Wine Talk: The premiers crus of Israel
Castel produces about 100,000 bottles a year, spread among three wines: the Grand Vin; Petit Castel; and ‘C’ Blanc du Castel, a white wine made from Chardonnay. Yatir Forest 2008, southern Judean Hills Yatir Forest is the premier label of Yatir Winery

Compass American Guides: California Wine Country, 5th Edition (Compass American Guides)
Fodor’s. For Choice Travel Experiences.

The guide that has it all–spectacular photography, evocative prose, insider tips, and detailed color maps to help you make the most of your trip. Written by longtime local residents, Compass American Guides California Wine Country, 5th Edition provides in-depth coverage of the history, culture and character of one of America’s most spectacular destinations! Follow your Compass to “get” there.

•Discover the state’s top wine regions: renowned Napa, welcoming Sonoma, and the up-and-coming Central Coast. Sip your way through the tasting rooms both on and off the beaten path. Star ratings highlight our favorite spots.

•Day-long driving itineraries steer you through the best of each region. A wine-tasting how-to helps you sip like a pro, and timing tips reveal the best strategies for visiting the wineries.

•Follow our lead for indulging. Splurge on a memorable meal—or choose from our recommended picnic spots. Find an intimate inn or a luxe resort. Browse through tempting shops in Healdsburg or slip into one of Sonoma’s decadent spas.

Visit Fodors.com for more ideas and information, travel deals, vacation planning tips, reviews and to exchange travel advice with other travelers.

What the critics say about Compass American Guides:
“Lushly illustrated and intelligently written.” —National Geographic Traveler

“The most literate and elegant series of guides ever written about North America.” —Jan Morris

Customer Review: A Wine Country Must
We just spent a week in Napa Valley and this book did not leave our car the entire trip. This book covers the major areas of Napa (St. Helena, Calistoga, etc), Sonoma, other popular wine regions in Cali, though a majority is dedicated to Napa. It essentially includes the highlights and must sees as well as some “off-the-beaten-path” wineries. It’s also evident the writer visited each and every winery mentioned there is a spot on description (full paragraph) of the wineries which includes details about the atmosphere, a brief history, what to expect at tastings, etc. It’s also loaded tips and suggestions for wine country – biking trails, scenic drives, tasting room etiquette, etc.

This is definately recommended for first timers.

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Globe and Mail

What wines won't trigger migraines? Globe and Mail If you want a general guide, I believe it's safe to say that red wine tends to contain more amines than white. Several reasons may account for this, notably the fact that white wine, lacking the higher protective tannin content of most reds, … and more »

Drinking Georgian Wine in a Soviet Bomb Shelter – Georgiandaily

Drinking Georgian Wine in a Soviet Bomb Shelter Georgiandaily The wine ferments in the open. Once fermentation stops, the clay pot is plugged and covered with dirt. It stays there, skins and all (even for white wines), until the winemaker deems it ready to bottle. The two wines came from the same exact grapes, … and more »

Hospitality Manager’s Guide to Wines, Beers, and Spirits (2nd Edition)
This introduction to the history, science and varieties of alcoholic beverages is essential for today’s hospitality manager. Written as a practical guide, this book helps managers understand wines, beers and spirits—from the history of alcohol to the marketing and selling of it. The user-friendly approach teaches wine by the grape, beers by the type of yeast used in fermentation, and spirits by breaking them into two categories (aged or non-aged and fruit or grain-based). This edition includes a new forward by Ken Rubin, a logical reorganization of early chapters, and material devoted to the management and marketing of beverage operations.

Customer Review: Great History and Easy to Understand
This book by Albert W.A. Schmid is full of interesting, historical details regarding the history of wines, beers and spirits. His Louisville roots are evident when one reads his sections on Kentucky Bourbon. Bourbon drinkers will drool! Wines are segmented “by the grape” which makes understanding the large variety of wineries and varietals very easy and simple. This book gives an excellent overview of wines, beers and spirits — from the way they are produced to the myriad of ways they can be paired with your favorite foods!

