Category Archives: book reviews

Wine in America: An Independence Day Flashback

July 2, 2024 By in book reviews, wine, wine history Leave a comment

It is an Independence Day tradition here at the Wine Economist to use our national holiday as an opportunity to reflect on wine in America and American wine. This year we take a historical perspective by re-printing a book review from 2020 that offers a fascinating glimpse of changing American attitudes toward wine in general and American wine in particular.  Enjoy!

Book Review: Wine & the White House

Wine and the White House: A History by Frederick J. Ryan, Jr. (White House Historical Association).

wh2President Trump doesn’t drink beverage alcohol and neither does Vice President Pence, and yet wine is a constant at White House state dinners and similar events.  What’s served is nice wine, too, according to records found in this rather fascinating new book.

A state dinner for French President Macron on April 24, 2018, for example, included Domaine Serene Chardonnay (Oregon), Domaine Drouhin Pinot Noir (Oregon), and Schramsberg Cremant Demi-Sec sparkling wine (California).

Apart from the Prohibition years (when, if there was wine in the White House, it wasn’t served in public settings), wine has always been a White House staple and having your wine served at a state dinner has been the ultimate celebrity endorsement.

Wine and the White House is a big book (more than 400 pages), beautifully produced, generously illustrated, and full of information. It is not a book to read from cover to cover, but rather something to dip into and enjoy. There are wine-driven profiles of each president in one section, an examination of the White House collection of wine glasses, decanters, and other wine paraphernalia,  and even surveys of the different wine regions (and some of the producers) that have featured at White House events.

The author, Frederick J. Ryan, Jr., is Chairman of the Board of the White House Historical Association, a perch that gives him access to important source material. He was Assistant to the President under President Reagan, the founding CEO for Politico, and is currently the Publisher and CEO of the Washington Post. 

This book was created with a diverse audience in mind. There are sections on wine basics, for example, for history buffs who might not know a lot about wine. And there are other sections to guide wine people who might not have brushed up on their American history in a while. And, of course, there is a lot of material that both wine people and history people will find new and interesting. You can pretty much open any page at random and find something you are happy to look at or read.

The chapters that I like best focus on the wines that presidents served to their guests at state dinners and similar events.  There are menus going back to 1877, for example, with relatively complete data (including reproductions of the actual menus) starting with the Eisenhower White House years. I’m interested in these documents because they give a sense of how Americans and their leaders thought about wine in the postwar years and how those attitudes evolved.

f4758b03499942eadac83252f0119173Fine wine meant European wine in the 1950s. Eisenhower’s guests were only very occasionally served anything else. A typical Eisenhower state dinner started with Dry Sack Sherry, Spain, and then moved on to  Chateau Climens Barsac, France, and what is listed as Beaune Greves Burgundy, France. Pol Roger Champagne, France, brought the evening to a close. There were variations, of course, for particular guests. German Rieslings for Chancellor Adenauer and Lafite for Winston Churchill.

The Kennedy years saw the the range of wines broaden (more Rieslings and Soave, for example), but generally within a classic old world frame. Noteworthy: increasing presence of American wine (especially Almaden and Inglenook) and I noted Lancer’s Rosé from Portugal served at a luncheon for the Danish Prime Minister. Inglenook “Pinot Chardonnay” appears several times, a reminder that Chardonnay was still little planted in California in the 1960s and often went by this now-forgotten name on bottle labels.

LBJ’s White House dinners embraced American wine wholeheartedly, a trend that has continued. It is as unusual today for an international wine to be served as it was 70 years ago to see a domestic bottle on the table. The White House wine people were ahead of consumers more generally, especially early on, in their willingness to serve American wines to important guests.

It is also interesting to note that the range of American wines, once the trend got started, rather quickly moved beyond California (although that state’s wines still dominated). White House wine selections make a statement and it seems that this is intentional at least some of the time. Can you guess which president first served Texas wine or Michigan wine? Washington and Oregon have joined California as White House regulars.

Wine and the White House is a book that it would be fun to give or to receive.  Pour a glass of fine Madeira (a wine that Jefferson bought by the pipe according to a reproduction of his inventory sheet) and enter this unique world. Wine and history pair very well indeed.

Book Review: Exploring China (and Chinese Wine) One Banquet at a Time

June 25, 2024 By in book reviews, China wine, popular culture, wine, wine markets 1 Comment

China in Seven Banquets: A Flavorful History by Thomas David DuBois (Reaktion Books, 2024).

It doesn’t always work, but sometimes you can learn something about wine by busting out of the wine box and looking back in to see what people think about wine in a different context.

This practice is always interesting but sometimes disappointing, too. For example, reading Andreas Viestad’s book about the world seen through the lens of a single meal in Rome was full of fun facts and great insights. But it made me sad when his chapter on wine missed all the cultural elements I was looking for and focused almost entirely on wine as alcohol. How sad! But I have to admit that’s how some people see wine. Good to remember that!

I was hopeful, therefore, but also cautious in approaching China in Seven Banquets. I quickly turned to the index when I received my review copy of Professor DuBois’s new book. There were references to wine throughout the book, which came as a pleasant surprise. I couldn’t wait to start reading.

China in Seven Banquets is a fascinating book. DuBois promises to provide scholarly insights without the dry prose or interminable footnotes that might stop you from turning to the next page. He succeeds very well in balancing depth and accessibility.

