Books

Wine Cellars
Japanese Children's Fabrics
Fenton Burmese Glass
Cher(tm) Doll & Her Celebrity Friends
Collectors' Guide to Vintage Souvenir Tablecloths and Linens
Flying Models Collectibles & Accessories
The Historical Teddy Bear
The Tiger Project: A Series Devoted to Germany's World War II Tiger Tank Crews
The Columbia
Hollywood Movie Posters: 1914-1990
Down to Earth
Mauzy's Cake Plates
Modernist Jewelry 1930-1960
Remembering Revell Model Kits
Complete Book of Kitchen Collecting
Illinois Watch
Sphaerae Mundi: Early Globes at the Stewart Museum, Montreal
Toy Soldiers
Mcdonald's Collectibles: Happy Meal Toys and Memorabilia 1970 to 1997
Identifying Barbie Dolls: The New Compact Study Guide and Identifier
Bakelite Style: The Material of a Thousand Uses
Pocket Knives
Photoplay Editions: A Collector's Guide
Counterfeit Currency of the Confederate States of America
A Passion for Films: Henri Langlois and the Cinematheque Francaise

Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables

Average customer rating:

Very practical guide to energy efficient food storage
Yup!
A must have for the serious gardener
Planting and Storing Techniques with Construction Ideas
Encyclopedia of no-energy food preservation

Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables
Mike Bubel , and Nancy Bubel
Manufacturer: Storey Publishing, LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Canning & Preserving | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

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Similar Items:

Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners
Handy Farm Devices: And How to Make Them
Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long
Build Your Own underground Root Cellar
How to Grow More Vegetables and Fruits: (And Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops)

ASIN: 0882667033

Book Description

Anyone can learn to store fruits and vegetables safely and naturally with a cool, dark space (even a closet!) and the step-by-step advice in this book.

Customer Reviews:

Very practical guide to energy efficient food storage.......2006-03-01

No matter what your location or how much space you have, the Bubels are likely to have a root cellar option that will work for you. I've got the first edition, but I'm sure the second edition is just as good if not better. Detailed explanations of how to store vegetables and fruits without electricity with specific temperature and humidity recommendations for each variety. Many different cold storage designs. Good photos and diagrams. Well worth the money.

Yup!.......2005-11-17

Goes into what when and where. Perfect! Reduce your need for the grid man!

A must have for the serious gardener.......2005-09-29

If like me you love growing a vegetable garden and then canning, freezing, or dehydrating your produce, then this is a book you should seriously consider adding to your library. Especially since energy costs for cooling in summer and heating in winter are going up.

Because root cellars are something as the one chapter in the book titled Food Cellars for Everyone says, are for everyone whether you live in rural American, suburbia or even a city with a small lot. Roots cellars are economical across the board and have a long history and can be placed under a home, off into a hillside, in a closet, basement or even two big wine barrels with tight lids planted slanted into the ground.

They are also a huge money saver. And being someone who believes that even a city dweller with a small plot of land should grow some of their own food I also believe that we all have a responsibility to learn how to grow food as well as save it, because with our recent history of hurricanes in the southern regions of the country I know that attic cellars have enabled friends I know, to at least have fresh vegetables to cook over the camp stove as they go about trying to get their lives back together.

Planting and Storing Techniques with Construction Ideas.......2005-08-24

The book goes into great detail about what plants will thrive in root gardens. A small ammount of technical details: temperature, planting months, germination techniques are presented. As with many books of this genre (natural/organic in my view), repeating the same idea is prevalent. Many chapters cover the same topics as to which plants will thrive. A more compact book would suit the same purpose and reduce the number of pages. The author tries to cover a wide geographic area in the reviews, but most are tailored to specifice areas of the north where they have had experience (I did not see to much about the south and southwest). The last few chapter involve constructing your own root cellar. Many ideas and techniques for root cellar construciton are presented, but are no way an exhaustive exploration of all possibilities. The plans for construction give the spark for which you will have to provide the rest.

Encyclopedia of no-energy food preservation.......2004-09-01

This book is a vast resource of information about root cellars, how to build them, and how to use them. The Bubels contend that even city apartments dwellers can arrange some sort of cold food storage area with a little imagination and a few suggestions from those who have done it before. The book has 6 parts: choosing good storage vegetable varieties, harvesting for keeping quality, storing crops in the root cellar, root cellar ideas for those who don't currently have a root cellar, root cellaring experiences, and recipes. At the end of the book is a bibliography for further reading, a list of plant sources, and an index. The book is amply illustrated with diagrams and black-and-white photographs.

I didn't expect to find much in this book that I haven't read elsewhere. Since my house didn't come with a root cellar, I wasn't very optimistic about finding anything in the book that I could use. Fortunately, I was way off-base in these assumptions. I was amazed at the variety and detail of information that the Bubels provide. The sections on choosing seed varieties and determining when to harvest are extremely useful, even if you're only going to put your harvest in the refrigerator. They also explain the different types of storage conditions required for different crops- -some like it cool and moist, and others warmer and dry. But what gave me real hope was all the ideas about un-root cellars that people have constructed and made good use of for storing vegetables. Their examples include everything from insolated window baskets for apartment dwellers to buried package trucks. One idea that might work well for my situation at least for the time being is a buried refrigerator. Down the line, if I have extra time on my hands, I could trade up for a real dug root cellar, following the plans in the book. If you're a gardener, you'll find something of use for sure in this book.

