Vinegar Aged Red Wine 16.75oz

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Customer Review: Does its job

Only book of its type, as far as I know. Went on a wine tasting trip to Priorat, Montsant, and Penedes with my father, and found this guide invaluable. It was practically the only source of information we had when we set out, and it gave us plenty of info for a perfect 4 days of wine tasting. Simple things, like hotels, generally efficient routes through the regions, restaurants, etc., would have been dramatically more difficult to plan without this guide. For what it's worth, she's absolutely right about the tourism office in Falset, they have a giant map of the Montsant and Priorat regions that supplements this book perfectly.

If I have any complaint, it's that she's very liberal in her praise. She is unlikely to tell you when a given winery, much less a region, isn't very good. But so what? The purpose of this guide is to give you enough information to be able to go there and make your own judgments.

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This is a traditional Greek red-wine vinegar that is used in many salads and Greek dishes. Use this vinegar to add rich flavor to many foods. Greece

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The Food and Wine Lover s Companion to Tuscany, originally published in 1996, was one of the first guidebooks to focus exclusively on the traditional foods and local wines of this region-the most traveled-to area of Italy. This essential guide, now completely revised and incorporating over 40 new entries, is still the only book anyone needs to find the little-known shops, markets, festivals, and wineries that capture the spirit of Tuscany. Author Carla Capalbo, who makes her home in the region, passes on her extensive knowledge of Tuscan foods and wine, exploring each town, village, and quaint back road. No one considering a trip to Tuscany should leave home without this book.

Customer Review: from the author

I wrote this book, and would like prospective buyers to know that hundreds of people have written to me to say how much they have used and appreciated it when travelling to Tuscany. I'm glad, as it took three full years to write the first edition, and another 8 months to revise it, living on the road all around Tuscany as I did the research. Revising doesn't mean rewriting every entry: it means checking to see how things are after 2 years. If things have remained unchanged, I don't need to rewrite the entry from scratch. I also added 80 new places - my publishers wouldn't allow more - and removed others that had either closed or become less interesting.
The focus of my work is to write about the artisan food and wine makers that Italy is so rich in -- about their lives and products -- and to help travellers to find them. Necessarily many of these dedicated and hard-working people live in out-of-the-way places. That makes finding them more difficult, but makes the visiting more interesting, as it takes us to all corners of this wonderful region.
The Food and Wine Lover's Companion to Tuscany was shortlisted for Food Book of the Year in the UK. I have recently also published The Food and Wine Guide to Naples and Campania, fruit of three more years living and working in this fascinating southern region. I hope you will enjoy them!
Carla Capalbo

Customer Review: Not much new, four years later?

Carla Capaldo has updated her book originally published in 1998, giving readers a "New, Updated Version" with over forty new entries. That's an average of ten a year, which seems a bit light to my mind. Her book-- regardless of the edition-- is a mix of restaurant recommendations, leads to wineries and enoteca, cheese shops, and also fattoria (farms) that offer such goods as olive oil, honey, etc. All well and good, but unless you are travelling all around Tuscany, over 95% of this book will be of little use. That said, much of its value will be as armchair reading-- and here too, I have some problems, particularly with her organization. As might be expected, the entries are organized geographically-- but by a system that most readers will find baffling. For instance, San Gimignano appears in the section on Siena (it is in Siena Province) while its neighbor fifteen miles away, Volterra, appears in the same section with Pisa, many miles to the north. But many of the villages in the province of Florence, such as Panzano, Radda, and Greve have their own section-- Chianti Classico. If it stopped there, one might eventually be able to discern what is where, but alas, the Index also compounds the confusion by listing entries alphabetically and then by offering, so we have Beekeepers, Bakeries, Candymakers, Chocolate Makers, Pastries, Biscuits, and Cakes, and Pastry Makers and Shops. Pity the person who is trying to recall where he/she had a nice pastry and coffee, followed by a gelato and perhaps a candy for the child! Another cavil-- in the '98 edition, one entry includes this sentence: "By the time you visit,...may have completed their extension: the 'little shop' will be enlarged to add a tasting room 'for friends." That same sentence, verbatim, is also in the 2002 edition. Granted, renovations can take a little while in Italy, but I strongly suspect that the author simply neglected to revisit the shop in question, and revise her book accordingly! If you are ONLY going to Tuscany, then this book may be of some use. If your travel plans include other regions of Italy (and they should), Faith Heller Willinger's "Eating in Italy" is far superior (though older) and there are several superior guides for serious enophiles.

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One of the most respected professionals in the wine industry-Ron Jackson, author of Wine Science (now in its second edition)- covers all practical and theoretical aspects of wine tasting in his new book. It details the basic techniques used by professionals to sense all visual, gustatory, and olfactory wine properties (sight, taste, and smell). It also describes the physiologic, psychologic, and physicochemical origins of sensory perception and discusses wine types to illustrate the characteristic features that distinguish the majority of wines.

A large portion of the book is dedicated to the practical concerns of preparing and performing wine assessments. Readers are instructed in how to differentiate between the various types of wine tastings (each requiring its own design, tasting sheets, training, skill measurement, and analysis). Included is a general overview of the types and sources of wine quality and how wine is most appropriately paired with food. Special features include a flow chart of wine tasting steps, details of errors to avoid, procedures for training and testing sensory skills, sample tasting sheets, original data from 14+ years of training tasters, and numerous tables, charts, and figures.