DuBois takes us through China’s history via the seven banquets promised by the title, but it is not as simple as that. As the book’s summary explains:

From the opulent Eight Treasures feast of ancient times to the Tang dynasty’s legendary “Tail-Burning” banquet, and the extravagant “complete Manchu-Han feast” of the Qing court, these iconic repasts offer glimpses into China’s rich food history. Delving further, the book invites us to partake of lavish banquets immortalized in literature and film, a New Year’s buffet from 1920s Shanghai, a modern delivery menu reflecting the hyperglobal present, and it even offers a peek at the tables of the not-so-distant future.

The text is liberally seasoned with recipes, which give a sense of not just what was prepared, but how, and with what ingredients. (Trigger warning: Sue says that some of the early recipes didn’t exactly make her hungry.) The food is the focus, of course, but not necessarily for its own sake. DuBois links changes in Chinese cuisine to broader themes. You end up learning a lot more about China (and the world) than you thought you would.

I was particularly struck by a short paragraph at the end of a chapter about halfway through the book. At this point, DuBois explains, banquet cuisine has evolved into what you recognize as the “Chinese food” of today as seen on restaurant menus around the world. What is striking, he points out, is that virtually none of these dishes began in China. They are all the results of foreign influences embraced and then shaped by the people of China.

Sue points out that China is far from the only country with a culture or cuisine that is more or less an amalgam of imported influences. Tyler Cowen’s book Creative Destruction traces these effects, and their unintended consequences, through case studies that range from rock and roll to Navajo rugs.

So what about all those references to wine in the index? Well, it seems that wine is a generic term for fermented (as opposed to distilled) beverages. Wine can be made from lots of things. Fruit. Rice. And even grapes (although I remember seeing only one reference specifically to grape wine). Wine is everywhere in Chinese cultural history. Grape wine not so much. Until recently.

I was disappointed, but what could I expect? Grape wine’s surprising 21st-century rise and then sudden recent fall is perhaps too much of a bump in the road to be featured in this account of Chinese cuisine’s long journey. Maybe it is too soon to know how the Chinese wine culture and market will develop in the future.

But then I remembered DuBois’s point about China’s propensity to assimilate foreign culinary influences and make them so much a part of the tapestry of Chinese cuisine that it is impossible to unravel them. Maybe, just maybe that’s what’s going on. If so, wine might have a bright future in China (and on Chinese food delivery menus, too). But don’t be surprised if the result isn’t exactly what you expected.

Thanks to Professor DuBois for a delicious and thought-provoking book. Highly recommended.

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If you are interested in learning more about Chinese drinking culture and how grape wine fits in, consider Li Zhengping, Chinese Wine 3/e (translated by Shanghai Ego — really!), Cambridge University Press, 2011.  The Wine Economist review appeared in 2011. Grape wine is only part of the story, of course, but it is discussed in good depth both in terms of history and recent events. I especially appreciate the sections on Chinese drinking culture.

Wine Book Reviews: Getting Serious about Prosecco and Rosé

May 29, 2024 By in book reviews, wine, wine history 2 Comments

Here are brief reviews of two new books that tell the stories of two previously under-appreciated wines that have come into their own, but the books do so in completely different ways. Prosecco Superiore first, then  Rosé from Provence.

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The Story of Prosecco Superiore by Susan H. Gordon is a serious book about a serious wine. The first assertion is not hard to appreciate. Derived from Gordon’s doctoral thesis, the book is thick with the signs of academic research: useful and interesting footnotes, an impressive bibliography, and the sort of price tag that takes the breath away from non-academics (professors and their students are hardened by experience when it comes to the cost of these books).

Gordon has seriously thought about how she wants her readers to understand the story (or stories, I think) of Prosecco Superiore. Thus the traditional “Wines of fill-in-the-place” organization is nowhere to be found. Yes, we learn about grape varieties, climate, geography, production methods, and so forth (a.k.a. the usual suspects of wine books), but interwoven and in the context of other factors, especially the history of the people, the region, and Italy itself.

Gordon is very clear. She wants you to work, not be a passive passenger, so what she’s written is more of a workbook than a simple guide. Are you up for the challenge? Good, then you can begin.

Seriously Prosecco

My second assertion (that Prosecco Superiore is a serious wine) may take more convincing and it might be necessary to pour yourself a glass of the wine at some point just to be sure. Prosecco wines have been one of the great wine market success stories of the 21st century, but most of the attention has been focused on Prosecco DOC wines that come from vineyards on the plains. Less notice is given (perhaps because less wine is produced?) to the Prosecco Superiore DOCG wines that come from hillside vineyards in the zones that were the historical birthplace of Prosecco.

I never turn down a glass of Prosecco DOC because even the relatively simple ones, often with a touch of sweetness, are refreshing. Interestingly, many of the best-selling wines are either distributed by U.S. wine firms (Gallo, for example, has market leader La Marca in its stable) or bottled by Italian wineries as private label wines for U.S. wineries (Cupcake Vineyards Prosecco, for example, or the popular Kirkland Signature wine). The Prosecco Superiore you find is more likely to be made by the winery on the label.

Sue and I have been fortunate to visit the Prosecco Superiore region on several occasions (I’ve given lectures at the famous wine school in Conegliano) and we have come to appreciate the differences between Prosecco and Prosecco Superiore (structure and minerality among other things) and among the DOCG wines from different zones. It has been a fascinating study with an unexpected side-effect: happiness. Prosecco Superiore always makes me smile!

Take a Walk

Gordon’s book covers a lot of territory. The original subtitle, we are told, was “Histories, Geographies, Languages, Topographies, Personalities, and Typologies of Prosecco Superiore.” That’s a lot to think about.