Wine Cellars: An Exploration of Stylish Storage

Average customer rating:

Acceptable, but overall disappointing
Cellar space
This is a great coffee table book

Wine Cellars: An Exploration of Stylish Storage
Tina Skinner , and Melissa Cardona
Manufacturer: Schiffer Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Similar Items:

The Home Wine Cellar: A Complete Guide To Design And Construction
Cellaring Wine: A Complete Guide to Selecting, Building, and Managing Your Wine Collection
Wine by Design (Interior Angles)
The Best Cellar
Wine Country Architecture and Interiors

ASIN: 0764319655

Customer Reviews:

Acceptable, but overall disappointing.......2007-01-10

This book does not live up to expectations. Found that many of the photos are poor quality/amateur in nature. Some cellars displayed are spectacular but many are ho-hum. Nor does the book have any substantive material. Simple text descriptions accompany photos but only so much can be learned by looking at pictures. I agree with other reviews that this is a good coffee table or "idea" book. However, I expected more interesting photos with meaningful descriptions of the space, conditions, materials, lighting, etc... If you have to have it buy it used.

A much better book is: The Home Wine Cellar: A Complete Guide To Design And Construction by Perry Sims. While it doesn't have as many photos, those it does have are more inspiring and accompanied by good information on cellar design and construction.

Cellar space.......2006-08-25

Its a good coffee table book, Some great photos with good ideas, and some general information for those looking to build a cellar. I'm glad to have it.

This is a great coffee table book.......2005-08-05

Beautiful pictures, it gives you plenty of things to talk about and think about if you are planning a wine cellar. This book does not give a lot of details on why things are done the way they are - it is more of an idea book. I've read a few other books on the details of wine cellar construction, so I already knew why things are done as they are in many of the pictures.

This book gave me tons of ideas and helped me spark my creative juices.

Troy

A Hedonist in the Cellar: Adventures in Wine

Average customer rating:

More juicy adventures in the cellar.
attention wine geeks
It's a fine, literary choice any general-interest public library strong in food and wine lending will want.
A wine travelogue
Sharp essays on good wine

A Hedonist in the Cellar: Adventures in Wine
Jay Mcinerney
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Similar Items:

Bacchus and Me: Adventures in the Wine Cellar
Red, White, and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass
The Oxford Companion to Wine, 3rd Edition
A Life Uncorked
Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany

ASIN: 1400044820
Release Date: 2006-10-24

Amazon.com

Those who find most wine writing hopelessly recondite will eagerly quaff novelist Jay McInerney's A Hedonist in the Cellar, a collection of his essays originally published in House & Garden. Whether talking about a California chardonnay ("like a Ginsu blade concealed in a peach"); the wines of the Cote Rotie ("like Fitzgerald, [its] reputation was almost moribund at mid-century"); or the super Valpolicellas of Italian vintner Giuseppe Quintarelli ("his [wines] should be opened only in the presence of gods and stinky cheeses"), McInerney brings a novelist's gift and idiosyncratic wit to his personal investigations, which touch on the Rieslings from the Finger Lakes, the "forgotten whites" of Bordeaux, new developments in the wines of Chile and Argentina, spirits like Armagnac and artisinal champagnes, and much more. McInerney is a stimulating appreciator, so readers poring through his essays happily absorb viniculture and modus operandi, among other technical matters. In essays like "Translating German Labels" and "How to Impress Your Sommelier," they're also prepped in buying and ordering. A wide-ranging tour of the wine world in sum, Hedonist is for all wine lovers, who will find in it much of what's been missing from so much other wine and food writing: the wit to do it well. --Arthur Boehm

Book Description

In the two decades since Bright Lights, Big City reinvigorated contemporary fiction, Jay McInerney can claim a great many accomplishments, including the mantle that Salon has given him: “the best wine writer in America.” Of his previous collection, Bacchus and Me, Robert M. Parker, Jr., concluded: “Brilliant, witty, comical, and often shamelessly candid and provocative.” And The New York Times added: “McInerney’s wine judgments are sound, his anecdotes witty, and his literary references impeccable. Not many wine books are good reads; this one is.”

In A Hedonist in the Cellar, he gathers more than five years’ worth of essays and continues his exploration of what’s new, what’s enduring, and what’s surprising, giving his palate a complete workout and the reader an indispensable, idiosyncratic guide to a world of almost infinite variety. Rieslings from the Finger Lakes, Armagnac from Gascony, powerhouse amarones from Valpolicella, the most fearsome critics in England, chocolate-friendly bottles from all over the globe, new developments in Chile and Argentina—these are only some of the delights now ready to be savored in a collection driven not only by wine itself but also the people who make it and those whose enjoyment is matched by their curiosity.

Full of terroir and flavor, svelte personalities, and keen insight into the trade, these are irresistible essays for anyone enthralled by the manifold pleasures of wine.

