OK, so Dude is waaaaaaaaaaaaay late in giving this event props and publicity blogging love… But in the case of love, later is always better than never (that’s what I always say anyway – and I come from a fine, distinguished, and long line of justifiers!).

The on-line Wine Book Club has been launched earlier this month, with the first edition being hosted over at McDuff’s Food & Wine Trail. I met David McDuff recently at Moore Brothers and I can tell you from first-hand experience that the guy has serious wine smarties, especially when it comes to boutique Italian, German, French, and Austrian wineries. So by the Dude’s standards, David seems like a splendid choice to get the wine book club ball a’rolling.

The first wine book that will be reviewed by the Wine Club is Vino Italiano: The Regional Wines of Italy by Joseph Bastianich & David Lynch.

No, not that David Lynch!…


This David Lynch is the beverage director over at NYC’s celebrated restaurant Babbo. Also, I’m pretty sure that there aren’t any bizarre dream sequences in this book… or hot naked shots of Naomi Watts either… at least, not that I’ve come across so far in my reading (but a Dude can hope…!). And if you wanna peruse glossies of Naomi Watts naked (meaning she was naked in the pics, not you naked while perusing them), that’s probably best done while learning about Aussie wines. Not that the Dude spent any appreciable time considering it. Or for that matter searching the Internet for erotic-but-still-tasteful photos of Namoi Watts for this post. At least, not too much time.

Er, uhm, was I saying something about a book??

Anyway, this mighty tome on Italian vino (which also features Italian wine region recipes by Mario Batali, by the way) looks intimidating at first glance, but it’s actually a very quick read – and there is still more than enough time for you to pick up a copy, join the book club love over at shelfari.com, and contribute to the reviews (due date is Feb. 26). Future events may be coordinated from a new website devoted to the book club – so watch this space.

Cheers – and happy reading!