But the organizing principle is easy to grasp and enjoy: let’s take a walk. A walk through history. A walk with Antonio Carpenè, without whom Prosecco would not exist. A walk in the Prosecco hills. A walk through the streets of Conegliano. Walking is good exercise, but more importantly, it is done at a pace that lets you notice and appreciate what you see and hear and think about the connections.

Walking is a good thing and walking with Susan H. Gordon as she (and you) encounter all these people, places, things, ideas, and forces is quite an interesting and worthwhile experience.

Like Prosecco Superiore, this book is a serious undertaking. But, also like Prosecco Superiore, it makes you smile the smile that comes from understanding something more serious than you thought it was.

 

The Book of Rosé: The Provençal Vineyard That Revolutionized Rosé By Whispering Angel and Château D’Esclans (photos by Martin Bruno and text by Lindsey Tramuta).

Is Rosé a serious wine? I suppose it depends on the Rosé and on the wine drinker, but there was a time when “serious” wine people tended to look down their noses at pink “swimming pool” wines. (Even today there are Rosé wines with swimming pool brand names or label graphics.)

A Hundred Bucks?

That situation has changed and a reason why is the subject of this book, Sacha Lichine and his Chateau d’Esclan wines. Lichine (son of the famous Alexis Lichine, the “Pope of Wine,” who did so much to develop wine market and culture in the United States) embraced the Rosé challenge almost 20 years ago. Working with Bordeaux’s famous  Patrick Léon and taking advantage of seriously old vines on the property, Lichine produced a wine called Garrus, which sold for more than $100.

A hundred bucks for a Rosé? He must have been crazy. But the impact was as dramatic as the price. Like Angelo Gaja, who raised prices and expectations in Italy years before, Lichine’s shockingly high price forced buyers to reconsider their prejudices and stimulated growers and other producers to up their game in terms of quality.

Whispering Angel

Old vine Garrus is still the top of the line, but Whispering Angel is perhaps the most popular of the portfolio of Provence Rosé wines on offer by Chateau d’Esclan. My favorite book chapter follows Lichine and colleagues as they set out to market Whispering Angel to a skeptical worldwide market. It is clear that Lichine and team knew who they wanted to drink their wines, where,  and on what occasions, with an eye to creating a luxury brand. They then set out purposefully and patiently to achieve this goal. Required reading for wine marketing students.

The Story of Prosecco Superiore demands a lot of its readers. The Book of Rosé is more relaxed. Indeed, it presents itself as a large, heavy, beautifully illustrated coffee-table book with some text woven in. Many will choose to own (or give) it for the photographs alone. But the text, although brief, tells an interesting story that is worth reading.

Two wines, two stories, two ways of telling it. Both worth your attention.

Wine Book Review: Discovering the Hidden Vineyards of Paris

April 23, 2024 By in book reviews, history, wine, wine history 3 Comments

Geoffrey Finch, The Hidden Vineyards of Paris (Board and Bench, 2023).

Urban wineries aren’t surprising anymore. It is not that difficult to truck in grapes and other supplies to make (and then sell) wine in the heart of a busy city. City wineries are not as ubiquitous as local craft breweries, but they aren’t hard to find. If you go to Paris, for example, you’ll find a winery on the first floor of the Eifel Tower.

Urban vineyards are a different matter. Cities, by their very nature, are filled up and built over, with what open land that remains after urbanization devoted to parks, playgrounds, and so forth. A vineyard? That would be a surprise.

But of course, cities have not always looked and operated as they do today. Before the advent of cheap and secure transport, for example, cities had to be much more self-sufficient than they are today. Food could not cheaply and reliably come from far away, so local sourcing was vital. This was especially true for wine in Europe because of its central place in diet, culture, and economy.

You can find remnants of the old vineyards if you look for them. In Venice, for example, the Venissa vineyard is a short vaporetto ride from St Mark’s Square. It’s a different side of Venice, serene like the city itself (La Serrenisima) once was.  Sue and I love the vineyard and the hotel and restaurant that the Bisol family has developed.

But wait … there’s more! If you know where to look in Milan you can find the evidence of Leonardo’s personal vineyard reconstructed, according to Professor Scienza, using DNA analysis. Add that to your bucket list!

I was amazed to discover that Paris was once the center of the largest vineyard area in France and the world. This makes sense, however, since the city’s large population required wine, and the local environment was well-suited to grape farming. Parisian vineyards declined slowly and then suddenly, however, due to a number of forces including especially the arrival of the train, which delivered quantities of wines that were better than the local ones (from Burgundy and Bordeaux) or much cheaper (from Langudeoc and eventually Algeria, too).

Parisian vineyards declined but did not entirely disappear. You have to look closely to find them, however, which is what Geoffrey Finch has been doing for over 40 years. His new book is a slim volume packed with insights, information, and colorful illustrations that tell the story of grapes, wine, and Paris.

Finch guides us through vineyards that are used to produce wine, vineyards that don’t yield wine but serve other purposes, and isolated vines too random to be called vineyards but that tell interesting stories. Even the largest of these vineyards is small by the standards of Bordeaux or even Burgundy, but size isn’t the point here. Rather they are a chance to encounter the history of Paris and wine and, if you are lucky, have a taste, too.

We have visited Paris several times, but have never been to Clos Montmartre, the largest vineyards and the only one with commercially available wine. There is even a community wine festival. It’s on our list for the next Paris expedition.

It would be great to visit these vineyards with Finch on one of his tours and to hear his stories in person, but reading The Hidden Vineyards of Paris must be the next best thing because of his distinct sensibility, insatiable curiosity, and obvious fascination with Parisian history. Each vineyard (or individual vine in some cases) has a history that is specific to its subject and also reflective of Paris more generally. Each is a pleasure to read and appreciate.