Customer Reviews:

More juicy adventures in the cellar........2007-05-18

"Let's be honest: there's only one activity more satisfying than drinking good wine with good food, and if you're drinking wine in the right company, the one pleasure, more often than not, will lead to the other" (p. xxiii). For novelist, amateur oenephile, and avid reader, Jay McInerney, Bordeaux is to Tolstoy as Burgundy is to Turgenev as Cote Rotie is to Fitzgerald as Hermitage is to Hemingway. Oenophilia, he observes in this second compilation of essays drawn from his "Uncorked" column in House & Garden magazine, is "a way of channeling the hedonistic impulse of refining and intellectualizing it to some extent . . . It can provide intellectual as well as sensual pleasure; it's an inexhaustible subject, a nexus of subjects, which leads us, if we choose to follow, into the realm of geology, botany, meterorology, history, aesthetics, and literature. Ideally, the appreciation of wine is balanced between consumption and pleasure on the one hand and contemplation and analysis on the other (p. xiv).

Whether he's writing about his favorite white (Condrieu) or his first taste of Bordeaux, the forgotten whites of Bordeaux or the South African reds, how to impress your sommelier or how to pair a wine with chocolate or Asain food, McInerney once again proves he is "the best wine writer in America" (Salon), bringing his own unique gift of terroir, wit, and opinion to these pleasurable essays. His HEDONIST is a must read for anyone who, like me, has a passion for really good wine and really good writing.

G. Merritt

attention wine geeks .......2007-02-11

Though not as entertaining as" Bacchus and Me: Adventures in the Wine Cellar" , I still enjoyed the book. Lot of short pieces on various wine and alcohol related subjects....and who doesn't love that!? Probably not for you if your not geeky about wine but if you are so inclined a vicarious pleasure.

It's a fine, literary choice any general-interest public library strong in food and wine lending will want........2007-02-06

Wine columnist Jay McInerney has been billed the 'best wine writer in America' and his previous collection BACCHUS AND ME earned him much praise: so it's right to expect much from his sequel A HEDONIST IN THE CELLAR - and his memoir doesn't disappoint. Here are over five years' worth of essays and explorations in the wine world - and we do mean 'world' - following passions, people, and wines around the globe. It's a fine, literary choice any general-interest public library strong in food and wine lending will want.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

A wine travelogue.......2007-01-09

Enjoyable wine gab from a well-informed and entertaining writer and bon vivant. Helps to further ones knowlegde of some lesser-known wine regions and introduces the reader to some interesting personalities in the wine biz.

Sharp essays on good wine.......2006-12-29

It should first be noted that Jay McInerney was a writer long before he became a writer about wine. That's an important distinction, because it's easy to forget, when reading McInerney's witticisms and anecdotes, that he's also got a pretty good street cred as a wine authority.
"A Hedonist in the Cellar" is probably one of the more aptly named books ever to be published, because it's about a guy who truly loves what he gets paid to do. Unlike other books written about the perimeters of luxe lifestyles, McInerney's offering doesn't come across as a smug piece in which the author revels in highlighting what normal people will never get to enjoy.
In "Hedonist," McInerney gets beyond the froufrou language that causes most of the civilized world to arch a brow at wine lovers (and collectors and writers) and dismiss them as pompous snobs.

This latest book, a compilation of funny, frightfully easy-to-read essays about wine around the world, makes readers feel as though they've dropped in for a chat or were allowed to eavesdrop just outside the dining room door as a fabulous buffet of stories unfolds. McInerney -- and this is where the ordinary part ends -- takes readers to the hearts of the finest wine cellars and vineyards in the world. It's not an academic exercise, but rather like hitching a ride in the back of an old Mini (before they became fashionable) and rattling around for a year or so. In the case of the essays of the book, there are five years of writing.

He shares how the wine world works, what to look for in certain wines and, most important, how to find a wine you like and, by God, be confident in that choice.

People new to drinking wine might not be interested in "Hedonist" as a beginner's introduction to one of the world's oldest beverages. Some of the labels are fairly obscure, and a person trying to decide if they're a "red" or a "white" might not be so enamored of the intricacies of a particular Chilean vintage. They'd be better served by a book that's a little less chatty and a little more straightforward.

The Home Wine Cellar: A Complete Guide To Design And Construction

Average customer rating:

If I have never heard of wine or a wine cellar, this book might have been helpful
not very complete...
Not really a "Complete Guide"
About a quarter of what I needed
Beautiful, useful, book. Only two complaints...

The Home Wine Cellar: A Complete Guide To Design And Construction
Perry Sims , and Robert J. Dolezal
Manufacturer: Running Press Book Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Similar Items:

Wine Cellars: An Exploration of Stylish Storage
Cellaring Wine: A Complete Guide to Selecting, Building, and Managing Your Wine Collection
Keys to the Cellar: Strategies and Secrets of Wine Collecting
The Best Cellar
How and Why to Build a Wine Cellar, Fourth Edition

ASIN: 0762420847
Release Date: 2004-10-26

Book Description

Finally, the most informative, fully illustrated, step-by-step guide to designing and building your own home wine cellar! This beautifully photographed and illustrated full-color book covers all of the details of locating and preparing the right construction area. It includes the latest designs, as well as up-to-date racking and organization styles and techniques. Perhaps most important, this book addresses all the thorny challenges of temperature and humidity control--just where most home wine cellars fail. Having a wine cellar is a hot trend among homeowners, and contractors throughout the country are including them in new construction. This copiously illustrated hammer and nails book is by far the best DIY guide available.

