supportive wife Jude, who has so selflessly helped me research all the many bottles of wine which were so necessary in order to complete this book.
Any mistakes or omissions are obviously my wife’s fault.
Appendix
APPENDIX A: All 45 Bordeaux AOC Appellations
“Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.” — Benjamin Franklin
BORDEAUX APPELLATION CONTROLE
Appelation
Hectares under vine
Bottles per annum (millions)
Médoc
Médoc
5300
37.1m
Haut-Médoc
4600
28.0m
Listrac
664
3.8m
Moulis
607
3.6m
St. Estèphe
1254
7.0m
Pauillac
1209
6.5m
St. Julien
909
4.8m
Margaux
1403
7.1m
Red Graves & Pessac-Léognan
Graves
2568
16.2m
Red Pessac-Léognan
1263
6.0m
St. Emilion, Pomerol & Fronsac
St. Emilion Grand Cru
3719
18.1m
St. Emilion
1773
10.9m
Montagne St. Emilion
1590
9.3m
Lussac-St. Emilion
1447
8.7m
Puisseguin St. Emilion
745
4.5m
St Georges St. Emilion
185
1.0m
Lalande de Pomerol
1131
6.3m
Pomerol
764
3.6m
Fronsac
843
4.3m
Canon-Fronsac
318
1.7m
Sweet
White Wines
Sauternes
1669
4.3m
Sainte-Croix-du-Mont
393
1.7m
Loupiac
404
1.8m
Barsac
594
1.6m
Cadillac
215
0.7m
Cérons
63
0.2m
Bordeaux & Bordeaux Supérieur
Red Bordeaux
41,775
282.3m
Bordeaux Supérieur
11,317
67.1m
Bordeaux & Dry White Wines
Bordeaux Blanc
6721
48.8m
Entre-Deux-Mers
1571
11.8m
Graves
802
4.7m
Crémant de Bordeaux
122
1.0m
Pessac-Léognan
267
1.3m
Premières Côtes de Blaye
216
1.4m
Blaye
90
0.6m
Graves-de-Vayres
95
0.7m
Côtes de Bourg
22
0.1m
Côtes de Blaye
216
0.3m
Côtes des Francs
9
1200
Red Wines From The Côtes
Premières Côtes de Blaye
5773
35.7m
Côtes de Bourg
3951
24.2m
Premières Côtes de Bordeaux
3496
20.0m
Côtes de Castillon
3044
17.5m
Graves-de-Vayres
537
3.4m
Côtes de Francs
506
2.9m
APPENDIX B: All 33 Grand Crus of Burgundy
The thirty-three Grand Cru vineyards of Burgundy do not show the name of the village or commune on their label, just the name of the vineyard. Some vineyards (Batard-Montrachet, Montrachet, Bonnes-Mares, Charlemagne, Corton and Corton-Carlemagne) are divided between two or more villages, which is why the following list appears to show forty-one grand crus. The village of Gevrey-Chambertin has nine grand-crus, and the village of Vosne-Romanée has six. To further complicate things, although Chablis is listed as a single grand-cru, it does in fact include seven official grand-cru climats, or individual vineyards. The 585 premier-cru labels show both the name of the vineyard and the village where it is located. Burgundy has a total of 106 different AOCs. These include the thirty-three Grand Crus listed below, each of which has its own individual AOC. The 585 Premier Cru vineyards are spread among the remaining seventy-three village AOCs. For example, the village of Chassagne-Montrachet has three Grand-Crus listed here, but in any list of all the AOCs, the village itself has just the single AOC, Chassagney-Montrachet. However, this single AOC has fifty-one Premier-Cru vineyards, and about another fifty regular vineyards. The Premier-Cru vineyards can include the name of the vineyard as well as the village, Chassgne-Montrachet, on the label. The regular vineyards can only put the name of the village, Chassgne-Montrachet AOC, on the label. Thus:
Montrachet, Grand-Cru AOC (one of 3 vineyards)
La Grande Borne, Premier-Cru, Cassagney-Montrachet, AOC (one of 51 vineyards)
Chassagney-Montrachet, AOC (from 50 possible vineyards)
Another example is the village of Gevrey-Chambertin, which has an extraordinary nine Grand-Crus listed here, but again, in any list of French AOCs, has only a single AOC for the village. This single village classification includes twenty-six Premier-Cru vineyards, and about another sixty-nine regular vineyards. Thus:
Chambertin, Grand-Cru (one of 9 vineyards)
Clos Saint Jacques, Premier-Cru, Gevery-Chambertin, AOC (one of 26 vineyards)
Gevery-Chambertin, AOC (from 69 possible vineyards)
Grand Cru
Region
Village
Bâtard-Montrachet
Côte de Beaune
Puligny-Montrachet
Bâtard-Montrachet
Côte de Beaune
Chassagne-Montrachet
Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet
Côte de Beaune
Puligny-Montrachet
Bonnes-Mares
Côte de Nuits
Morey-Saint-Denis
Bonnes-Mares
Côte de Nuits
Chambolle-Musigny
Chablis Grand Cru
Chablis
Chablis
Chambertin
Côte de Nuits
Gevrey-Chambertin
Chambertin-Clos de Bèze
Côte de Nuits
Gevrey-Chambertin
Chapelle-Chambertin
Côte de Nuits
Gevrey-Chambertin
Charlemagne
Côte de Beaune
Pernand-Vergelesses
Charlemagne
Côte de Beaune
Aloxe-Corton
Charmes-Chambertin
Côte de Nuits
Gevrey-Chambertin
Chevalier-Montrachet
Côte de Beaune
Puligny-Montrachet
Clos de la Roche
Côte de Nuits
Morey-Saint-Denis
Clos de Tart
Côte de Nuits
Morey-Saint-Denis
Clos de Vougeot
Côte de Nuits
Vougeot
Clos des Lambrays
Côte de Nuits
Morey-Saint-Denis
Clos Saint-Denis
Côte de Nuits
Morey-Saint-Denis
Corton
Côte de Beaune
Pernand-Vergelesses
Corton
Côte de Beaune
Ladoix-Serrigny
Corton
Côte de Beaune
Aloxe-Corton
Corton-Charlemagne
Côte de Beaune
Pernand-Vergelesses
Corton-Charlemagne
Côte de Beaune
Ladoix-Serrigny
Corton-Charlemagne
Côte de Beaune
Aloxe-Corton
Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet
Côte de Beaune