NORTHWEST WINE: Pinot Gris — so good with so many different foods
The grape has blown past Chardonnay as the most important white wine in Oregon, and it has outdistanced Sauvignon Blanc as the No. 3 white wine in Washington, behind Riesling and Chardonnay. Pinot Gris originates in the Burgundy region of France
The Wines of Spain (Classic Wine Library)
Spain’s winemaking tradition is as old as France’s, yet it is evolving in new directions even faster than its Gallic rival. Major producers from well-known wine estates as well as small wine-producing bodegas from dozens of regions—including Catalonia, Aragón, Navarra, the Levant, Andalucia, and the Islands—are introduced here. All the entries receive a full description of their climate, soil, landscape, grapes, plantings, authorized yields, wines, and vintages. Fourteen detailed maps of winemaking regions are accompanied by addresses for touring and websites for ordering. Also helpful are the clarifications of confusions caused by interchangeable use of Spanish and French terms.
The Great Reference book for all your Spanish wine needs
Recently, I conducted a Spanish wine seminar at the wine shop I work at. I used this text and Radford’s The New Spain for reference purposes. Both were excellent and irreplaceable.
Radford’s book is great for its photography and chapters on each wine area, focusing on history, culture, viticulture, vinification and grape varieties; Jeffs’ book offers more nuts and bolts. He organizes the main regions into Catalonia, Aragon, Rioja, The Centre-North, Castilla y Leon, The North, The Levant, the Centre, Extremadura, Andalucia, and The Islands. Within each of the main regions, he looks at the various sub-regions and further breaks it down by detailing average rainfall, altitude at which the vineyards are grown, soil, climate, grape varieties (from major to minor) etc…
If you read Radford’s book, you get a broader, more polished picture with history and gorgeous photographs. He too divides Spain into the main regions and then looks at each area in context to the region and history. Radford includes information on viticulture but his focus is on making the area more comprehensive in terms of illustration and overview. Jeffs, without the use of photography (there are plenty of maps though), provides the details that bog down narratives. Radford you can read cover to cover as if exploring each area one-by-one. Jeffs is the book you look for in need of reference. It is more like an almanac. He too provides history and a bit more detail when discussing the bodegas. In Radford you get a few notes on the bodegas in Spain. In Jeffs, he provides more information and more detail.
My one gripe with Jeffs is that when you want to look for a specific DO in the book, like Terra Alta for example, there is no actual page number on the table of contents referring you to the DO. You basically have to go to Catalonia and then search page by page until you find it. Either that or go to the index to find the page numbers which is equally inconvenient. There are also some other typos and little mistakes. The North is listed on the Contents page as being on page 112 when really it is page 197. Small, just little bumpy hassles that need mending. Otherwise this book is full of enough information to make this reference book a must have for wine and Spanish wine lovers.
Customer Review: Literate, useful and wise
This is an eminently readable book that’s especially important these days as Spanish wines increase their market share due to their great value/price ratio. (You get a lot of wine for your euro-battered dollar). Jeffs is a good writer, his prose is lucid and his take on the subject is interesting. I have also found his tasting notes to be reliable.
It is true that the maps are below the standard that has been set in other wine books, but let us consider that a minor flaw like Barabara Walters’ lisp or Steve Carlton’s lack of a move to first base. Take your copy to the wine shop and you’ll save the cover price on the first trip.
Lynn Hoffman authorThe New Short Course in Wine