Customer Reviews:

If I have never heard of wine or a wine cellar, this book might have been helpful.......2007-06-08

I am planning to build a 2,000 bottle cellar myself and have found the published literature on the subject inadequate. After purchasing this book, I am no better off than I was prior to reading it. The book is so general that unless you do not know what wine is, it will tell you almost nothing you do not already know. It spends an inordinate amount of time discussing things like how to install and use a wine cooler. I own two wine coolers already and I assume almost everyone planning a wine cellar knows what a wine cooler is and how to turn one on. It spends a bunch of time on wine drinking, selection and pouring which is not what anyone buying this book is looking for. It also spends time discussing how to put shelves in a closet or under stairs, all of which is common sense. I need help on what type of vapor barrier to buy, how thick the studs should be, what is the best lighting to use, what coolers are best, what insulation will handle moisture the best, how to level a basement floor prior to installing tile, what types of wall finishes are best, what wood is best for racks, what stain is best, what themometers and humidity sensors are best, most efficient and best looking floor plans, etc. This book offers no solutions to the real issues with building a cellar. I found more real information doing a few hours of web blog searches than I found in the same amount of time reading this book. I found the Richard Gold book on the subject much more informative even though it focuses on passive cellars and has no pretty color pictures.

not very complete..........2006-11-13

This book focuses only on certain techniques and material (timber). A bit disappointing.

Not really a "Complete Guide" .......2006-10-12

Parts of the book were helpful and the photos were interesting. However, aside from asthetics, the critical issues in building a cellar are the vapor barrier, insulation and cooling system. It would have been helpful to have more technical advice or at least technical advice that was easier to follow. For example, an explanation of why the vapor barrier must be on the outside everywhere (to keep condensation away from the insulation) would be more helpful than just a bald statement that it should be. The diagrams are clear as far as they go, but the explanation on how to put a vapor barrier up and insulate a ceiling is confusing in the absence of an explanation of the purpose of the vapor barrier. For example, if you have wires, pipes and ventilation ducts in your basement ceiling as most people do, what is the best approach? Should you drop the ceiling and then install a vapor barrier followed by insulation or is there something else you can do? Likewise, a discussion of the pros and cons of using a glass vs. solid door, whether to have electrical outlets inside and if so how many and why, whether to place the light switch inside the room or out, and a discussion of how to properly ventilate the cooling unit to optimize operational efficiency all would have been helpful. Finally, since the author is in the business, I would assume that he uses particular brands of cooling units and has specific recommenations regarding size, makes and models--all of that would have been useful information.

To be fair, I did a lot of research and nobody seems to be able to write clearly on this subject and there is a lot of conflicting information on various aspects of design and construction. Still, now that I've been through the construction process, it seems that someone with expertise should be able to write a sufficiently detailed publication to give a novice or a novice working with a general contractor who isn't a wine cellar pro an understanding of the critical elements of design and construction to help them anticipate the issues involved in building a cellar. The book falls short in that regard.

I agree with the reviewer above that this book could have been half as long. As someone who was already inclined to build a cellar, I was already familiar enough with wine to know how to serve it. I wasn't looking for a contractor's advice on that subject. What I was looking for was detailed information on planning/design issues and construction methods. The information in this book that I found helpful on those topics was less than complete and was limited to about a dozen pages.

About a quarter of what I needed.......2006-08-08

This is a pretty book. It has nice pictures of some very pretty cellars. From a practical standpoint though, only about 25% of it is actually worthwhile. They should offer a scaled down version at at quarter of the price.

Beautiful, useful, book. Only two complaints..........2005-08-19

This a beautiful, useful book well worth the purchase price. But I bought it to tell me how to build a home wine cellar (which it does) and I was disappointed to discover that it doesn't include any actual floor plan examples, with dimensions, showing a sample layout of a real wine cellar for, say, a small collection, a medium collection or a large collection of bottles. I'm new to this and need suggestions from someone who has done a lot of this. That's what I bought the book for. Also, I would have appreciated some recommendations on brands of cooling equipment and maybe a few names, websites, etc. of different equipment and furnishings the author has found superior to the competition. An appendix listing equipment and furnishing suppliers would have been great, like a recommendation of a good set of prefab racks to buy. In other words, I've read the whole book and still have to design my own floorplan from scratch and still have to spend a lot of time researching websites to decide on the brand/model of cooling equipment I want to use. I suspect the author already knows which is best, and I wish he had told me!

How and Why to Build a Wine Cellar 3rd Ed.

Average customer rating:

Outdated Book
A great gift idea
Great advice for building a "Wine Bunker"
Good Idea, Bad Implementation
a perfect cellar

How and Why to Build a Wine Cellar 3rd Ed.
Richard M. Gold Ph.D. , and PhD Richard M. Gold
Manufacturer: Sandhill Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Design & Construction | Home Design | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

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Similar Items:

The Home Wine Cellar: A Complete Guide To Design And Construction
Cellaring Wine: A Complete Guide to Selecting, Building, and Managing Your Wine Collection
Wine Cellars: An Exploration of Stylish Storage
The Best Cellar
The Complete Wine Cellar System

ASIN: 0967159806

Book Description

A construction guide for home wine cellars based on the science of deep soil temperatures. Invokes modern readily available materials and standard construction techniques. Ideal for the do-it-yourselfer or hired carpenter. Also reviews wine purchasing and consuming strategies, bin design and construction, how to organize a wine tasting group, and more. An underground classic, first published in 1983. Revised third edition. Over 24,000 copies in circulation. The only serious treatment of the subject.