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Eating Italian: Artichoke Hearts and Pancetta cooked with white wine
With joblessness and homelessness at such high rates hunger is up as well Cook as directed and a buttery wine flavor appetizer to serve on crackers is made. In a skillet warm olive oil on low heat, add wine and cook off alcohol for about 3 minutes

The Food Lover’s Companion to the Napa Valley: Where to Eat, Cook, and Shop in the Wine Country Plus 50 Irresistible Recipes
This is the first of its kind: an insider’s food guide to that gourmand’s paradise, the Napa Valley. Author and longtime resident Lori Lyn Narlock goes behind the scenes to discover where chefs shop, the best places to take a cooking class, or where to get a grapeseed oil massage. With complete details on the where, when, how, and how much, plus dozens of artful black-and-white photographs, this indispensible guide for food lovers even includes 50 recipes honoring the region’s local specialties. It’s a mouthwatering roster of the best that Napa has to offer.

Customer Review: Don’t go to Napa without this book!
Have been to Napa many times – but was unaware of the many gems this book uncovers – an incredible and fun resource for the food and wine lover! I will be seeking out these finds in the future! Highly recommended.

Customer Review: Great overview of Napa
This book covers all the areas I was interested in learning about before our trip to Napa Valley. The reviews seem unbiased and thoughtful. We had visited Napa 18 years ago and while we already had a few ideas, reservations, etc., this guide gave us even more places to consider. I’ve “earmarked” so many pages and even took this guide with us. It also includes maps, addresses and phone numbers and/or websites. Some good recipes are in the back. A good companion guide.

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Wine, Tarts, & Sex (Berkley Sensation)
World-renowned chef Jake Chambers has special talents in the kitchen—and in the bedroom as well. And local Minneapolis vintner Liv Bell is determined to let him taste what she has to offer.

Customer Review: Classic Susan Johnson
Susan Johnson has returned to what works for her in this contemporary title that features the best and worst of her writing. True to form, Johnson has created two characters who don’t want a relationship with their sex but end up liking their chemistry so much they don’t want to walk off in the morning. Liv and Jake hate their mutual obsession so much they spend too much time taking it out on each other. There’s no real love story involved, just two lustful people who like sleeping together.

In an attempt to insert a storyline Johnson has brought in Janie, a mutual friend of Liv and Jake and a trophy wife who is being replaced. This plotline is actually pretty interesting and I would have liked to have seen it as it’s own story without the irrelelvant sex. When the character was introduced I thought I would hate her, but she ended up be smart and spunky. I loved watching her outwit her almost-ex.

If Johnson had been able to give Liv and Jake a storyline as interesting as Janie’s this would have been an excellent book. Unfortuately she didn’t and their story is mostly made up of them trying to convince themselves to walk away. Janie’s story, while interesting, feels out of place as the driving plot bcause she is a secondary character.

Overall WT&S is an entertaining book but not likely to hit my keeper shelf or my list of recommended reads.

Customer Review: Felt Like Old Times
This book made me reread all SJ old historical romance novels that were what I now consider my first dip into erotica. I’ve enjoyed her strong male characters in denial and her also strong female characters who are always prepared to pick up the pieces and move on if love fails which it never does. This book is modern version and slightly toned down though SJ’s written sex scenes as always are HOT!. I’m glad I read this book and I think fans of her old work will enjoy this also.

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Wine of Violence
It is late summer in the year 1270 and England is as weary as its aging king, Henry III. Although the Simon de Montfort rebellion is over, the smell of death still hangs like smoke over the land. Even in the small priory of Tyndal on the remote East Anglian coast, the monks and nuns of the Order of Fontevraud long for a return to tranquil routine. Their hopes are dashed, however, when the young and inexperienced Eleanor of Wynethorpe is appointed their new prioress over someone of their own choosing. Nor are Eleanor’s own prayers for a peaceful transition answered. Only a day after her arrival, a brutally murdered monk is found in the cloister gardens, and Brother Thomas, a young priest with a troubled past, arrives to bring her a more personal grief. Now she must not only struggle to gain the respect of her terrified and resentful flock but also cope with violence, lust and greed in a place dedicated to love and peace.

Customer Review: Wine of Violence
Wonderful book. If you like medieval mystery you will like Priscilla Royal. She seems to get better with each book.

Customer Review: Not a vintage mystery, for cert
Although Royal’s debut novel does not quite deliver, it holds considerable promise for the future.