Taken together, the vineyards and their biographies give a rich sense of what Paris is, has been, and perhaps might be again. The Hidden Vineyards of Paris is informative, entertaining, and well-written. Highly recommended.b

Wine Books Revisited: Lewis Perdue’s “The Wrath of Grapes”

March 26, 2024 By in book reviews, economic crisis, wine, wine markets 5 Comments

A look back at The Wrath of Grapes by Lewis Perdue (Spike Books / Avon, 1999).

Over long, hard decades, American winemakers have won the respect of connoisseurs everywhere. Many of the world’s most cherished, and expensive, wines come from the United States. But today, the unique and eccentric wine industry faces a grim set of challenges that could transform it forever: oversupply in the face of flat consumption, devastating vineyard diseases, an antiquated distribution system, fierce competition from abroad, attacks from anti-alcohol forces, and an inability to capitalize on wine’s proven health benefits.

Sound familiar? This list of problems plaguing the wine industry reads like it could be taken from today’s wine industry news headlines. But it comes instead from the back cover of a 1999 book by Lewis Perdue. What can a 25-year-old analysis of the wine industry’s woes tell us that will help us today? I couldn’t resist looking back. Here is what I found.

Is It Time Yet?

The Wrath of Grapes was one of the first books I read when I started studying the wine business. Going back to it now I am impressed with how relevant it remains today and how much it has obviously shaped my thinking about the wine industry.

The first part of Perdue’s book is a sharp critique of the American wine industry. Why don’t consumers buy more wine? Because the way that wine is marketed confuses and intimidates them. Perdue cites the famous Paul Masson ad campaign starring Orson Welles as an example. The tagline “We will sell no wine before its time” was meant to assure consumers that Paul Masson was mature and ready to drink. But, consumers might have wondered, does this mean there is a wrong time to drink this wine? Maybe I’d better stick to beer!

It might be possible to overcome the misguided marketing strategies of individual wineries through an effective generic marketing campaign, Perdue suggests. But the wine industry is too dysfunctional to do anything important. Leadership and followership both fail at critical points.  Vested interests focus on share of the wine market pie, so little is done to grow it.

I am not enough of an insider to evaluate Perdue’s critique of industry politics either then or now, but he pulls no punches in casting blame. Only one industry group, Women for WineSense, is praised for their effectiveness.

An even bigger problem than marketing is the lack of a cohesive strategy to address concerns about wine and health and the neo-prohibitionists who push for policies to reduce and restrict wine consumption. If nothing is done on this front, Perdue asserts, falling consumption is assured. Well, nothing much was done and here we are.

Love, Not Money

Part II is titled “Investing in Wine” and it takes the topic broadly, offering advice and analysis for those thinking of investing in a vineyard or winery, investing in fine wines for resale, and investing in the wine business through common stocks. Is investing in wine a matter of love or money? I suspect that most people would say “both,” but Perdue warns that you’d better be doing it for love because there are other ways to earn similar returns with less risk.

I think this was the first time I had seen an economic breakdown of a bottle of wine. Where does the money go to produce the wine (hint: grapes are not the biggest cost)? And how is the final price distributed between producer, distributor, and final seller? The specific numbers are different today, of course, but the fundamental analysis remains shockingly relevant.

Perdue’s hard-nosed analysis of wine-related common stock opportunities circa 1999 makes interesting reading. Coming from a Silicon Valley venture capital background, he is very objective about business models and risks and, interestingly, pays some attention to the perks such as wine discounts or special events that some of the wine companies offer their shareholders. He sees the perks as part of the “love” you need to get out of your wine investment to compensate for the risky return.

But perks aren’t everything. If you read Perdue’s analysis of the Robert Mondavi company, for example, you can appreciate the troubles that were building in its business model and why it got into such trouble a few years later. You’d need a lot of discounts on Opus One to compensate for the underlying economic woes.

There are three useful appendices. The first explains financial ratios, which anyone needs to understand to make sound investment choices, but not everyone thinks about when contemplating wine. Vineyard finance is the second topic, explored through a simple example of the sort of financial analysis that an intelligent investor should consider. The book concludes with a brief statement about wine and health.

Back to the Future?

Although some parts of The Wrath Grapes have naturally aged better than others, the book’s overall argument remains timely and relevant. Most of the big problems that Perdue wanted us to take seriously 25 years ago remain at the top of the agenda. No wonder the book is still in print.

If you haven’t read The Wrath of Grapes in a while, it’s time to look back at what Lewis Perdue was saying 25 years ago so that you can look ahead with more insight.

Adventures on the China-Spain Wine Trail

December 27, 2023 By in book reviews, China wine, Spain, wine 2 Comments

The Spanish edition of Cynthia Howson and Pierre Ly’s 2020 book Adventures on the China Wine Trail has just been published by Tolosa Wine Books.

Aventuras en la Ruta del Vino de China

Aventuras en la Ruta del Vino de China is a first-person account of the natural, social, political, and economic forces that shaped the Chinese wine industry and the people who made it all happen. I have always thought of it as the perfect complement to Suzanne Mustacichi’s 2015 best-seller Thirsty Dragon.

Why a Spanish edition of Adventures on the China Wine Trail?  I think part of it was personal, which aligns very well with the way that Howson and Ly tell the Chinese wine story. They met Spanish publisher Lluis Tolosa when they were all in China for the Gourmand International Awards ceremonies. He saw an opening for a book that would help Spanish readers understand the Chinese market and the forces driving wine there. Tolosa tells the story in his prologue to the Spanish edition.

