Like it or not, the pandemic is going to force us to stay at home for at least a few more months. Luckily, in the northern hemisphere it's winter, it gets dark early and it's cold, so restrictions and lack of social interaction and human contact are always made more tolerable with a book, a warm blanket and a glass of good wine in hand.
We at Spanish Wine Lover have been practicing this mantra for some weeks now with publications that we have recently acquired or that have been brought to us by the generosity of Santa or the Three Wise Men. We have reviewed eight titles covering different genres, styles and sizes, published in Spanish and English, but all of them are focused on our favourite drink.
If you have read any of them, we encourage you to leave your opinion in the comments section at the end of this piece or on our social media pages. Happy reading!
Pedro Parra
Four Colour Print Group
ISBN: 978-1-889937-47-2
€53 at Vila Viniteca
This book captures the mood of reverence for terroir increasingly found among top producers worldwide. Author Pedro Parra incarnates a new type of consultant who is capable to draw a straight, accurate line between the rocks, where vines are deeply rooted, and the wine in our glasses. In his own words, he specializes in “micro terroir studies,” in which the “tasting of rocks” plays a leading role. As part of his work as terroir consultant, he has thoroughly studied the vineyards of Comando G in Gredos (central Spain) to which an entire chapter is devoted.
Terroir Footprints does not only provide an introduction to the philosophy and methodology developed by this Chilean expert over the last two decades following his PhD in terroir at the National Institute of Agronomy in Paris. It also covers his life experience, hopes, fears and even his frustrations.
The book acts as a sort of autobiography and travel book. Packed with personal accounts, profiles of producers, winemakers and wine professionals he has worked with, Terroir Footprints also includes frequent references to his other passions: films and especially music —each chapter commences with a mention to his favourite piece of jazz and musician. In between, of course, he writes about rocks, clay, granite, limestone..., the enormous complexity of terroirs and some distinctive plots of land that he has surveyed in depth. Wine lovers will also enjoy the description of the vineyards behind the wines they love to drink (or dream of drinking). The journey starts in Chile and Argentina and moves onto Europe and the great regions of Italy (Tuscany, Barolo), France (Burgundy) and the United States (Oregon).
A wine geek himself, Parra aptly manages to lighten up such a complex subject turning the book into a very enjoyable and informative read. For Terroir Footprints is not a technical or scientific work. Quite the contrary, Parra deals with the subject from his own, particular vision. "I have always believed that terroir should be approached from the heart and one’s own experience rather than from a scientific, rational point of view," he writes on the first chapter. And he adds later on: "I have always felt uncomfortable talking about rocks in their pure sense. I am not a geologist and I do not pretend to be one; that is not my thing. I am interested in the holistic system of rock, energy, plants, winemaking and wine —that, in fact, has been my job all these years." Holistic is a word that appears frequently in the book.
Other key ideas he suggests are that geology (rocks) is above the soil (topsoil) and that "rocks are stronger than grape varieties". Terroir Footprints is also a testimony of the evolution of top quality producers towards terroir: they strive to fully understand their vineyards and seek increasing precision in their wines.
Another beautiful story that gradually emerges in the book describes the evolution of Chilean wine in the 21st century and the leap in quality brought about by the shift from industrial to terroir-based viticulture. To get to that point involved the search for extreme areas, dry framing, growing vines on hillsides and recovering neglected grape varieties. The fact that Pedro Parra is a wine producer himself might explain his good rapport with winemakers. He makes wines in Itata, southern Chile, the archetype of remote region with precious granite soils that is living a true renaissance.
Parra also offers his view on Spanish terroirs: “Spain has great limestone sites, Spain has great granitic sites. Spain has great schist sites. The truth is that Spain has everything to stand face to face, wine by wine, next to France and Italy. Perhaps what Spain lacks is cold, humid, rainy climates. Spain is dry, Spain is warm and Spain will need to work hard to fight against climate change,” he writes.
The main obstacle to immerse oneself in Pedro Parra’s rocky world is the limited number of copies that have reach Spain: 150 in Spanish plus a handful in English.
Jordi Melendo
Edicions i Propostes Culturales Andana
ISBN: 978-84-16445-54-7
Language: Spanish
€23.75 at Casa del Libro
The fact that this guide is now in its fourth edition proves the growing interest for Champagne in Spain. With 4.4 million bottles imported in 2019, Spain is the ninth market for the iconic French region worldwide. The Guía Melendo del Champagne is the work of passionate, sparkling wine expert Jordi Melendo. He fell in love with bubbly during a school trip at the age of 14, when he visited a Cava producer in Sant Sadurní d'Anoia. From Cava he took on Champagne, a region where he travels regularly and which has become his great area of expertise over the last 20 years.
