Dr Vino's wine blog

Timed strategically to drop after the election and before the holidays (but on Veteran’s Day, a holiday itself!), today is the official release date of my new book, A Year of Wine: Perfect Pairings, Great Buys, and What to Sip for Each Season!

Instead of traversing the familiar terrain of regions or grape varieties, I forge a new path by plotting a seasonal arc for wine consumption. This ties in to the way that I enjoy wine, by emphasizing the context of how, where, when (and with what and with whom) we drink wines, as well as linking to the trend of seasonal cooking that is so prevalent today among professional chefs and home cooks. I’m glad that this theme resonated with so many of you in our previous discussion.

The book has short essays and hundreds of wine recommendations across the twelve months of the year. There should be something for wine lovers of all levels, newbie to full-on wine geek. There’s also some information for all seasons about wine style, wine service and how to actually find good wines near you. And twelve wine travel sections help you even change your context for maximum wine enjoyment.

Alex Eben Meyer contributed the great illustrations. Check out his excellent portfolio at his site!

And a total of thirteen sommeliers lent their thoughts to the volume. They include: Richard Betts (The Little Nell, Aspen, CO); Shayn Bjornholm MS (Washington Wine Commission); Thomas Carter (Blue Hill Stone Barns, Pocantico Hills, NY); Belinda Chang (The Modern, NYC); Christie Dufault (Quince, SF); Erik Liedholm (Seastar, Seattle); Rajat Parr (Michael Mina Group, SF); Shelley Lindgren (A16 restaurant, SF); Roger Morlock (Park Avenue Seasons, NY); Virginia Philip, MS (The Breakers, Palm Beach); Tysan Pierce (The Herbfarm, Woodinville, WA); Juliette Pope (Gramercy Tavern, NYC).

So check out the book’s page over at Amazon (or Barnes and Noble or Powell’s if you prefer) and see what Kermit Lynch, Eric Arnold, David Lynch, and Bobby Abreu had to say on the back cover. Or ask for the hardcover at your local bookstore and check it out in print. And if you do get it, let us know what you think of it here!

Bloggers around the world picked up a copy of my book, Wine Politics: How Governments, Mobsters, Environmentalists, and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink, this month for the latest installment of Wine Book Club. Many thanks to all who participated and especially to Dr. Debs, founder of the bi-monthly Wine Book Club, and the one who selected my book to be put before the group this time around.

In related news, I just found out from the book’s publisher, the University of California Press, that the rights to a Korean language translation of the book have been sold! I plugged the whole title in to Google Translate in order to warm up to the Korean wording. The adjacent image is what I discovered: hmm, “mobsters” really stands out! I’m glad they don’t have those in Korea! On to the roundup!

Dr. Debs at Good Wine Under $20
Richard at A Passionate Foodie
Kori at WinePeeps
Frank at Drink what you like
Taster B at Smells Like Grape
Jim at Wine & Music
Christianne at Christianne Uncorked
And also Evelyne at Wine Brands

Thanks and cheers to all!

Thanks for the 94 comments sharing your favorite season for maximum wine enjoyment! I’m glad that the idea of changing your wine consumption with the seasons resonates so well with you since that’s the subject of my next book, A Year of Wine: Perfect Pairings, Great Buys, and What to Sip for Each Season, due out very soon from Simon Spotlight Entertainment, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

I assigned each commenter a number and generated three winners at random.org, the site that fills all my random integer needs. Three winners were selected to win a signed copy of A Year of Wine and they are:

Jim Boyce in Beijing, Wendy in Brazil, and Aletta in I’m not sure where!

Come on down! As for the rest of you, click through and check out the book’s page on Amazon and see what the blurbs have to say from wine importer and author Kermit Lynch, wine authors David Lynch and Eric Arnold, and starting right fielder for the New York Yankees, Bobby Abreu. Who knows, maybe you’ll want to preorder now? At their discounted price of $16 and change for this hardback book, it’s less than a mere glass of wine at many NYC wine bars!

On November 11, an monumental event will occur: No, hopefully it won’t involve a post-election court battle; instead, my newest book will be available!

The book is called A Year of Wine: Perfect Pairings, Great Buys, and What to Sip for Each Season. In it, a collection of essays and hundreds of wine recommendations, I encourage readers to break out of their chardonnay or cabernet rut and drink different by plotting a seasonal arc to their wine consumption. Simon Spotlight Entertainment, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, will publish the book, available November 11 at a retailer near you or on Amazon.

Epicurious flagged it on their short list of books for “thirsty readers” this fall.

If you like this blog, you will love this book! Why? Because I sold the book based on this blog. But since you readers were not there in the book to post comments, I recruited 13 of America’s leading sommeliers to lend their voices to the book with their thoughts on seasonal drinking and perfect pairings.

I’ve just received some finished copies of the book and have three to sign and give away! All you have to do to qualify is post a comment on this posting saying which is your favorite season for drinking wine. And while “all” is certainly an acceptable answer, maybe there’s one that brings particular pleasure to you.

