Here we are again… and by “we” I mean “me,” waxing not-so-poetic about some of the samples that I receive that cannot be imbibed (at least, not without the use of a blender and several thousand dollars in resultant medical bills).
This month, I’ve got two items to recommend, though I do so with slight reservations.
image: amazon.com
First up, there’s the recently-released 3rd Edition of The Complete Bordeaux: The Wines, The Chateaux, The People (Mitchell Beazley, $75) by the venerable Brit Stephen Brook. Brook (with whom I’ve judged in wine competitions) has thirty-five years of writing experience – and about the same number of published books – to his credit, and if one reads carefully through The Complete Bordeaux, one will be able to tell that he is a master of the English language. At first, his writing style might seem downright reticent; it’s certainly restrained. But as the paragraphs unfold in pages of the detailed profiles of pretty much anything that is of vinous significance in Bordeaux, you come away with the sense that Brook has mastered his subject, and is presenting it in the most concisely efficient prose possible. It helps that he has coverage of the topic that is both wide and deep; Brook has tasted back vintages of just about every Bordeaux house that has ever mattered.
If The Complete Bordeaux suffers from anything, it’s a relative lack of photographs and detailed maps for a tome of this size (over 700 pages) and price. It also suffers from a wine market in which Bordeaux has arguably never been less relevant, at least when it comes to a now-prevalent younger generation of drinkers. That’s hardly Brook’s fault, of course; so if you’re a Bordeaux lover, this is as comprehensive and as valuable a reference as you are likely to find…
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