But far from being a purely personal guide, Melendo puts together a panel of over 30 wine professionals including sommeliers, winemakers, educators, journalists and communicators. They taste samples blind and reach a consensus on the final scores. He also invites them to leave their personal mark and mention their coup de coeur. Thus, readers will know that every champagne marked with a heart was the favourite of one of the members of the tasting panel.
Reviews are not limited to champagnes available in Spain, so producers who do not have an importer in the country can make themselves known. Some glaring absences that may surprise readers (such as LVMH group with top brands like Dom Pérignon and Krug, Louis Roederer or sought-after growers like Bérêche et Fils) are due to the fact that the absentees have a policy of not sending samples to blind tastings or because information that is deemed relevant is not provided.
In any case, the guide is very helpful to navigate through the growing selection of champagnes in the market in recent years, particularly after the arrival of grower champagnes. Key data about each producer is listed, such as their owned land under vine, their winegrowing approach and their total bottle production. As for the wines, grape varieties are stated. The current edition includes an additional section with reviews of 50 producers, all of whom are members of the Syndicat Général des Vignerons de la Champagne. As their wines were tasted exclusively by Jordi Melendo, scores are omitted to preserve the guide's philosophy.
With producers listed by regions (Montaigne de Reims, Vallée de la Marne, Côte des Blancs y Côte des Bar), we only miss an index listing them in alphabetical order to allow for a quick search. 3.000 copies have been printed and an online version is underway.
Bullipedia
ISBN: 978-84-09-23850-7
Language: Spanish (Wines Volume IV. Sommelier: wine in fine dining restaurants)
€ 63 at Vila Viniteca
With a foreword by Josep Roca, this was one of the most eagerly awaited volumes of the Sapiens del Vino series. How would sommelier Ferran Centelles and his team summarise all the experience and knowledge gained in the legendary restaurant El Bulli and during the years that followed working on the Bullipedia?
Their first achievement is to offer a holistic vision of a profession that is not officially certified in Spain and therefore not always clearly defined. To date, most of the literature published on the subject covers wine education, wine service and pairings (the latter two are fully described in the book). The skills, abilities and many other issues that sommeliers must master in their daily work were so far not covered.
The book also succeeds at organizing, explaining and systematizing all these elements with the help of graphics, diagrams and practical examples. The chapter dealing with all the steps needed to create, develop and manage a restaurant is a great example of this. So is the section about the character (personality) and professional expertise of a sommelier as it underlines the importance of knowing oneself and being aware of the different situations that a sommelier must deal with at work and with clients. It even includes an ethical code and a personality test.
The practical part is particularly accomplished. The chapter about selling wine at restaurants includes contributions by sommeliers from all over the word who reveal how they price the wines. This Volume IV features a wide diversity of business models, experiences and ways of being a sommelier thus adding relevance to the profession. There is a sad note however in the stories of restaurants like Zalacaín or Monvínic that permanently closed their doors due to the pandemic and the figure of Gerard Basset, the man who gained all the top titles in the wine business and passed away in 2019 (you can read a review of his autobiography further down).
For aspiring sommeliers or anyone involved in the management of a restaurant or a wine bar, this book is an excellent investment. It will help them to see their world from a broader, richer perspective. They will also find role models and dedicated professionals to look up to. One who is omnipresent on this book is the late Juli Soler, Ferran Adrià’s partner at El Bulli, who welcomes readers from page one with his witty sense of humour.
Gerard Basset
Unbound, ISBN 978-1-78352-8608.
€10.30 (Kindle) and €29 at Amazon
From un unhappy childhood in France to his battle against the cancer that ended his life in 2019 at the age of 62, Gerard Basset's life was a constant struggle to rise to the challenge and a demonstration that with effort and determination many things can be achieved in life.
In this autobiography, written when he was diagnosed and finished shortly before his death, Basset traces his life's journey in an entertaining manner filled with personal anecdotes. His love of football played an important role in his move to England in 1977, where he held all kinds of jobs in the hospitality industry until he discovered his passion for wine and sommelierie.
Basset recalls that as a young man he was often told that he was not going to get anywhere, but through work and study, he became a Master Sommelier and Master of Wine —the only person in the world to hold both degrees, as well as an MBA in wine— while developing his career as co-owner of the Hotels du Vin chain and then the TerraVina hotel.
Throughout the 200-plus pages of the book, Basset pays constant tribute to his wife, Nina, and to the sommeliers and professionals from all fields who helped him become Best Sommelier in the UK, Europe and finally the World, an award he won on his seventh attempt at the age of 52.