Customer Reviews:

Outdated Book.......2004-11-25

This book appears to be full of good information. I used it to construct two small cellars, both using refrigeration. They measured up to 7' x 12'. For my third cellar (the collection just keeps growing) I hired a consultant, and discussed the cellar with several others. All disagreed with some of the very basic principles in Gold's book. He may have been first out with this information, but the book is not up to date. If you are undertaking a serious project, especially if it is underground, you are better off hiring a consultant with experience. As another reviewer pointed out, some of the information in the book is contradictatory. Some is just wrong. Some is useful only for cold weather climates.

A great gift idea.......2004-11-09

I've been thinking about building a wine cellar and was given this book as a gift. I couldn't be happier. The book is not only informative, it is clear and well-written. What's more, I took Dr. Gold up on his offer to follow up with him with any questions. He got right back to me with some helpful advice, and even an unsolicited wine tip!

If you know someone who's interested in wine or thinking of building a cellar, this will make a most welcome gift. And if you're thinking of building a cellar of your own, then treat yourself. You'll be glad you did.

Great advice for building a "Wine Bunker".......2004-05-18

I spent several months trying to determine what I should do about wine storage. I had accumulated about 300 bottles and was keeping them in our under-house dungeon, but was concerned about the long-term viability of that method.

This book promotes the idea of a passive cellar - no refrigeration/humidity unit. After reading it I set about building what really amounts to a "wine bunker" (the room is not for sitting about and sipping - only storage) based on its principles. The details are documented at www.rosebrugh.com

I'm very happy with the results and am glad to have found such a tome on the science of wine storage. Worthwhile reading even if you don't decide to take this route.

Good Idea, Bad Implementation.......2004-03-30

I think Mr Gold's book is a good idea and his heart is in the right place but he will not win any awards for simple explanations. I've read this book cover to cover, some parts multiple times, in an attempt to decipher what he meant versus what he said. I find it confusing that Mr Gold discusses vapor barriers in two parts of the book and seems to say different things in each section, for example. I'm an intelligent person and can follow directions but Mr Gold's writing style does not sit well with me nor did it help to truly understand what I needed to do. If you are building a wine cellar in an unfinished old stink cellar, this may be for you, but if you are building a wine cellar in a finished basement or other portion of your house, obtain the "room preparation" documentation from a "wine enthusiast" type company instead.

a perfect cellar.......2003-10-08

This is a great book. It tells you/shows you how to evaluate your house, and all the variables surrounding, for a perfect wine cellar. While many may read and rise to the occasion thus building the R to the perfect digit, some may simply read and concede. There is a spoke of perfection in a house with a proper wine cellar; yet most are lack this. I thank this book for steering me to my current course of renting storage in a wine storage facility. I appreciate all the information but it would have been near impossible (checkbook included) for me to follow through.

Bacchus and Me: Adventures in the Wine Cellar

Average customer rating:

'Adventures' with a grape nut.
New Drinking Game: Guess How Many Times Turley Is Mentioned...
Prada and nothing but trash.......
Not your average Wine book
One trick pony

Bacchus and Me: Adventures in the Wine Cellar
Jay Mcinerney
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

A Hedonist in the Cellar: Adventures in Wine
The Accidental Connoisseur: An Irreverent Journey Through the Wine World
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Noble Rot: A Bordeaux Wine Revolution
Red, White, and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass

ASIN: 037571362X
Release Date: 2002-03-12

Amazon.com

Bright lights: Krug, Latour, Lafite, Montrose. Big cities: Montalcino, Hampstead, Reims, Geyserville. Welcome to Bacchus & Me: Adventures in the Wine Cellar, bestselling novelist Jay McInerney's mixed four-case lot of wine essays culled primarily from his output of "Uncorked" pieces written for House & Garden magazine. Reflecting the author's wit and opinion, it's tasty and stylish stuff. And nestled between glossy pages of photos depicting, say, a 396-square-foot TriBeCa loft decorated with a pair of Eames chairs purchased at a Brooklyn swap meet for $45, McInerney's blend of self-deprecation (his "eyebrows raised and jaw dropped" when H&G editors broached his name as wine columnist) and irreverence (on straw-covered Chianti bottles: the "bong component of choice in dorm rooms around the world") is refreshing juice. Unfortunately, as a compilation, it serves more to unmask a Eurocentric name-dropper: the bon-mot-coining D2 dilettante on an expense account who got the gig because he knew the editor. It's distressing, because there's so much to like here: "A Ticket to the Veneto" is a sparkling meld of ego and yeast; questioning whether or not to cellar wine, he concludes, "What could be more all-American than instant gratification?"; and his dead-on description of a Port hangover is quintessential McInerney. But numerous repetitions, imperceptible when published monthly, irritate when separated not by 30 days but 30 pages: Sauvignon Blanc's aroma of "pipi du chat" is funny the first time you read it, less so two essays later; likewise you won't find a single California piece that doesn't contain the words "dude" or "Helen Turley." And while it's admirable to break the mould of stuffy wine writing, McInerney's a bit long in the tastevin to adopt a "Wine Brat" posture comparing, for example, Martinelli Jackass Hill Zin more to "Free Bird" than "Jumpin' Jack Flash," or describing his first sip of Mouton "like hearing Nirvana on Saturday Night Live." Blame it on the editor, or maybe it just depends on how you devour Bacchus & Me. Sipped slowly, McInerney's words taste of the passionate amateur oenophile and skilled raconteur. Gulp 'em down and the finish is of the bestselling bon vivant with a blank check. --Tony Mason