Spanish Wine Goes to China

Spain is the third largest producer of wine in the world and is often the largest exporter by volume. Bulk wine sales to other European countries make up much of the trade. Spain ranks #4 on the China wine import table behind France, Chile, and Italy. (Australia ranked higher in this list before China imposed prohibitive tariffs on Aussie wine.)

Spanish producers were early entrants into China and have been key in the growth of that market.  Torres China, for example, was founded in 1997 and today imports into China and distributes more than 400 wines from 13 countries including, of course, the wine of Familia Torres but also a list of iconic brands from Spain and around the world.

The giant Spanish wine producer Felix Solis was another early entrant to the Chinese market.  It established the Shanghai Félix Solís Winery Corporation in 1998 and, if I can trust my memory, boldly built a facility to accommodate bulk wine imports that was an important factor in the expansion of Spanish wine in China.

Although the Chinese wine market has receded from the peaks of the pre-covid boom years, it remains an important opportunity for Spanish producers in a wine world where opportunities are not thick on the ground.

A Celebration of China and Spain

We wanted to celebrate the China-Spain wine trail with Cynthia and Pierre, but how? Their January 2024 book tour will include stops in many regions of Spain, including Rioja. Sue and I proposed a dinner pairing some Rioja wines we’ve been saving for a good occasion with a Chinese dinner. The pairing makes sense since the Rioja industry was jump-started by French winemakers looking for red wines to replace the Bordeaux wines that were lost to phylloxera. And, of course, China and Bordeaux have a longstanding friendship. Connect the dots and Rioja to China it is!

Pierre and Cynthia prepared some of their favorite dishes from their trips to China and opened a delightful Grace Vineyards traditional method Angelina Brut Reserve 100% Chardonnay sparkling wine from the 2009 vintage. Grace Vineyards is one of China’s top producers and its wines never disappoint.

Sue and I provided the Spanish connection with two Rioja wines: a Marques de Murrieta Finca Ygay Rioja Reserva and Ramon Bilbaos Mirto. We chose the wines to represent two sides of Rioja today. The Finca Ygay is a traditional blend of four grape varieties, with Tempranillo in the lead with 80 percent. The Mirto, on the other hand, is 100 percent Tempranillo.

When Sue and I visited Rioja a few years ago we found that some winemakers were excited to make 100% varietal Rioja wines while others favored a traditional approach. I don’t think we found a consensus in Rioja any more than you might find one in, say, Chianti today about the merits of 100% Sangiovese.

Both Rioja wines paired well with our Chinese meal. Sue likes the rounder Marques de Murrieta best with an eggplant dish and the more structured Ramon Bilbao Mirto with pork belly. The bright acidity of both wines made them easy to pair with the rich Chinese cuisine. It is easy to understand why Spanish wines like these would be popular in China. And Spanish consumers might want to experiment with Chinese-inspired tapas, for example, to match up with their fine wines. China and Spain. Mix and match!

Adventures on the Spain-China wine trail.

Pierre will be in Spain in January to promote the new book and to inform Spanish audiences about the development of the Chinese wine industry. There will be events at bookstores and universities, but the one that I wish I could attend will be at the Marques de Atrio winery.

Why is this particular event so interesting? Because the Spanish winery is owned by ChangYu Pioneer Wine Company, one of China’s most important producers. ChangYu saw the potential for Spanish wine in China and so acquired this historic winery.  The Spain-China wine trail is real and Aventuras en la Ruta del Vino de China is a perfect way to begin to understand it.

Book Reviews: Wine Fraud, Klein Constantia, & Food Adventurers

October 24, 2023 By in book reviews, wine, wine fraud, wine history Leave a comment

Brief reviews of three new books that curious wine enthusiasts should consider.

Rebecca Gibb, Vintage Crime: A Short History of Wine Fraud (University of California Press). Reviewed by Sue Veseth.

As long as there had been wine, there has been fraud.  If there is money to be made, someone will figure out how to make it — and then how to make a little more, legitimately or not. Or, as Rebecca Gibb, MW, writes, “A splash of narcissism blended with greed makes for a toxic combination.” Gibb engagingly covers centuries of narcissism, greed, and wine fraud from ancient Greece and Rome to recent history, and efforts to root out and address fraud at all levels of the chain.

Gibb’s writing style reminded me in some ways of the style of another author and journalist I admire: Sarah Vowell. Gibb’s writing is light, breezy, and full of interesting content with contemporary references.

I started noting particular phrases from Gibb’s book that tickled me: a reference to Thomas Jefferson’s “inner wine nerd,” for example, and, in discussing Jefferson’s efforts to recover from a broken wrist, “… so he decided to do what we would all do when we are in pain: cross the Alps on the back of  a mule.” Another treat: using Bart Simpson to tell the story of Austria’s mid-1980s scandal involving diethylene glycol added to wine.

Make no mistake, however: behind the writing style is serious research, scholarship, and analysis. She digs into the numbers, sequences of events, historical context, and principal players. The chapter on the 1911 riots in Champagne — the subject of Gibb’s MW thesis —is particularly deep and wide.

No doubt, people will continue to commit wine crimes, likely with new technological tools, such as artificial intelligence. But, in the end, it all seems to come down to greed. The lesson from the 1983 movie Scarface may apply, as the character Frank Lopez (Robert Loggia) said, “Lesson  number one: don’t underestimate the other guy’s greed.”

