Due to a lack of money and perhaps a lack of inclination, call it 'festive wine fatigue', my enthusiasm for tasting wine is a little diminished. I'm also no longer in Auckland where wine reps for the various distribution companies helped to prop up an adventurous wine habit with a seeming endless supply of 'tasting' bottles.
My fervor for the subject of wine as a whole is still shining brightly so I've kept myself busy plundering the Napier library. One great little find was 'the perfect glass of wine' by Ben Canaider. Sub-titled "how one man searched for heaven in a bottle", it is less a novel than a collection of vignettes (ooo, I just checked the definition for that word and how apt as it's [French, from Old French, diminutive of vigne, vine (from the use of vine tendrils in decorative borders); see vine.]) but they all link together in that he's trying to discover and potentially define the 'perfect' glass of wine. It's humorous, not least because he has the happy and slightly irreverent view that wine is primarily about getting drunk. It also struck a chord as he pretty much rubbishes Super Icon wines as not being the path to a perfect glass, in particular he levels this criticism at Grange, a wine I've personally never had much time for. Plus, well plus, he writes well. The sort of curling, fabulous prose full of wit that makes me green with envy. The sort of intelligent, interesting ideas about wine that I wish I'd thought of..... Worth checking out. Actually I think I might read again......
Before I moved to the Bay I was gifted The Story of Wine by Hugh Johnson. It's a beautiful illustrated edition and a sturdy 'coffee table book' of a book. A real book about wine, fascinating and impeccably researched. It certainly did nothing to quench my devotion to Hugh. Being as mad about wine as I am it's mitigating to believe that wine has been and is central to the "understanding of civilisation". In fact..... I think I have to read that again too......
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