Book Description

Jay McInerney on wine? Yes, Jay McInerney on wine! The best-selling novelist has turned his command of language and flair for metaphor on the world of wine, providing this sublime collection of untraditional musings on wine and wine culture that is as fit for someone looking for “a nice Chardonnay” as it is for the oenophile.

On champagne: “Is Dom Pérignon worth four bottles of Mo‘t & Chandon? If you are a connoisseur, a lover, a snob, or the owner of a large oceangoing craft, the answer . . . is probably yes.”
On the difficulty of picking a wine for a vegetarian meal: “Like boys and girls locked away in same-sex prep schools, most wines yearn for a bit of flesh.”
On telling the difference between Burgundy and Bordeaux: “If it’s red, French, costs too much, and tastes like the water that’s left in the vase after the flowers have died, it’s probably Burgundy.”
On the fungus responsible for the heavenly flavor of the dessert wine called Sauternes: “Not since Baudelaire smoked opium has corruption resulted in such beauty.”

Includes new material plus recommendations on the world’s most romantic wines and the best wines to pair with a meal

Customer Reviews:

'Adventures' with a grape nut........2007-06-19

"Since I have no real training in the official vocabulary of wine tasting--or for that matter, in gardening--you are more likely to find me comparing a wine to a movie, a poem, or a pop song than to an herb or a flower. These are the notes of a passionate amateur, a wordsmith with a wine jones" (p. xxiv).

Jay Mcinerney (1955) is not only a bestselling novelist (Bright Lights, Big City; Ransom; Story of My Life; Brightness Falls; The Last of the Savages; The Good Life), he is also an amateur oenephile (a "grape nut") and the wine columnist for House & Garden magazine. In his first compilation of wine essays drawn from his "Uncorked" column, McInerney proves he is "the best wine writer in America" (Salon), writing about his "first love" (Bordeaux), his initial prejudice against California wines ("Ripe, yes. Fruity, yes. So is Baywatch."), his nervous admiration for Helen Turley ("the wine goddess"), the "cult of Condrieu," champagne ("Beautiful Bubbleheads"), Burgundy ("If it's red, French, costs too much, and tastes like the water that's left in the vase after the flowers have died and rotted, it's probably Burgundy."), the most romantic wines, and pairing wine with food. McInerney brings his unique gift of terroir, wit, and opinion to these essays, making his book a must read for anyone who, like me, has a passion for really good wine and really good writing. And for those readers left wanting more wine adventures with McInerney, check out A Hedonist in the Cellar: Adventures in Wine (2006), ISBN: 978-1400044825.

G. Merritt

New Drinking Game: Guess How Many Times Turley Is Mentioned..........2007-02-17

...within the first 15 pages. That is how long it took me to confirm previous posters comments related to the author's uncontrollable tendancy to name-drop. Now, there is no doubt that visionaries like Helen Turley bring much to the wine industry, but repeatedly using their name, along with difficult or impossible to find cult wines/vintages, does little to build faith of the reader. In addition, the writer's devotion to the grape seemed to ring hollow - or at least egocentric at times. For a better read that expresses passion about easier to find varietals and regions, I recommend Love by the Glass, or other writings by Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher.

Prada and nothing but trash..............2005-09-21

As an employee in the wine business, and an everyday drinker, I personally know that I cannot afford purchasing 2nd or 3rd growths on a regular basis, never mind 1st growths and '55 and '28 vintage Chateau d' Yquem. This book, although some chapters were very entertaining, was nothing but a name dropping debacle. Rather than focusing on the everyday enjoyment of wine, the book strived more towards depicting the great parties Jay McInerney has attended and all snobbishness that comes with it, i.e.; a rich man turning down Cristal champagne because it was not Krug, McInerney's fear of getting wine stains on his prada clothes, and the infamous Millenium Party where he and other famous wine and food representatives had the pleasure of trying everything under the banner of luxury. I personally do not know Jancis Robinson or Sommelier Jean-Luc Le Du, and likewise I know at last 30 people who do not know them either; hence, speaking about their parties on almost every chapter (and this is not a long book, 250 pages) does not help me choose an everyday wine. Although I can imagine what an experience it must be to taste such wines, I do not need some name-dropping writer telling me that I can only enjoy wine by taking out my credit card and purchasing Petrus at $5,000 a bottle. I know I can have just as much fun, on an average day, with my girlfriend and a $20 bottle of Guigal's Crozes Hermitage.