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Joanne Gibson and Malu Lambert, Klein Constantia: The Home of Vin de Constance. (First Press Editions, distributed by Academie du Vin Library). Reviewed by Mike Veseth.

Wine is good, but wine and a story is better, so wineries everywhere love to tell their stories, often in the form of lavishly illustrated books. Sue and I have a love-hate relationship with winery books. We love to read them and look at the beautiful illustrations, but when we are on the road we fear that our winery hosts will give us copies of their books, which are typically large format, heavy from the glossy stock they are printed on, and nearly impossible to pack.

This new book about South Africa’s most famous winery conveniently arrived in the mail from the Academie du Vin Libaray and we were very happy to receive it. It is beautiful, of course, and tells this winery’s fascinating story with panache. Joanne Gibson focuses on the winery’s rich history while co-author Malu Lambert brings things up-to-date, showing the winery’s recent transformation into both a world-class producer and a wine tourism destination. A final chapter provided by the winery itself looks at the road ahead.

In a way Klein Constantia has grown into the reputation that its wines first established in the 17th century and that persisted through centuries. Once upon a time this signature wine was held in great esteem as one of the most desired wines in the world (and priced accordingly). The Constantia name rings in literature to signify opoulence, taste, luxury.

But, like South African wine in general, Klein Constania suffered from deep decline before rising again in the last 30 years. I was especially pleased to see the contributions of Duggie Jooste, who essentially resserected the winery and put it on the path back to prominence, and viticulturalist Ernst le Roux and winemaker Ross Gower who worked so closely with him. I had the pleasure of meeting Duggie’s son Lowell Jooste and Adam Mason, the winemaker who continued Gower’s work, on my first visit to South Africa. Both are prominently mentioned here.

Duggie Jooste and his team are the heroes of this fascinating story of rise, fall, and eventual rebirth spanning more than three centuries. Eventually the Jooste family realized they lacked the capital to take the winery to the next level and sold to the current owners, who have indeed taken that step and given us a wine, a place, and now this beautiful book that warmly honors its unique history.

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Daniel E Bender, The Food Adventurers: How around-the-world travel changed the way we eat (Reaktion Books).  Reviewed by Mike Veseth.

I am pre-disposed to like books that take a global perspective (I guess that’s why I wrote Around the World in 80 Wines!) and I enjoy thinking outside the box, and trying to learn about wine by studying related fields.

So I could not resist Daniel E. Bender’s new book that looks at how around-the-world travel (think Jules Verne) changed the way we think about food. If travel could change food, maybe it could change wine? I was curious to start the adventure.

At first glance, the story is a bit discouraging. You want to hear that, if travel is broadening, then global travel is positively enlightening. But many of the early tourist circumnavigators, whether traveling over land or by ship, seem to become more parochial as the miles accumulate. Foreign food? Disgusting and sometimes even dangerous (don’t drink the water).

There are exceptions to the general rule that global travel tends to reinforce local prejudices about food in these pages. Ristafel, the Dutch-Indonesian colonial feast, always got high marks from travellers, we learn, although more for the elaborate service than for the food itself. And, zooming ahead to the jet age, the fake Polynesian experience of Trader Vic’s restaurants in Hilton hotel around the worlds was both ridiculous and ridiculously popular.  Both the ristafel and Trader Vic’s get full-chapter treatment.

Travel and exposure to foreign food, according to the accounts that form the base of Bender’s book, both open minds and palates and shut them tightly closed, which nicely illustrates Thomas Friedman’s theory that globalization is “everything and its opposite.”

Bender focuses on how these global tourists encounter foreign food, but wine appears frequently in the travel accounts. Not foreign wine, but the familiar European wines (and spirits) that the travelers brought with them. Indeed, alcohol seems to have fueled the commercial around-the-world travel industry. The Franconia, a tourist steamer with 356 passengers, typically left home port with 4000 bottles of whiskey, 4000 bottles of wine, 2800 bottles of Champagne, and 49,000 bottles of beer to be consumed during the circumnavigation.

I suppose the Franconia’s passengers were as suspicious of foreign drinks as they were of the disgusting, dangerous foods they encountered. No wonder they hurried back on board the ship each evening to eat and drink the familiar foods of home (as many cruise ship passengers do today!).

My reading of Bender’s book is that travel hasn’t made as much of a difference in food and drink as I might have hoped. Perhaps travel is too much of a surface phenomenon in most cases? Maybe migration is the more significant source of change?

It seems that the spread of food and wine cultures depends on personal experiences and relationships; the deeper those connections, the more significant the effects. Worth reflecting upon this as you contemplate your next foreign adventure.

Wine Book Review: On the Wine Trail with Lonely Planet

May 16, 2023 By in book reviews, wine, wine tourism Leave a comment

Lonely Planet Wine Trails 2 (Lonely Planet Food, 2023).

The Lonely Planet Guide folks have released a new guide to global wine trails. The big book (320 pages, 2.4 pounds) lays out itineraries for 52 potential weekend wine country visits. It is a colorful book, full of maps and photos, and worthy of consideration if you are planning trips, interested in how wine tourism has developed, or just want to make imaginary vineyard visits.

Each chapter is organized according to a set structure, starting with an overview and map followed by brief profiles of six or seven wineries (a reasonable number to think about for a weekend trip). Accommodations?  A couple of options are provided along with three dining choices and some ideas for non-wine things to do. Just enough to get you started.

Sue and I have visited many of these regions and, in general, I’d give the Lonely Planet itineraries solid marks. They might not always be the wineries we would choose to visit or the hotels and restaurants we’d pick, but they would certainly steer a first-time visitor in good directions. This is not a surprise, since the wine tourism chapters were written by an international team of experts.

