Shiz just got very real, folks!
My new book, Wine Taster’s Guide: Drink and Learn with 30 Wine Tastings, is now officially available for pre-order ($14.99 for the paperback)! Shipping and whatnot begins on July 21, 2020.
The Guide is the main course meal to the Wine Taster’s Journal starter (the handy, portable companion which gets released on July 7, 2020). I’m pretty stoked, and for some time will likely insist that people address me as “Published Author Joe Roberts,” at least until I calm down (it could be a while).
FWIW, I really dig the cover design and how both books’ designs compliment one another (not to mention how well they capture the incredible, thirst-inducing shades of the wines). I, of course, had nothing directly to do with any of that.
Anyway… there is so much that I want to tell you about the inception and creation of this book… and I will be getting to that soon in a follow-up post or two here on 1WD. For now, I’ll share the PR-styling intro that Rockridge Press put together for the release…
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Holy crap!!!
I am tickled pinker than a Côtes de Provence rosé to tell you that the first of my two (yeah, two) upcoming books is now available for pre-order, to be released on July 7, 2020!
For reasons that will be obvious from the title, Wine Taster’s Journal: Drink, Rate, Record, and Remember by yours truly is being released in portable paperback form for $10.99.
This little gem is meant to accompany you during your wine tasting, and now competes with something like 10,457,632 different wine journals currently on the market. Mine, of course, is better than all of those because you know me, right? Right?!??
Anyway…
This first release is part of a duo, an amuse bouche to the 1WD book main course: Wine Taster’s Guide: Drink and Learn with 30 Wine Tastings which will also be available for pre-order shortly (more on that soon)…
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I taste a bunch-o-wine (technical term for more than most people). So each week, I share some of my wine reviews (mostly from samples) and tasting notes in a “mini-review” format.
They are meant to be quirky, fun, and (mostly) easily-digestible reviews of (mostly) currently available wines (click here for the skinny on how to read them), and are presented links to help you find them, so that you can try them out for yourself. Cheers!
- 2018 Whitehaven Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough): Perky, pungent, pushing the exotic fruits, and getting right to the point about it. $20 B+
- 2015 Neyen Espiritu de Apalta (Colchagua Valley): Dark, supple, meaty, spicy, and more alluring than most centerfolds. $68 A-
- NV Henriot Blanc de Blancs Brut (Champagne): Pucker the hell up, punk! $59 A-
- 2018 Opolo Vineyards Viognier (Central Coast): A phalanx of peachy richness, with no prisoners taken. $26 B+
- 2019 Bonny Doon Vineyard Le Cigare Blanc (Central Coast): The new path appears to be – more floral, less serious, & still delicious. $20 B+
- 2019 Bonny Doon Vineyard Picpoul (Arroyo Seco): About as zesty – and as pleasant – as they come. $15 B+
- ZD Wines 50th Anniversary Cuvee Blanc de Blancs Brut (Napa Valley): Yeast, brioche, baked yellow apple… prepare to spend a good long while unpacking this one. $90 A-
- 2017 Pope Valley Winery Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley): Textured, tangy, taught, and terrifically easy to get your head around. $42 A-
- 2016 Gundlach-Bundschu Estate Vineyard Merlot (Sonoma Valley): Woodsy, but in all of the super-fun ways. $35 B+
- 2017 Tongue Dancer Wines “The Sly One” Pinot Noir (Sonoma Coast): Also ‘The Young One,’ just barely revealing its wonderfulness for now… $59 A-
In this edition of our sipping during the time of SIP (Samples In Progress, during Shelter In Place), we’re setting the Wayback machine for 2004, 2007, 2010, and 2016, as we go back in time and into the samples pool with Napa Valley’s perennially misunderstood Hesperian Wines.
I was provided this in-home vertical tasting opportunity because Hesperian had been following my lockdown advice for wineries even before I made it, offering specials/discounts on direct sales of their library wines to loyal customers.
Hesperian is the labor of love of Philippe Langner, who turned his love of wine into a stint at Château Clarke in Bordeaux, and then turned that experience towards winegrowing primarily in the Kitoko Vineyard on Napa Valley’s Atlas Peak. For just over fifteen years, Langner has been gaining some devoted fans while simultaneously sometimes pissing off wine critics with his small-batch (typically under 300 cases) production of premium Cab.
Did he piss off this critic? Well… read on…
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