The circumstances of the murder are intriguing, but the solution is mundane. The ending is flat, but I won’t say exactly why, because you don’t want spoilers in a review.

The heroine, the young Prioress Eleanor, is interesting and likeable. The way the sleuthing skills are divided between three of the characters is odd, and not altogether satisfactory.

The author uses Modern English, as one would expect, except for the curious use of the word ‘cert’. So, when asked if anyone suspected a monk of murder, a character says, “Some did, for cert”. It happens a few times, and is quite jarring. Also, the dialogue is often inappropriate for the speaker. A serving girl, talking of a prioress and a brother, says, “Neither seemed comfortable in dealings with the secular world”, and so on, totally out of character. More editorial effort is required, and then perhaps Eleanor and company will deliver more satisfying adventures.

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Wine adds flair to easy fruit spreads Canton Repository … white wine would complement the strawberries. It did just that, and it let the fruit's vivid color come through. Make this short-term “faux preserve” the night before you plan to serve it. Leftovers will keep in the refrigerator for a few days. and more »

I-1183 aims to end state monopoly on liquor – The Spokesman Review

OregonLive.com

I-1183 aims to end state monopoly on liquor The Spokesman Review Unlike previous proposals that could have allowed hard liquor sales where beer and wine are sold, 1183 restricts retail outlets in many cases to stores with at least 10000 square feet of floor space – the size of a medium-size grocery store. … Bruce Ramsey / Times editorial columnist Beyond mini marts and children, what …The Seattle Times Washington State Wire: Anti-1183 Campaign Soundbite is InaccuratePubliCola all 46 news articles »

The Best Wine Bars & Shops of Paris: Fifty Charming and Notable Cavistes
In this guide, you will find everything from establishments that have been serving Paris for a century or two to neighborhood cellars, conventional purveyors, hipster hangouts, and even ventures–as the French publisher says–with no “complexes” whatsoever. Some places have the traditional barrels on the sidewalk, old-fashioned wooden cubbyholes for storing the bottles, creaking floorboards, and shopkeepers in starched white aprons; others have ultramodern decor, sleek and streamlined design, waitstaff in jeans and sneakers. Beyond appearances, each cellar has its own approach, its own philosophy, and producers it swears by. One merchant may carry prestigious luxury vineyards; a second, bargain terroir wines; the third, 100 percent organic vintages; a fourth may offer wines for collectors. This is a cross-section of fifty reputable and distinctive shops and an excellent map for those wishing to navigate the wine merchants of Paris.
 
The notable wines offered by each shop are highlighted, and there are lots of places that serve light meals–or even something more substantial–making The Best Wine Bars & Shops of Paris a great restaurant guide, too.

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Food and Wine Pairing: A Sensory Experience
The only book that presents food and wine pairing from a culinary and sensory perspective.

Demystifying the terminology and methodology of matching wine to food, Food and Wine Pairing: A Sensory Experience presents a practical, user-friendly approach grounded in understanding the direct relationships and reactions between food and wine components, flavors, and textures. This approach uses sensory analysis to help the practitioner identify key elements that affect pairings, rather than simply following the usual laundry list of wine-to-food matches. The text takes a culinary perspective first, making it a unique resource for culinary students and professionals.

Food and Wing Pairing:

• Lays out the basics of wine evaluation and the hierarchy of taste concepts
• Establishes the foundation taste components of sweet, sour, slat, and bitter in food, and dry, acidity, and effervescence in wine, and looks at how these components relate to one another
• Discusses wine texture, and the results of their interactions with one another
• Examines the impact that spice, flavor type, flavor intensity, and flavor persistency have one the quality of wine and food matches
• Includes exercises to improve skills relating to taste identification and palate mapping
• Provides a systematic process for predicting successful matches using sequential and mixed tasting methods
• Gives guidance on pairing wine with foods such as cheese and various desserts, as well as service issues such as training and menu/wine list development

Food and Wine Paring provides students and professionals with vivid and dynamic learning features to bring the matching process to life with detail and clarity. real-world examples include menus and tasting notes from renowned restaurants, as well as Aperitifs or vignettes portraying culinary notables—both individuals and organizations—which set their wine parings in a complete gastronomical, regional, and cultural context.