Creating a big book like this is an exercise in choice. What do you put in? What do you leave out? You can’t possibly include everything in 300+ pages. Something has to give! This fact became apparently to me some years ago when I was asked to edit a book for a New York Times series. I was given the entire 20th century of New York Times content (all 100 years) and tasked with telling the story of globalization. What I learned was that you have to begin with a story and build around that, which is sort of a top-down approach that prioritizes the narrative. A bottom-up approach, which relies upon the facts to form their own images, is fiendishly difficult to pull off.

The decisions when looking at wine tourism begin with the question of what regions to include. Fifty-two is a big number, but there are many more wine trails around the world. When a French wine periodical published a list of the 35 best wine tourism destinations back in 2012, they found that 29 of them were in France. Zut alors! That’s not much for the rest of the wine world.

The Lonely Planet guide lists eight French itineraries including the “greatest hits” of Burgundy, Bordeaux, and Champagne. Italy and Spain get seven entries each, including the most famous and most-visited regions.  So far just as you might expect. But while Australia has seven entries, big-name Barrossa is not one of them. And Napa is not anywhere on the USA list, which takes you from the Finger Lakes of New York, through Pennsylvania wine country, to Grand Valley, Colorado, and on to Walla Walla, the Willamette Valley, Sonoma, and Santa Ynez.

Other parts of the wine world receive less space. Argentina, Canada, Chile, England, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Lebanon, Portugal, Romania, and Slovenia get one entry each. New Zealand and South Africa get two entries each.

At first this inconsistent treatment of famous regions versus the rest bothered me, but I’ve decided that it is probably OK within the context of this book. Reading about the charms of Colorado wine country, for example, might encourage someone to look beyond the big name appellations when visiting France or Italy. And that would be a good thing.

This method of mixing the famous with the lesser-known continues within the chapters in terms of the winery choices presented, accommodation options, and dining recommendations. Some of the choices left me scratching my head (why list hotels and restaurants in Portland, for example, when there are so many good choices in the Willamette Valley wine country itself?), but in general I’ve decided that the Lonely Planet guide is quite useful. It gives readers the basics and invites them to explore.

Readers who don’t go beyond the recommendations here will have a good time. Curious types who use this as a springboard to dive deeper into the wine tourism pool will have even more fun because when it comes to wine the wines, wineries, restaurants, etc. that  you discover yourself are often the most satisfying.

Book Review: Wine Education for a Diverse Wine World

April 4, 2023 By in book reviews, Masters of Wine, wine Leave a comment

A comprehensive guide to wine education for a diverse wine world: “Leary’s Global Wineology” reviewed by Pierre Ly.

In “Leary’s Global Wineology: A Guide to Wine Education, Mentorships, & Scholarships” (Hibiscus Panama, S.A. 2022), Charlie Leary presents a clear, comprehensive resource for anyone interested in pursuing wine education from beginner to expert levels. The book is well-organized and covers programs for every budget and purpose, in both academic and non-academic settings, and in many countries.

The brief introduction defines wine studies and provides informative facts and figures on different types of wine jobs, and average salaries in each. The “Big Five” chapter offers the most detailed program descriptions because it is dedicated to the most famous and highly sought-after trade certifications, like The Court of Master Sommeliers (CMS) and the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET). Beyond these, throughout the book, I found the presentation of each program concise yet detailed enough for readers to assess content, rigor and learning outcomes, so they can decide whether a course is worth exploring further. Many readers, especially those with a more casual interest or professionals on a budget, will be interested in chapter 7, which focuses on free online programs. The author even suggests excellent curriculum ideas to take these courses in an organized way as if you were in school.

While the comprehensive coverage of all types of wine programs alone makes the book worth buying, I was impressed with the author’s treatment of diversity, equity and inclusion in wine education, to discuss issues like bias, racism and sexism. This is important because criticisms of the insularity and lack of diverse representation in the wine industry have gained more visibility in recent years. I appreciated that the author did not include this as part of program descriptions, but instead used it as a framework, encouraging readers to “be aware of any program’s historical background and biases.” These are systemic issues that are not limited to problems affecting a single program, such as the recent CMS scandals, which the author also discusses.

I would recommend that users of this guide take the time to look at chapters 1, 2 and 9, before using the table of contents to explore the specific programs they are interested in. Chapter 1’s history of wine studies offers a concise, yet thorough comparison of different wine education providers’ backgrounds and agendas, as well as reflections on the insularity of the wine trade and its continued lack of diverse representation. As the author notes, this is not to take away from the high value-added of their programs, but to help readers understand the issues they might face if they enter them. Interested readers can go deeper by exploring Leary’s references like wine writers Elaine Chukan Brown and Julia Coney.

Both chapter 2’s presentation of scholarships, and chapter 9’s coverage of mentorship programs, include several organizations focused on increasing BIPOC and women’s representation in the industry, like Bâtonnage, Vinequity, and Wine Unify. Finally, chapter 9 is addressed to wine education professionals as a starting point to reflect on their work to become more inclusive, and to incorporate more discussion of environmental and social issues in their curricula. For the past decade, I have been teaching a college course that Mike Veseth invented, The Idea of Wine, that invites students not just to know more about the product, but also to see how wine can help us understand big picture societal questions. It is aimed at college seniors, most of whom come with almost zero knowledge of wine. While students are excited about vineyard and wine production knowledge, what catches their attention in the end is the bigger picture. In chapter 9, Leary discusses wine’s connection to topics like climate change, the slave trade, fair labor practices and racism, and suggests they could be incorporated in wine education.

