Is a guide a book? If he puts the wine in your mouth and offers an expertise that you may not have … why not! This is the case of Wine guide 2022 by Nadia Fournier (Les éditions de L’Homme), which is in its 41ste delivery this year. Well, Nadia, everyone knows her, because she loves wine, drinks it, talks about it with as much assurance as conviction, without lying in the least. This is what the reader wants from her. And this is what she delivers in this “light” guide, the graphics of which have been revised – although I regret the withdrawal of the wine region maps -, making it easier to read.
With The little Larousse of wines (Larousse), it is nearly 1000 pages of which France alone holds about 40% of the content. Normal, isn’t the Hexagon the cradle of the best wines on the planet? In my own book, yes. This book is a concentrate of everything: tasting courses, wine and food pairings, useful tips, regional descriptions by country, region and sub-region with suggestions from good producers who are affiliated to it and color maps of the vineyard. Note to the editor: it is time to refresh the section devoted to Quebec wines (page 805) – there is still mention of the late Victor Dietrich! -, a chapter which seems to ignore the meteoric boom in viticulture here over the past five years!
Imagine, you spend a little more than a quarter of your year with, every day, a new proposition in your glass, whether it is wine, cider, brandy, beer or a liqueur … me , I say that life is good, and above all rich in discoveries! You will always have 285 days left to deepen the type of product that titillates and capsizes you with this Around the world in 80 glasses (Marabout), especially since the proposal is clever. A targeted concentrate of useful information (origin, history, statistics, tasting, etc.) supported by precise and colorful mapping. During your next social cocktail, you will be able to educate your peers on the famous Sodabi that the smartest will find on page 124!
The third edition bringing together 31 speakers during the very recent virtual meeting “Let’s taste climate change” – Tasting Climate Change -, conceived and led by sommelier Michelle Bouffard, naturally paves the way for the publication of the book What wine for tomorrow? : Wine facing climate challenges (Dunod) that the latter writes with the authors Jeremy Cukierman and Hervé Quénol. If the event brought together a very enviable expertise in climatology, viticulture and others, it allows a scholarly and very well documented update aimed at educating what is happening on the ground and what awaits us. Not a pleasant one, the situation, it is true, but an essential book for those interested in what they drink today and what they will drink tomorrow.
Does Champagne wine light up that little diamond lodged in your wide-eyed pupils? This is exactly what the gaze of my partner, Lesley, sends me back when the magic of the bubbles happens! Without doubt, this is also what the champenoises Maggie Henriquez, Chantal Gonet, Alice Paillard, Evelyne Boizel, Delphine Cazals, Anne Malassagne, Mélanie Tarlant, Charline Drappier and Vitalie Taittinger want to share in the imposing book Champagne (La Maison), whose weight (three kilos) is inversely proportional to the extreme lightness of the billions of bubbles released for the occasion. We speak of course of the great lords of Reims and Épernay, but above all of champagne as a gastronomic wine with, at the end of the day, succulent recipes to transcend it. Because champagne is above all a wine, a great wine, the only one certainly capable of liquefying in the eyes of ladies to make eternity shine.
Finally, it is not new in bookstores, but I revisit and always savor the Bordeaux guide (Gallimard), by British author Oz Clarke, happily. Because of his learned pen, but above all tongue-in-cheek on his own Bordeaux experiences. A personal approach that lists, classifies and talks about all these castles with which the United Kingdom has become infatuated for centuries. A reference.