Culinary students making their initial foray into understanding paring will appreciate the reader-friendly and comprehensive approach taken by Food and Wine Pairing. More advanced students, instructors, and culinary professionals will find this text to be an unparalleled tool for developing their matching process and honing their tasting instinct.

Customer Review: Smart and insightful
Fun to read, great exercises to test your taste. Primarily a text for students it includes some amazing recipes specially chosen to appreciate the subtle flavors of lots of wines. Can make for wonderful tasting dinner amongst friends. Highly enjoyable!

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Wine Find: 2009 Carmenet Reserve Pinot Grigio Baltimore Sun This wine came as a big surprise. Usually, a California pinot grigio is better at a year old than two. But this full-bodied white wine from Carmenet — a once-prestigious label that seems to be undergoing a revival …

The Wine Lover’s Cookbook: Great Recipes for the Perfect Glass of Wine
Which came first: the chicken or the Eglise-Clinet? Well, if you’re a disciple of author Sid Goldstein–and you will be–you’ve had that Bordeaux decanted long before you even thought of shopping for those Cacciatore ingredients. And “wine-first” cooking is precisely what Goldstein–vice president and director of marketing communications at Mendocino, California’s Fetzer Vineyards–so ably demonstrates in The Wine Lover’s Cookbook, soon to become indispensable to anyone who has ever chosen the wine first and the groceries second. In 100 easy-to-follow-yet-impressive-as-heck recipes, Goldstein shows you how to exquisitely match the tastes and textures of wine varietals to food. In fact, if you want to find specific recipes, you have to look in the back index; the chapters themselves are divided into grape types! Serving a Chardonnay? Chapter 7′s Spinach Fettuccine with Sea Bass and Lemongrass-Coconut Cream Sauce is seamless. Pinot Noir? Coffee-and-Spice-Rubbed Lamb with Coffee-Vanilla Sauce shouldn’t work; and yet lamb marinated for hours in mint, pepper, red wine, freshly ground coffee beans, and rosemary, then grilled and sauced with a combination of honey, brewed coffee, shallots and vanilla bean–any one of which elements should have bullied a Russian River Pinot–provides a tightly woven hammock on which the wine can luxuriate.

Chapters discuss the grape variety and list “Base Ingredients”–the main medium of the dish (Game Hen and Rabbit are a couple for Sangiovese)–as well as “Bridge Ingredients”–those connectors of food and wine (Plums, Fennel, and Green Peppercorns among those for Syrah). This “wine-first” regimen is not without pitfalls: it’s fine to decide that tonight is Riesling or Pinot night, but if you can’t find radicchio or pomegranate, you might as well skip a few pages. Yet if you’ve ever been made to feel immoral by cookbooks that give you the recipe first, then deign to suggest a “perfect” wine pairing beyond your means, let Father Sid absolve you of all your Zins (or Merlots or Viogniers). After all, the Bible talks of wine 650 times; food barely rates a mention. Perhaps if they’d had The Wine Lover’s Cookbook in the Garden of Eden, Adam wouldn’t have wasted all that time trying to pair ribs and an apple with a Sauvignon Blanc. –Tony Mason

Customer Review: Only for very special occasions
The recipes in this book are extremely time-consuming, and only for advanced cooks on days when they are willing to devote a couple of hours shopping for specialty ingredients and all afternoon preparing dinner, which usually means the kinds of occasions that happen only a few times a year. I was hoping for something I could use more often. The author provides some ideas for pairing which I think were done in a more organized and accessible way in “Wine with Food” by Joanna Simon. Some of what Goldstein said on pairing contradicted my own experience. A prime example is the author’s proclamation regarding Gewurztraminer that the dishes should never be sweeter than the wine or it will seem flat. One of my most memorable wine/food experiences was when an expert wine merchant in NYC recommended a quality dry Alsatian Gewurztraminer to go with my Thanksgiving dinner which included the traditional sweet foods. I still haven’t forgotten how the fragrant floral aromas of the wine married it to the sweet food, how the spicy finish harmonized with the meal as cinnamon does with sugar, and how the wine’s dryness cut through the richness of the food and refreshed the palate. The key was that a high quality Gewurz has intense flavors that stand up to heavy food. Overall, I’d have to say that I found the book a disappointment.

