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The
Wine Club: A Month-by-Month Guide To Learning About Wine
With Friends
by Maureen Petrosky
Meredith
Books, 2005
List
Price: $17.95
Amazon
Price: $12.21
Review
by Jennifer Sader
I love a glass of wine with dinner. The right choice can
make even a simple meal seem like a feast. But wine connoisseurs
seem to have a language all their own, with all the fancy
talk about "nose," and "legs," and "bite." The
sense that wine is some kind of mysterious creature that
requires special care may be why many Americans haven't
embraced wine the way they have light beer.
Maureen
Christian Petrosky wants to change all that with The
Wine Club. She explains in her introduction that
she believes, like Heather Locklear, "that women only go
to book clubs for the wine." Petrosky proposes that instead
of discussing the works of Jane Austen, friends get together
to learn about and appreciate good wines. Each club member
brings or contributes toward a bottle as assigned in the
chapter for that month. The cost will be about $20 per member
per month, with the host spending a bit more to supply food
and tableware. Considering the cost of paperbacks, a wine
club may not be much more expensive to join than a book
club.
To
help club members expand their wine knowledge, Petrosky
provides a different wine theme for each month's chapter;
either a specific varietal (a wine made from a particular
grape) like Chardonnay or Viognier, or a style of wines
such as champagne or dessert wines. Petrosky matches the
mood of the wine to the season. Starting off the year with
festive sparkling wines, this pied piper guides us to "edge
out winter" sipping spicy syrahs, marches us into "picnic
and porch singin' June" with Rieslings and lures us
to set aside Pinot phobias in November. Each chapter gives
plenty of information on the starring wine and its subtleties.
Petrosky explains how regions and vintages affect the finished
wine. She helps readers understand what "wine geeks" mean
when they talk about smelling aromas like "blackberry,"
"citrus," or even "wet hay" in wine.
Each
month, Petrosky provides a list of four or five picks for
the month and one "ringer," a wine that is not of the same
crowd as the other picks, but highlights some important
difference. For example, in January, the month for bubblies,
she suggests a non-alcoholic sparkling grape juice for the
ringer, so guests can "see what alcohol contributes (besides
a buzz!) to wine." Petrosky suggests a price range for each
pick. Each month she also gives a "Mona Lisa" example, a
wine that is the cream of its crop, and a "Salvador Dali,"
a funky offbeat choice. She also gives a "Bang for the Buck"
example that is a particularly good value.
In
case you haven't already guessed, this is no stuffy wine
manual. Petrosky discusses wines in down-to-earth language
and decodes the lingo of the wine snobs for mortals like
me. She takes the mystery out of food-and-wine pairings
and has fun with each month's recipes, going beyond the
usual cheese and crackers with suggestions like cookout
food, including s'mores, to complement Zinfandel. Hosts
who are gourmet cooks can whip up Basil Ice Cream and Spinach,
Tomato, and Roasted Garlic Bouchée to go with their
Cabernets, while kitchen klutzes can provide spicy hummus,
pita chips, and a box of chocolates.
Though
sometimes she tries too hard not to be pretentious favoring
cutesy descriptors like "yummy" and "awesome," Petrosky
does a great job of demystifying wine lore. Even if you
and your friends aren't up for a wine-of-the-month club,
this book is a great resource. You could choose a chapter
and throw a one-time themed tasting, or just read through
it so you know what kind of wine to buy for your next pizza
party.
After
reading it, I spent about half an hour in the wine aisle
at my local grocery store, just looking at labels. Cooking
Thin fans will drool at the creative and fun recipes
and rich descriptions of the wine. Readers should feel inspired
to take their first steps into the world of wine or expand
their knowledge. Since Mireille Guiliano cited a love of
fine wine as a major reason that French
Women Don't Get Fat, CT-ers may just find that a
glass of the good stuff makes even a light meal satisfying.
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