Key Features
* Modern treatment of all relevant data relative to wine tasting, both professional and personal
* Separates the practical and more technical and theoretical aspects of wine tasting, allowing easy access to people of different interests
* Stresses the explanation and significance of each step in the tasting process, as well as errors to be avoided
* Outlines procedure in the training and testing of sensory skill (professional and personal)
Presents sample tastings designed to teach tasters specific varietal, regional and stylistic types of wines
* Provides examples of tasting results and means for analysis
* Discusses the evolution of cuisine and wines association with food
* Outlines the diversity of wines and the sensory experiences expected with each
* Outlines the nature and origins of wine quality

Illustrative Material:
* Flow Chart of Wine Tasting Steps
* Examples of Tasting Sheets: Hedonic (hierarchy and numerical ranking), Wine Appreciation (blank and complete examples), Quality assessment (general, sparkling, artistic ranking), Sensory Analysis (quality and aroma specific)
* Fragrance Chart (with colored icons)
* Off-odor Chart (with colored icons)
* Color transparency representing standardized wine color terms)
* Color illustrations representing the appearance of wines of different ages
* Warming-cooling chart for bottles of wine (air and ice water)
* Table of aroma descriptors for the major grape varieties (red and white)
* Chart of the warming rate of wine in a glass
* Figure showing the influence of alcohol content on 'tears' formation
* Taster variability to the major tastant and odorants in wine

Customer Review: Wine tasting for the advanced wine taster

An amazing work which should be praised to the heavens by those advanced wine tasters who want to better understand what it is they're seeing, smelling, tasting and feeling. And why. Not a book for beginners, this is a carefully structured work of high calibre, right up there with the other landmark winetasting works by Amerine, Baldy, Broadbent, Noble and Peynaud. Every serious wine library should have a copy.

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Product of Slovenia.

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"Echikson's understanding and explanation of how the business works...is fascinating and easy to swallow."—Michael Philips, Wall Street Journal

For wine lovers the world over, Bordeaux is the center of the universe. But in the past two decades, revolutionaries have stormed its traditional bastions, making their mark—and their fortunes—modernizing the production and marketing of wine.

Noble Rot introduces us to the figures who epitomize the changes sweeping Bordeaux—the noble family behind Château d'Yquem; a stonemason turned winemaker whose wine, made in a garage, sells for $100 a bottle; the Maryland-based critic Robert Parker, whose opinion routinely makes or breaks a wine; the New World operations that have used branding to undercut Bordeaux's supremacy—and delves into the mysteries of the legendary classification of 1855. 23 illustrations.

Customer Review: Biased yet engaging read

Revolving and rotating around the issues and people surrounding the great wine producing area of Bordeaux, Echikson's Noble Rot creates a non-linear history seemingly centered on the great Chateau d'Yquem and the vintages clustered around the year 2000. There is a smattering of pre 19th century history throughout the book - but likely because of the book's jumbled narrative, fails to give the reader an adequate idea of why certain peoples and ideas were truly shocking to the region.

Similar to the wine movie Mondovino (Directed by Johnathan Nossiter), Echikson introduces us to characters in the wine making world, in this case Bordeaux, who drive the narrative forward. However, perhaps because of the people he chooses, or simply because of his own bias, Echikson is quick to villify producers who are critical of the 'wine revolution' and lionize those who are decidely pro-american and what winos would call 'modern' winemakers. The bias turns up over and over again, and I was nauseated by his unabashed vindications.

Patriotic, or perhaps taste preferences aside, the book was highly engaging despite the flaws, telling the story of Bordeaux's recent history through a mixture of gossip, biography, and pure academic research. Easy to read by wine-lovers and historians alike, the book's 280 some pages was a perfect, satiating length.

Customer Review: NOT QUITE SO NOBLE

The title 'Noble Rot' is misleading as the term relates to part of the process of making Sauternes, whereas the book covers Bordeaux wine as a whole and even goes outside its borders; what you see is not what you get.

However, William Echikson presents a refreshing viewpoint of a fascinating topic. Whether by stint of his experience he comes up to the standards set by better known authors on the subject, is a matter of conjecture; I take the view that he falls short.

Notwithstanding, the subject of Bordeaux as a city and as a region along with its wines presents magnetic attractions and each author puts a varying and interesting case as he sees it. good value at $17.22 plus shipping.

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Italy

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Customer Review: Not One Wasted Page

This book is filled-brimming with knowledge, page after page, and not one page is wasteful!
Filled with lore,
Filled with recipes.
My God, filled with information I couldn't believe existed!
Do you know what a syllabub is?
I did, we have an original syllabub, one that actually survived the Civil War. This cookbook describes in detail what they were used for, and the greatest of recipes for syllabub-the milk and wine mix.

This book is a history book, listing TRUE History!

How our ancestors ticked, and why you have that inclination to go back to those old traditional ways, because you have it in your genes, you are a descendant of these tough and true-grit individuals that fought and survived the most brutal of wars.

This book will make you proud, you won't be inclined to ever loan it out, because even if you let grandma borrow it, it probably won't be returned.

I forewarned you- don't loan it out!

Keep it, read it, and if tempted, just buy another one to loan, it's worth the price paid. Hurry now, before they read this review and decide to raise the cost! (too bad I couldn't make that smaller print)

Customer Review: Fabulous Food Folklore

Dabney captures the culinary culture of the Appalachians. Wonderful anecdotes and reminiscing carry the reader along. The Michie Tavern Apple Cobbler recipe is excellent (Almost like dining there again!). There is a factual error relating to Kentucky Burgoo. Dabney writes that this was first introduced to Kentucky by Col. Jaubert in 1810. Jaubert wasn't born until about 1840 according to census records and his grave marker. This error was no fault of the writer, though. Marion Flexner's 'Out of Kentucky Kitchens', which was sourced, also includes this error.

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