Comments will close on Thursday and Friday I’ll throw all the commenters’ names in a hat and draw three names. So check back then to see if you are among the winners!

See the listing for A Year of Wine: Perfect Pairings, Great Buys, and What to Sip for Each Season on Amazon.

Last week we heard about the Palin syrah and because it’s organically grown in Chile, we knew it was the perfect wine for the veep wannabe, Sarah Paleen (as they say in Alaska, methinks). Check out reader Nate’s tasting note.

In anticipation of this Thursday’s debate (when we will need mucho vino), put your country first and decide which wine is best suited to each of the three other candidates! I already had my say during the primaries, so now it is your turn.

To sweeten the pot, I will be giving a away a signed copy of my book, Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters, and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink, a book in which none of these four candidates is mentioned!

Post your pairings for the non-Alaskan candidates here in the comments. Friday after 3PM Eastern, check back to see the winner, selected at random. Everyone, to your snow machines!

It’s been a little while since I did one of these roundups–and not sure they are of real interest to anyone but my mom (hi mom!)–but here’s another roundup of my book, Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink, in the news!

Wine & Spirits magazine gave the book 100 points! Or, no, wait, that was the Chateau Latour 2005. But they still had kind words about the book in a review in the October issue calling it “engaging and entertaining!”

The omnivorous Mike Sula asked me several questions and I saw his questions with answers! [Chicago Reader]

Colin Marshall had me on his radio show, Marketplace of Ideas, for a 53 minute discussion about the book. Check out our discussion via iTunes or in his show archive. Actually, poke around the archive for other cool interviews with the likes of my almost doppelganger, economist Tyler Cowen, as well as Steve Wozniak, a founder of Apple Computer, Slate economic columnist Tim Harford, NPR’s Peter Sagal and more.

University of California Press also recorded a (shorter!) podcast. You can also hear from John Winthrop Haeger, author of North American Pinot Noir in another recording on their author podcast page.

The good folks at the New Hampshire Public Radio show, Word of Mouth, were kind enough to have me on. We talked a lot about box wines but also got into the book a bit too. Always fun to talk to an audience in a control state! [NHPR]

Thad at Beyond the Bottle, a wine blog that focuses on the Pacific Northwest, had very kind words!

And Porthos, an Italian wine site had words to say, unfortunately all in Italian!

And if you’ve been waiting for a chance to read and review the book, why not tune in to Wine Book Club?! Every two months they choose a new book for everyone to review and Wine Politics is next up. Read it now and join other bloggers posting reviews on October 28. I’m looking forward to it. Let me know if you have a blog and review the book and I will gladly post a link on this site to your review. But no blog is required to pick up a copy!

As the summer winds down, a few more events start up for my book, Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink. I hope to see you at one of the events!

August 31: Palmer Vineyards, Aquebogue, on the North Fork of Long Island, 11:30 AM. A talk with host Larry Davidson in the last of this year’s “Writers on the Vine” series. $11 admission fee, which includes a glass of wine. No reservations necessary.

September 11: Signing at Crush Wine & Spirits, 57th St between 3rd and Lex. 5:30 – 7:30. French wines relating to themes in the book will be poured! Drop in any time!

September 18: Rebel wines from France. A talk and a tasting at the West Loop wine shop, Just Grapes, Chicago, 6 PM. Pre-reserve now

September 19: book signing at Sam’s Wine, Lincoln Park, 5-7 PM. Drop in any time and say hi!

September 20: University of Chicago, “France and America: Wine Politics and a Tasting Showdown.” I always look forward to these Saturday afternoon seminars and this one will be particularly fun since we will discuss the themes of the book, and then taste excellent wines from the two counties. All participants will get a signed copy! Note: this is at the Gleacher Center, 2:30 – 6:30 PM. Advance registration essential since these sell out!

And there’s always my NYU class, “Becoming a Wine Expert,” starting October 15 for six consecutive Wednesday evenings.
October 28: panel on wine and climate change, American Museum of Natural History. Details to follow closer to the date.

Here’s a quick roundup of some recent reviews and mentions of my new book, Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink. If you’ve already gotten the book, many thanks and let us know your thoughts!

John Mariani (who has a Ph.D. himself from Columbia) wrote a review on Bloomberg.com saying that the book “contain(s) so much history, data and anecdotes in a highly readable 144 pages.”

John and Dottie quoted from the book in their Friday column in the WSJ!

The Times Higher Education Supplement says that it “exposes a little-known but influential aspect of the wine business: the politics behind it.”

Blogger Jeremy Parzen, Ph.D. generously calls it “required reading“!

And Tom Wark, involved in the day-to-day workings of wine industry politics as the head of the Specialty Wine Retailers’ Association, wrote on his blog that “A book of this sort is so long overdue and I had been looking forward to it with such great anticipation that I nearly wet my pants when it finally arrived at my door.” Then he said some other stuff that is too nice to reproduce here so you’ll have to visit his blog, Fermentation, for the rest of his write up.

The signings in Oregon were fun–it was great to meet some blog readers for the first time. Thanks for the continued interest in Wine Politics and your support!