Not your average Wine book.......2003-12-09

I'll admit it I bought this collection of wine essays because I liked the title. Also, because there was a blurb in the dust jacket about French and German wine. I began reading the chapters in order of interest, not in the order in the book. After the first essay I was blown away with the descriptions. McInerney doesn't talk about wine like the rest of them. I thought, "this guy writes so well, this is like reading a novel." Then referring to the dust jacket again I discovered he um well has experience in that area too. Despite being fun to read, McInerney packs a lot of information into each essay. This book will not tell you everything you want to know about wine - it isn't an intro to wine collecting or a reference to keep through the ages as you collect wine. It is a collection of unique musings on the wonderful subject of wine. I loved it.

One trick pony.......2003-05-01

Jay McInerney was one of the voices of the 1980s, the era known for its conspicuous consumption, self-absorption and decadence. With this book, he seems intent on singing the same song years after the curtain was drawn.

Ostensibly, this is a book about wines -- one of my passions -- and for the first few dozen pages it appears to be just that. There are some interesting and unusual observations about wine on the pages of Bacchus & Me, and Mr. McInerney deserves credit (hence the three stars) for breaking many of the crusty and useless conventions that limit most wine literature.

But the more one reads the book, the more one realizes that the chapters are less about wine than about Mr. McInerney himself. He reveals himself as a shameless name dropper, and someone most interested in repeating a half dozen humorous and entertaining observations in a variety of contexts while boasting about his fat expense account and privileged access to bottles of wine that most of us will never even see.

The problem is not that these lines are uninteresting or irrelevant -- as an occasional aside they would add to the intriguing take on one of the world's most written-about subjects. But in the frequency in which they appear here they can leave a throbbing in the head like an old bottle of jug wine does, when what we really wanted was one of those fine bottles of Bordeaux Mr. McInerney seems to be in love with.

How and Why to Build a Wine Cellar, Fourth Edition

Average customer rating:

How and Why to Build a Wine Cellar, Fourth Edition
Richard Gold
Manufacturer: Wine Appreciation Guild
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Spirits | Drinks & Beverages | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

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Do-It-Yourself | How-to & Home Improvements | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1891267000

Book Description

New (1998) third edition of the definitive guide to the construction of a home wine cellar. Over 20,000 copies in print. Chapters on temperature, humidity, insulation, construction techniques, bins, refrigeration, newsletter reviews, and much more. An underground classic.

Average customer rating:

excellent wine cellar overview
Not worth the money
Good, solid information
An useful and enjoyable read!

All About Wine Cellars
Howard G. Goldberg
Manufacturer: Running Press Book Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0762419768
Release Date: 2004-09-28

Book Description

As more people come to appreciate the wisdom of buying wine by the case, they're contemplating the installation of a home wine cellar to store and protect their vinous investments, whether they live in a one-bedroom apartment or a house with room to spare. This concise, helpful book by respected New York Times wine writer Howard G. Goldberg offers basic guidance on planning, organizing, and maintaining a wine collection, with tips on how to choose the right storage system, create the proper climatic environment, and keep track of what's there and when it's ready to drink. Goldberg also presents a fascinating history of wine collecting, with wonderfully entertaining stories of some famous cellars.

Customer Reviews:

excellent wine cellar overview.......2007-06-09

Covered much more history etc than I was interested in. He does an excellent job and it is a decent read. It goes over the basics do's and don't if you're interested in constructing your own cellar.

However, I found google search and wine refrig web sites to be far more productive especially Rosehill located in Canada. Great website for practical info.

Not worth the money.......2007-05-23

I was disappointed with this book. Overgeneralized suggestions with no real information on how to make the wine cellar i.e. the actual wood, plastic or whatever it is that makes the place to actually put the wine. I had been hoping for suggestions, ideas, photo's and sources for storage. Instead I got a rehash of information from other books.

Good, solid information.......2005-11-11

Easy-to-read book about building and maintaining a wine cellar. Great tips and the author discusses things to consider that I would have never thought of. A nice book if you plan to build your own wine cellar.

An useful and enjoyable read!.......2004-12-07

This book is an easy read, perfect for relaxing by a warm fire while drinking a favorite glass of wine. Golberg's personal experiences and stories are entertaining while providing useful and educational information about wine, storage (cellaring), glassware, and general wine stuff. This casual book would be a great gift to a wine lover, or a 'carry on the airplane' book for yourself. Very nice font and paper that is easy on the eyes!

Keys to the Cellar: Strategies and Secrets of Wine Collecting

Average customer rating:

Great book on how to buy for a new cellar and how to buy at auction

Keys to the Cellar: Strategies and Secrets of Wine Collecting
Peter D. Meltzer
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0471473596

Book Description

"Peter D. Meltzer, Wine Spectator's auction correspondent for morethan twenty years, is the foremost authority on wine collecting. His book offers expert guidance for beginners and connoisseurs alike."
—Marvin R. Shanken, Editor and Publisher, Wine Spectator

"Peter Meltzer is an authoritative journalist, savvy collector,and urbane restaurant and wine list critic; he makes theideal companion and counselor for wine collectors."
—Michael Batterberry, Editor in Chief and Publisher, Food Arts

