Customer Review: Must-Buy for Dessert Food & Wine Lovers

My wife and I love food and wine pairing. This book gives the reader extensive information on one aspect of this food and wine marriage -- desserts. We cellar a wide variety of dessert wines at home. This book impresses us to discover exquisite food pairings to these nectars. For dessert-wine lovers -- this is your book.

Click For More Details

Fat Bastard Chardonnay, Lazy Lizard Shiraz, White Trash White.

These three wines—and more than 100 others—can be found in Marilyn Merlot and the Naked Grape, a celebration of the oddest wines in the world. Some have strange names, like Cat's Pee on a Gooseberry Bush. Others have bizarre artwork, like the Magritte-inspired UFO invasion. Still others have unusual production features (Braille typography, heat-sensitive inks, lenticular art, and more).

Along with brilliant reproductions of the original labels, we'll feature brief stories about the origins of the wines, plus tasting notes from the author. Readers will learn about unusual vineyards (like Cleavage Creek, which donates its proceeds to breast cancer research) as well as the most innovative artists working in the wine label medium. Finally, there's an appendix of resources that will help you buy these wines—so you can try them for yourself!

Customer Review: A charming introduction to the world of wine label collecting.

Peter May chose this collection of wine labels with humor and with deep knowledge of wines from different parts of the world.

Peter's website is an excellent resource for anyone interested in the subject. He is constantly adding to the collection, and has a number of references to other collections of wine labels. winelabels.org

This is a fun book to spice up those quiet moments.

Customer Review: Labels as enjoyable as wine

This is an amusing book which should bring smiles to winelovers, graphic designers and those with a taste for the unusual and quirky. Many of the labels are striking in their originality, others recall sixth-grade humor and bad puns and some actually relate to the wine inside the bottle. The text is informative.

Click For More Details

Wine tourism is a rapidly growing field of industry and academic interest with changes in the consumer markets in recent years, showing an enormous interest in 'experiential' travel. Wine Tourism Around the World is therefore an invaluable text for both students and practitioners alike and provides:

* The first comprehensive introduction to wine tourism from a business, social science and policy perspective
* An international perspective on wine tourism and includes detailed examples from Australia, Canada, France, Greece, Hungary, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, UK and the USA
* Detailed information on the growth and development of wine tourism from both supply, demand, marketing and management perspectives

Academic researchers and students in tourism and hospitality fields, as well as anyone connected with the wine industry, will find this book an essential guide to understanding the global impacts of wine tourism and the consequent economic, social and environmental impacts and opportunities.

C.Michael Hall is based at the University of Otago in New Zealand and is Visiting Professor in the School of Leisure and Food Management, Sheffield Hallam University. He has written widely on wine, food and rural tourism and has a major interest in cool-climate wine tourism.

Liz Sharples is a lecturer in the School of Leisure and Food Management, Sheffield Hallam University. She has extensive practical and academic experience in the hospitality industry and has major research interests in the interrelationships between cuisine, tourism and rural production.

Brock Cambourne is the owner/operator of multiple tourism award winning National Capital Wine Tours and principal of Benchmark Tourism Consulting. He has researched and published extensively on wine and culinary tourism and is a member of the Australian National Wine Tourism Working Party.

Niki Macionis is a lecturer at the University of Canberra's Cooperative Research Centre for Sustainable Tourism. Her graduate studies focussed on the development of wine tourism and she has researched and published extensively on wine and culinary tourism.

the first comprehensive introduction to wine tourism from a business and social science perspective
an international perspective on wine tourism including examples from around the world
detailed examination of the growth and development of wine tourism from both supply and demand perspectives

