You fall in love with wine when you know the story behind it, when you discover what is unique about it. As Borges said in This is how I write my stories (1981): “To be in love is to perceive the only thing that exists in each person, that only thing that cannot be communicated except through hyperbole or metaphors.” For this reason, because understanding wine, falling in love with it, requires knowing its history, discovering its uniqueness, we have taken from the shelves those copies that go beyond 'learn to taste in two days' or 'a wine guide of the year '.
It was just published Atlas of Unusual Wines, one of those manuals to keep near the couch and consult when we need a great, curious and revealing story. The text is by the anthropologist and agronomist Pierrick Bourgault and is edited by Thomas Jonglez (Jonglez publishing house). To write the book, the author needed years of travel, interviews and continuous falling in love, which he then transferred to this volume, in hardcover, full of curiosities and anecdotes. In its pages we can discover, for example, that champagne is made from a black grape and that, although it is the reference drink of France, it seems to have been invented by an Englishman; or, we can also read the curious story of the wine that matures at the bottom of a hole 75 meters deep; The author reveals to us why orange wines exist or how Pompeii already used draft animals for vineyard work.
“The sea brings all things, and the sea takes them away. The seas have been the space through which cultures and civilizations have been transmitted, among them, that of wine.” This is how a story about a fireplace, a winter room, could begin, with a group of friends, who drink that type of wine that calls for calm conversation. “Wine surrounds us, envelops and penetrates, it influences our culture (…) We talk about wine and about wine we think, we write… Wine has made us who we are. It is part of our civilization and it has civilized us.” The fragments belong to the book Passion for wine. Secrets and pleasures of the world's great winesedited by Hedonismos and written by winemaker Joan C. Martín. A brilliant essay, full of anecdotes and curiosities such as that “Lebanon produces eight million bottles a year” or that “Morocco is a country that produces singularities such as Berber and Jewish wines. A narrative that takes us, through its 400 pages, through that passionate world of the vine.
Speaking of passions, if there is a sommelier capable of submerging us in that soul that a bottle of wine contains, it is, without a doubt, Josep Roca (El Celler de Can Roca). He left proof of this written in the book Behind the vineyards. A journey to the soul of winesedited in 2016 by Debate. The essay, written by the aforementioned Josep Roca and the psychologist Inma Puig, managed to deliver to the publishing market one of the best writings on winemakers and oenologists. “The seed of this book was planted for the first time in the winery of El Celler de Can Roca,” writes Roca. “I showed Inma the corners dedicated to my favorite wines. (…) I explained to her that wines are drunk, smelled, but also heard and felt (…) Wines look like those who make them — I told her — and she went even deeper and asked me: The wines that Do your customers drink, do they look like them?” With this reflection this book begins halfway between the enthusiastic manifesto of 13 lives, of 13 winegrowers, creators of some of the great wines in the world; and the serene and rational writing about the history of wine, narrated through those wine voices. “Knowing their lives makes us better understand the message that wines contain and confirm that yes, wine is people, that both have a bond that expands with the emotions perceived by the consumer, that, instead of drinking wine, Take sips of bottled life.”
For this reason, “a true connoisseur does not drink wine, he savors its secrets”, words of Salvador Dalí collected in the jewel-book published by Taschen. Dali. The Gala Wines. In large format, hardcover, 140 illustrations by the artist worthy of being displayed in the living room; The book explores the world of the vine through the works and texts of Dalí. First, they invite us to discover ten of the best wine regions and, then, they do not give us a ticket to the artist's emotional universe. The book is a facsimile of the original 1977 edition, which in 2018 managed to win the highest award for a gastronomy book: the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.
The grape is the hallmark of a region, of a country. For example, Tempranillo takes us to Spain (La Rioja); Pinot Noir, to France, and Malbec, to Argentina. The history of humanity could be written by following the voyages of the vine: “Christopher Columbus brought with him to America bunches of País and Moscatel grapes from the Canary Islands. These varieties of Vitis vinifera, suitable for the production of wine and introduced for use in the ceremony of the Eucharist, did not prosper in the Caribbean, but they did in Mexico, Peru and Chile, places with a more temperate climate and suitable for its cultivation. In the mid-16th century, the Spanish colonizers introduced these grape varieties, known as 'criollo vines', to Argentina and thus gave rise to Argentine viticulture. The cultivation of these Creole varieties was established and prospered in Mendoza until the mid-19th century.” These words have been extracted from one of those essential books for those who want to discover the soul of Argentina, Malbec mon amour, from Catapulta publishing house written by Laura Catena and Alejandro Vigil. The book, beautifully illustrated, is an invitation to discover why and how the Malbec grape, and consequently the wines made with it, have managed to identify a country, its history, its culture and its way of life.
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