"Keys to the Cellar is fascinating, informative, and easy to read; with this book, you will truly understand the ins and outsof buying wines for your personal cellar."
—Kevin Zraly, educator and author of Windows on the World Complete Wine Course

A true wine-lover who knows the value of a well-aged bottle, Peter Meltzer both celebrates and demystifies wine collecting in Keys to the Cellar. His appreciation of fine wine flavors every page as he gives you a practical approach to building a collection that fits your preferences, your lifestyle, and your budget. You'll find information on:

Buying and selling wine at auction, including valuable insider tips
Bidding at online wine auctions
Using the Web to calculate a wine's true value or locate a hard-to-find bottle
Making the best use of fine wine merchants
Storing and enjoying your wine—both every day and over the long term

As a bonus, this guide includes a user-friendly Wine Spectator auction index, an invaluable tool for researching the "going rate" for more than 500 top auctioned wines. Whether you are just getting started or want to enhance your collection, this is a book you'll savor again and again—like your favorite fine wines.

Customer Reviews:

Great book on how to buy for a new cellar and how to buy at auction.......2007-02-01

Meltzer is a veteran of the wine auctions and his tips for buying at auction are invaluable. He also provides very solid ideas as to how to start your cellar ( the actual collection of bottles, not the construction of the thing) depending on your interests, lifestyle and approach to wine.

I found it most informative because of the wealth of tidbits and asides that he adds to it. He has been around for a while and it shows. This is a book i would give to someone who wants to seiously get into wine, and i would definetly buy it again.

Cellaring Wine: A Complete Guide to Selecting, Building, and Managing Your Wine Collection

Average customer rating:

Exactly what it says...
More [and less] than the title implies
For the serious wine collector
cellaring wine is indeed good

Cellaring Wine: A Complete Guide to Selecting, Building, and Managing Your Wine Collection
Jeff Cox
Manufacturer: Storey Publishing, LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1580174744

Book Description

Beer is just a beverage, but wine is an experience. There?s an aura of romance, a hint of the sublime, to bringing a bottle up from your own cellar, carefully drawing out the cork, pouring the wine into a goblet, and taking the first delectable sip.

Now Jeff Cox, author of From Vines to Wines (89,000 copies in print) and a connoisseur well respected in wine circles, shows you how easy it is to have a wine cellar of your own.

But Cellaring Wine is not a home-building project book. In some cases, the would-be wine collector doesn?t have to do much building at all. Rather, Cellaring Wine teaches anyone who loves wine how to create a working system of selecting wines that will age well, know how to lay them down properly, and recognize when they have matured to their full glory and are ready to be savored.

Cox pinpoints the optimum conditions of temperature, light, and humidity for a wine cellar. He walks you through possible locations for your wine cellar ? whether in the basement, an old root cellar, the back of your garage, or even a closet or room in your house ? and what each location requires. He explains when you?ll need a climate-control device (and how much they cost). And he discusses the pros and cons of buying a freestanding unit that is much like a refrigerator.

Then Cox tackles the question that most troubles wine lovers: Which wines will improve with age, and which won?t? This chapter alone is worth the price of the book, since nothing is more disappointing to a wine lover than waiting years to open a bottle of wine only to discover that it was at its peak when it was laid down.

Cox shows you how to keep accurate records so you know at a glance ? without having to hunt through the wine racks ? what you have, where it?s located, and how much to buy so the cellar doesn?t become depleted. And he gives you a crash course in appreciating the fragrance and flavor of a fine wine.Perhaps best of all, Cox gets readers excited about the possibilities of having their own wine cellar. After all, a cellar is not just a storage room, it?s a university where good young wines become great.

Customer Reviews:

Exactly what it says..........2006-08-23

Jeff Cox has written a wonderful guide for cellaring wine which is nearly complete in all its details. More importantly, he has managed to write it in a way that is highly readable.

More [and less] than the title implies.......2005-10-27

This is a beautiful and well written book, unfortunately the title is a bit misleading. It not only discusses selecting, building and managing your wine collection, but also spends a great deal of time [most of the book actually] on such things as the aroma wheel, picking your wines, etc. If you're already an enthusiast looking for a 'how to' book, you might want to look elsewhere.

For the serious wine collector.......2003-11-14

Cellaring Wine: Managing Your Wine Collection...To Perfection by Jeff Cox (Contributing Editor to"The Wine News" and Senior editor of"Global Vintage Quarterly") is a practical and authoritative "how-to" guidebook for the serious wine collector who cares about storing premium wines under the best possible conditions. Individual chapters deftly address the basics of how wine ages; selecting vintages of wine to store; how to construct and equip a wine cellar; record keeping; evaluating fine wines, and more. A thoughtful, easy-to-follow, and explicit guide Cellaring Wine is confidently recommended for dedicated and aspiring wine connoisseurs.

cellaring wine is indeed good.......2003-10-08

OK, it's refreshing to take the seriousness out of wine and show everybody that it's for their occasion. Putting all seriousness aside, though, wine is serious. If your willing to go out and buy and then read a book about it, then it's serious. Now this doesn't mean you should be afraid, it simply means wine is something worth experiencing and your more than eager. go for it, read this book, and more importantly drink the wine. If you, like me, are already past GO then don't slow down for this book. Read this book without expectations of rising to connoisership and read it before your glass gets half full.

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