Chapter 4’s coverage of other international programs is excellent, if necessarily limited so as not to make the book over a thousand pages long. Given the importance of China (a very important market for WSET), more programs could be included. To make the book more useful for Chinese readers, it would be useful to mention other options, notably university degrees offered by the School of Enology at Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University near Xi’an, and at the University of Ningxia. The School of Enology (which, besides viticulture and enology, offers wine appreciation and wine business courses) is important enough to be included among degree programs in chapter 5 or 6.

The book is written in English, so it includes more programs taught in that language. However, the author did include some programs in other languages, but they are difficult to locate. It would be helpful if future editions of the book could include a list of non-English language programs, organized by language and page number, either at the beginning of the book or in an appendix. Additionally, it would be great if there was interest in translating the book to cater to local interests. Finally, while the issue of program costs is discussed at length in chapter 2 (which is about scholarships), it would be beneficial to include a column in program summary tables throughout the book that shows the prices of the programs.

Overall, Leary’s Global Wineology provides not only a comprehensive guide to just about anyone interested in wine education, from those seeking basic consumer knowledge, to advanced wine professionals looking to boost their credentials. Perhaps any knowledgeable person could have compiled such a list. But what makes the book stand out is the author’s thought-provoking coverage of wine education’s current and future, and its critical eye toward areas for growth, making the book relevant to wine educators as well. Highly recommended for wine enthusiasts and professionals alike.

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Pierre Ly is Professor of International Political Economy at the University of Puget Sound and author, with Cynthia Howson, of Adventures on the China Wine Trail.

Wine Book Reviews: Two Perspectives on Italy and Its Wines

March 14, 2023 By in book reviews, Italian wine, wine 1 Comment

How you think about Italy and its wines depends upon how you approach them. Herewith are brief reviews of two recent books that take very different viewpoints.

Italian Wine Unplugged 2.0 by Stevie Kim, Attilio Scienza, et. al. Mamma Jumbo Shrimp, December 2022.

Italian Wine Unplugged 2.0 is a key part of Vinitaly International Academy’s program to draw attention to Italian wine’s wonders through education. As Stevie Kim writes in the Foreword, the idea is to take wine enthusiasts and help them become experts and, I think, also ambassadors for Italian wine to the world.

It is a big job and so this is a big book. More than half the 450+ pages are devoted to “must-know” profiles of the wine grape varieties native or traditional to Italy. We begin with the most well-known families of grapes and move to important regional varieties and, finally to brief profiles of lesser-known grape varieties from Abrostine and Abrusco to Wildbacher and rare varieties from Abbuoto to Zanelo There is a lot of fascinating information here. Not as comprehensive as Ian D’Agata’s Native Wine Grapes of Italy, but clear, useful, and complete

A smaller section provides overviews of each region, linking denominations with associated grape varieties. A section titled “Science” features a major essay by Professor Attilio Scienza on the origins and evolution of Italian wine grapes. Prof. Scienza’s analysis is noteworthy for its interdisciplinary approach, blending DNA data, for example, with information distilled from ancient myths. It is a detailed study — you’ll need to put your smartphone away and concentrate — but very interesting.

I especially enjoyed reading Sarah Heller MW’s brief essay on “How to Taste Italian Wine.” Heller argues that Italian wines are misunderstood or underrated because they are simply different from the wines of Bordeaux and the Napa and Barossa Valleys that have shaped wine-tasting standards and expectations.

“This state of affairs is largely the result of the global hegemony of two wine value systems that poorly suit Italian wine.” One system is based upon the virtues British critics see in the best Bordeaux wines. The other derives more from characteristics of New World wines (I suppose we might associate this with Robert Parker’s influence, but I think it is more than that).

Italian wines are easy to overlook because they don’t fit either of these taste profiles. Italy is an exception and Heller proposes that “Italian Exceptionalism” be embraced and promoted by focusing on an appropriate value system. Fascinating.

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Rick Steves Italy for Food Lovers by Rich Steves and Fred Plotkin. Avalon Travel Books, January 2023.

Italy for Food Lovers is also Italy for Wine Lovers. Why? Well, it is hard to think of Italy or Italian food without the wine that naturally goes with it. Wine is food in Italy, don’t you think?

But there is also this: the core of this book, co-authored by Rick Steves and Fred Plotkin, is Plotkin’s classic 700+ page guide to Italy for the Gourmet Traveler, which takes Italian food and wine very seriously indeed.

The idea is to take Plotkin’s book, first published in 1997, which has not been revised in almost a decade, and both update and streamline it for today’s Italy-loving audience. Plotkin knows Italian food and wine like the back of his hand. Rick Steves knows Italy, too, offering his list of 100 favorite restaurants alongside Plotkin’s list of fifty. Steves is especially good at helping people take the first step, gaining confidence along the way so that they can learn and love the journey.

Wine is pretty much everywhere here. There’s a chapter on wine, of course, and major sections on local wines in each of the regional profiles. The treatment is not nearly as comprehensive as in Plotkin’s classic guide or — obviously — as  Italian Wine Unplugged 2.0. But that’s not what this volume is about. This book is all about getting started in some cases or taking the next step in others. It will help travelers to Italy embrace local wines with unfamiliar names and appreciate the whole experience.

If you already know the wines of Italy very well, you might not learn much here, but you will probably still find it interesting. If you don’t know Italian wines, well here’s a fun place to start. Either way, this is a good gift idea if you have family or friends heading off to Italy for the first time.