Customer Review: Best Cookbook Ever
If you enjoy cooking, consider yourself somewhat of a foodie and love wine then this cookbook is for you. My husband and I make dishes from this about 3 times a week and wish another version with even more delicious recipes was being published. I cannot say enough good things about this. Sure the recipes sound frou frou and may make you start buying red wine vinegar on a regular basis but aside from a few, they are really not difficult or that time consuming. Plus, it will force you to expand your food horizon and make you experience flavors you may not have tried previously. This has truly transformed how we eat and drink wine. We actually have trouble spending gobs of money at high-end restaurants now because we know we can make just as good (and usually better) meals for 1/4 – 1/3 of the price! I’ve already recommended this book to all of my friends who I knew would appreciate it, so go on, be adventurous and try something exciting! You truly will be amazed.

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A White Wine at Peace with Itself Patch.com Summer is also the season when I don't suffer the hostility normally thrust at me when I pop my red wine into an ice bucket. In summer, we all chill out and the rules seem to be filed away in our winter drawers (an unfortunate expression for which I …

Sauvignon Blanc: Summer’s Wine of Choice – Dumfries and Galloway Standard

Sauvignon Blanc: Summer's Wine of Choice Dumfries and Galloway Standard Sometimes, life is purely about simple pleasures: the feeling of finishing a really good book, sinking into a warm bath at the end of a stressful day, or sipping a chilled glass of white wine on a warm summer evening. Summer nights were made for white …

The Wine-Dark Sea
In this installment of O’Brian’s maritime epic, Captain Aubrey and the crew of the Surprise are pursuing an American privateer through the Great South Sea. As is his custom, O’Brian grabs your attention with the first, beautifully memorable sentence: “A purple ocean, vast under the sky and devoid of all visible life apart from two minute ships racing across its immensity.” And he doesn’t relinquish it until 260 pages later, by which point Jack Aubrey is delighted at the mere fact of being alive.

Customer Review: Epic series keeps going strong
From the opening chapter of “The Wine-Dark Sea,” the 16th book in Patrick O’Brian’s hallowed Master & Commander series, the reader knows that something special is going on. Aubrey and Maturin sail their privateer, the Surprise, into waters made lethal by an erupting volcano that has just emerged from the sea, spewing lava and death. No other writer could so effortlessly blend natural beauty and naval drama (for an enemy American ship is close by).

“WDS” is a rollicking novel, even if it is one of the shorter books in the series. There is plenty of naval action, both as the Surprise matches broadsides with enemy ships as well as fighting through the icebergs of Cape Horn. Maturin is also charged with a daring political mission as he attempts to finance a coup in Peru – an enterprise that sends him fleeing over the Andes and minus a few toes.

And then there are the characters. And what characters! O’Brian seems to work overtime to get almost every beloved minor character shoe-horned into this book, and nobody minds.

This is definitely a book that should be read in its proper order – you will miss too much back story if you dive in right here, although if you do you will surely love the action and gorgeous travel-writing O’Brian brings to bear.

Grab Master & Commander and start sailing!

Customer Review: very impressed
Very impressed with this book. I really enjoyed when they went to Peru. This is my 3rd of his books and really enjoyed this.

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Making Wild Wines & Meads: 125 Unusual Recipes Using Herbs, Fruits, Flowers & More
Make Extraordinary Homemade Wines from Everything but Grapes! Exotic wines, honey meads, spicy metheglins, and fruity melomels-there’s no end to the great-tasting elixirs you can make using ingredients from your local market and even your own backyard! You’ll find easy, step-by-step winemaking instructions plus memorable recipes, including: .Apricot Wine .Dry Mead .Marigold Wine .Almond Wine .Cherry Melomel .Cranberry Claret .Pea Pod Wine .Lemon-Thyme Metleglin .Strawberry Wine .Rose Hip Melomel

Customer Review: Wild Wines and Meads
This book is full of the most interesting and wonderful recipes for mead that I have seen so far. Simple, easy to follow instructions. No guesswork. Love it!

Customer Review: Useful
Great book with some very good recipes. As a beginner thats never made anything home brewed before it was useful as a starting point. Additional books about the brewing process are necessary if you plan to actually follow through and make your own wines, meads etc. It will give you a good place to start and a general idea of what you need to buy and how the process works. Its very well laid out and a good place to start.

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