Customer Review: Lack of integration lets potentially useful book down

The editors make a great case for the development of wine tourism strategies at the winery, industry, regional and country level. In the introduction the authors note the importance of wine tourism for increasing consumer exposure to wine, building brand awareness, increased margins, a source of marketing intelligence and providing a means of educating consumers about wine. The authors also highlight the role of wine related tourism has played in introducing new consumers to `Old' and `New' world wine regions, and also note its role in building (or re-building) regional identity in Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean. This last point is particularly important given the recent findings by Areni, Duhan, and Keicker (1999) who found that an unknown or poorly viewed region could not effectively market itself using traditional point-of-sale or advertising strategies. The authors of the book provide a way out for a new or struggling wine region by arguing that wine tourism may provide a means by which consumers can reduce the risk of purchasing an unknown wine. Importantly, they note that the production of quality wine is still critical in winning over the consumer and that tourism activities will not provide a panacea for regions with unknown or poor reputations. The book's greatest asset (and weakness) is it diversity. Combining the experiences of researchers from Australia, Canada, England, France, New Zealand, South Africa and the USA, the reader is treated to a global overview of wine tourism and the approaches different regions and countries have taken to developing wine tourism strategies. From case studies of regions / countries such as Texas, Napa Valley, Australia, France, and South Africa, to broader topics such as consumer behavior, network development, policy issues and product development, the book provides the reader with an in-depth introduction to the field of wine tourism. Frochot's chapter on French wine tourism highlights the critical role of other tourism products such as history, environment, food, and culture and makes the important point that few people visit a wine region primarily or just to taste wine. Regions attract people by providing a range of experiences that add up to a `total service offering' (Gronroos, 1996). This chapter has implications for New World regions that may not be able to offer this level of experience. Dodd's chapter on increasing cellar door sales makes links with broader tourism and marketing literature in order to explain what influences cellar door visitors to purchase wine both during and after their visit. The strength of Dodd's approach is that by combining his own research with the wider literature to interpret his data. In doing so he highlights the importance of repeat visits, loyal customers and word-of-mouth referrals to a winery and region. The chapter by Hall et al on regional development argues for the development of networks between wineries, tourism organizations, and other tourism attractions such as food producers and local government. It is a pity that they did not explore the mechanisms by which these networks could be formed in more detail. Like Dodd and Frochot, the importance of relationship marketing strategies that highlight the need to form alliances in order to provide customers with a total experience is apparent (although not made by the authors). The authors make a case for government to become more proactive in forming networks and providing research and information to the wineries on the benefits of wine tourism. However, this idea needs a more critical approach. For example early on in the book the same authors note that government has played a relatively minor role in New Zealand (compared to Australia) yet New Zealand has developed a number of successful wine tourism routes. The Milawa gourmet food route in Australia was also developed without significant help from government. In this case the vision and drive of Brown Brothers CEO Ross Brown has seen it become a reality. Finally the chapter on New Zealand wine tourism provides a good analysis of the consumer profiles of New Zealand visitors, although it is a pity that these were not integrated more closely with the chapter by Dodd as well as literature on consumer behavior and marketing. Any book that contains a diverse range of chapters is always going to suffer from a lack of direction and cohesiveness. Whilst the diversity is a strength, it is also a weakness. The case studies are not fully integrated with the chapters on more general marketing and strategy issues (with the exception of Dodd), nor is the role of the cases made clear. The quality of the case studies also varies from the depth and integration of Dodd and Frochot to the less developed chapters on South Africa and a chapter on Vasse Felix that appears to be little more than an advertisement for the winery (although it had the potential to be so much more). The chapters also need to have a summary that highlights major points and lessons for practitioners. A final integrating chapter would also have been useful. Whilst the final chapter attempts to do so, I believe another chapter bringing together the various experiences around the world and drawing out key lessons would have been a valuable end to this book. The current structure suggests that the book is perhaps intended for an academic audience as opposed to a practitioner one (although I believe that this was not the intention). This book also suggests that the field is emerging as one worthy of study and as such it needs to find some direction. One way of doing this would be to integrate the findings with the general literature on wine marketing, services and relationship marketing, and business strategy. This approach would provide the authors with the means to integrate all their diverse data into a coherent whole that would highlight the importance of relationship marketing strategies in developing a sustainable and successful wine tourism strategy. Michael Beverland, Director Wine Business Research, Edith Cowan University, Australia

Click For More Details

The Vikings called North America "Vinland," the land of wine. Giovanni de Verrazzano, the Italian explorer who first described the grapes of the New World, was sure that "they would yield excellent wines." And when the English settlers found grapes growing so thickly that they covered the ground down to the very seashore, they concluded that "in all the world the like abundance is not to be found." Thus, from the very beginning the promise of America was, in part, the alluring promise of wine. How that promise was repeatedly baffled, how its realization was gradually begun, and how at last it has been triumphantly fulfilled is the story told in this book.
It is a story that touches on nearly every section of the United States and includes the whole range of American society from the founders to the latest immigrants. Germans in Pennsylvania, Swiss in Georgia, Minorcans in Florida, Italians in Arkansas, French in Kansas, Chinese in California--all contributed to the domestication of Bacchus in the New World. So too did innumerable individuals, institutions, and organizations. Prominent politicians, obscure farmers, eager amateurs, sober scientists: these and all the other kinds and conditions of American men and women figure in the story. The history of wine in America is, in many ways, the history of American origins and of American enterprise in microcosm.
While much of that history has been lost to sight, especially after Prohibition, the recovery of the record has been the goal of many investigators over the years, and the results are here brought together for the first time.
In print in its entirety for the first time, A History of Wine in America is the most comprehensive account of winemaking in the United States, from the Norse discovery of native grapes in 1001 A.D., through Prohibition, and up to the present expansion of winemaking in every state.

Click For More Details

Customer Review: What the Bible actually says about Wine!

Excellent book! Ever wonder why some preachers say alcohol is sinful and preach so forcefully against it? Why do they skip verses when wine or alcohol is mentioned positively in the Bible? Why not read all the verses in the context of the passage?

Answer: They have no Biblical basis for there stand against wine or alcohol in moderation. Perhaps it is easier for them to preach against the drink than the drunkard or drunkenness.

HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommended!

Customer Review: Best book on the subject of alcohol and believers I know

If you have questions on the subject of Christians and alcohol, get this book, it is excellent.

Click For More Details

Each book in this bestselling series, edited by Hugh Johnson, the world's foremost wine writer, offers a comprehensive and inspirational guide to traveling in one of the world's top wine regions. Evocative descriptions of wine routes are accompanied by detailed maps showing the route and surrounding vineyards. Each title also includes the author's recommendations for hotels, restaurants, and producers.

Customer Review: Not For the Detail Oriented!

Touring In Wine Country: Tuscany provides a richly illustrated overview for anyone considering a tour of the towns and vineyards of Tuscany. It is disappointing, however, in its lack of detail. It would be easier to navigate your way by following the author's narrative than by attempting to read the maps, which are almost completely useless. There are recommendations for shopping and restaurants, but this information also is quite condensed, written in small pale type, and rather vague as to price range. A far more useful book is A Traveller's Wine Guide To Italy, by Stephen Hobley.

Customer Review: Helpful guide for Tuscan food & wine touring

This is a very helpful book. We have similar guides in the series for Burgundy, Alsace and Rhone. I highly recommend them. Our experience in Italy is that wine tourism per se is much less formal than France, Germany and US. That means the traveller must be a lot more curious and self sufficient. Bring along a fullscale Michelin road atlas and be prepared to ask a lot of questions. Try to learn an little Italian. It goes a long way. People were uniformly friendly and went way out of their way to draw local maps, add add'l restaurants to your list and even call wine makers for tours (on your behalf). Wine makers (such as Tenuta dell'Ornellaia) who otherwise don't open their doors to the public. Buy the book if you plan to tour wine regions in Tuscany!

Click For More Details

Wine investing is not new, it has been going on for centuries. In more recent years (the last two centuries), government tax laws on alcoholic drinks have made buying wine a little more prohibitive to the investor who wants to keep them at home in his/her private cellar. Nevertheless, as usual, the market has found a way around this problem. You can avoid taxes and V.A.T. (Value Added Tax) by buying fine wine on Bond (also called wine Futures or En Primeur). This book covers a simple and effective way in which anybody coming into the fine wine investing market place can safely securely and successfully select, and invest in En Primeur Wine.

Customer Review: Don't waste your money!!!!!!

More than half this book is just advertising for the author's other products. Most of the rest of the book consists of some peculiar asset allocation theory (if you can even call it that) which has nothing to do with wine investing. There is a section with a bit of wine history and geography of Bordeaux. The section that actually deals with wine investing is small and fairly uninformative, definitely not worth the price of the book. The tidbit of tax information given is irrelevant for U.S. tax payers. Spend your money elsewhere!

Customer Review: I am a wine investor now ...

Hadn't really heard of wine investing before but as I have read and benefited from some of this authors books, I thought let me try. I got hold of bbr's notes and invested in 2004 Ch. Latour, 1er Cru Classé, 2004 Ch. Margaux, 1er Cru Classé, and 2004 Domaine de Chevalier Blanc, Grand Cru Classé, Pessac-Léognan. I cant believe how easy it was. Now I am a wine investor. Next year I will see if I make 15% to 20% returns. This book made investing in the best wines for the greatest returns easy enough for me to do.

Click For More Details

Click For More Details

Part cookbook, part travel journal, part wine guide, To the Heart of Spain takes readers on a delightful, often irreverent "knife, fork and wine glass" journey through the regions of Spain. From the dusty backroad bars of Extremadura, to the trendy restaurants of Madrid, to the sand beach horse races of Andalusia, to the wine cathedrals of Jerez, Ann and Larry Walker pursue the heart of Europe's most mysterious land through its cuisine and the remarkable characters who bring it to the table. To the Heart of Spain includes a complete Spanish cookbook section--from tapas to desserts--with more than 100 authoritative, kitchen-tested recipes; an inside view of the wineries and winemakers that have shaped a new era in Spanish wines; and thoughtful reflections on Spanish history and character of interest to travelers and armchair travelers.

An affectionate, first-hand portrait of the Spanish landscape and people, To the Heart of Spain captures the essence of a Spain overlooked by conventional touring guides.

Customer Review: Tasty stuff!

Using mostly descriptions (and a few of the recipes) from this book, I gave a very successful tapas/wine tasting party. Fortunately, the local liquor store had a number of wines from the bodegas mentioned in the book, and we had a blast comparing different grapes and regions. I also got one of the whites the book particularly recommends, and it was delicious. The food was probably the most unusual I have ever served at a party, and people got very excited about it. A very useful book!

Customer Review: local foods and local wines...yum.

This is not a typical guidebook with lists of where-tos and what-tos. The first 2/3 of the book is a gastronomic pilgrimage circling Spain. Ann and Larry don't attempt for example, to list every good restaurant and wine in Galicia. Instead there's a wonderful story about a quest to find the perfect Albarino (a local white wine grape)and the meals along the way. Somehow the story explains more about the nature of Celtic Spain than any other guidebook I've read. What was especially appealing is that Ann and Larry are not simply searching for the best restaurants or the greatest wine lists; rather their search is for the best of what the region grows. This is a major difference from a book structured on ranking establishments on some sort of scale that could be used in Toledo OH or in Toledo ES. What I want to see is Spain, and I think this book gave our trip a jumpstart.

Click For More Details

Click For More Details