Although Basset had much to boast about, the book exudes humility, positive energy and no resentment, even when describing the difficult times he and his wife went through when they lost control of their hotel and the final stages of his life.
Hugh Johnson
Academie du Vin Library ISBN 9781913141066
£30 at Academie du Vin Library and €9.99 Amazon Kindle. Some second-hand copies of the Spanish edition can be found at La Casa del Libro (€199) or Todocolección (€125)
One of the most veteran and productive writers in the world of wine, Hugh Johnson first presented this book in 1989, although it was only translated into Spanish in 2005, in a second illustrated edition.
This third printing, published by Steven Spurrier's publishing house, maintains the initial texts and adds an introduction by Johnson himself as well as a foreword by historian Andrew Roberts, who rightly highlights Johnson's erudition and his skillfulness in telling the story in an accessible and entertaining way.
The book, distributed in five parts and 43 chapters, begins in the Caucasus, with Noah, Georgia and its qvevri (clay vessels) and continues with the pharaohs, Greece, Rome and the influence of Mohammed, "the man who was to have the most profound effect of any individual on the history of wine.”
The book spans over 400 pages of wine history, detailing its development in Europe —with several chapters on Spain— and in the New World, the devastation of phylloxera and the subsequent renaissance after the plague, and the general situation up until the end of the 20th century.
Written as an essay interweaving wine with religion, politics, trade, art, literature and humour, it is an entertaining and engaging read about a product that, as Johnson says, 'from being the daily drink of a handful of Mediterranean nations, and an exotic luxury to the rest of the world, it has become a subject of intense worldwide interest, competition and comparison; an industry comparable in some ways with fashion, with the great difference that its roots are in the earth'.
Ben Howkins
Academie du Vin Library ISBN 9781913141028
£25 at Academie du Vin Library
Written by a "wine merchant of the old school,” as Hugh Johnson describes his old friend Ben Howkins in the foreword (together they wrote called Eat, Drink and Be Sherry: The Stylish Renaissance of a Great Wine), the book, which is very much geared towards British readers, consists of 12 chapters with two clearly distinctive parts.
The first is unquestionably the most interesting. Although some of the information may be familiar to many enthusiasts —the origin of Sherry, soleras and wine styles, for example— Howkins presents it in an agile and fluid style that ensures that the reading of the just over 200 pages is both easy and entertaining. This is especially true in the chapter dedicated to the "scoundrel" José María Ruiz Mateos whom he describes as "a man who lost it all and, in doing so, was responsible for the devastating decline of this once great wine.”
In general, the book, also published by Steven Spurrier's publisher, is well documented, although, at least from my point of view, it is inevitable to be disappointed by the somewhat recurrent use of folklore images, especially of sultry-looking women in tight clothing.
Also startling are errors and oversights such as the photo caption of Pilar Pla and Carmen Borrego (El Maestro Sierra) sitting next to their winemaker Ana Cabestrero, whom Howard describes as "a friend", the attribution of the name "manzanilla" to chamomile tea or the statement that the wines of Montilla ("a poor man's sherry") are not aged in wooden butts but in stainless steel. Howard acknowledges a "new historical stage of sherry,” so it seems even more striking that Willy Pérez, Ramiro Ibáñez and the rest of the new breed of growers that have emerged in the region in recent years are not mentioned, or that the terroir-driven whites that aspire to become the new base of the pyramid for the region's wines are not worthy of notice.
The second part of the book is a mishmash of topics, sometimes featuring interesting anecdotes. They range from horses and bulls, vinegar and vermouth, tapas and sherry cocktails to the presence or mention of sherry wines in films and songs. Before a brief glossary, the book gathers the words of producers, Masters of Wine, critics and trade and hospitality professionals, mostly British, praising the virtues of sherry.
Dan Keeling and Mark Andrew
Quadrille ISBN 9781787132719
£30 + postage at Noble Rot
Anyone who has browsed theNoble Rot magazine or visited one of the two eponymous restaurants in London will recognize the retro-modern and refreshing design of this book, with its glossy hardcover and impeccable layout, which condenses in its 350 pages the background, opinions and travels of the two authors, who met thanks to their mutual love of wine. Neither of them had any previous experience in publishing or restaurants —Dan Keeeling was the director of the record company Island Records and Mark Andrew worked at the wine shop next door— but armed with a healthy amount of passion, courage and good contacts they launched themselves into this very successful adventure. Along the way they achieved prestigious awards for their articles (Keeling) and the Master of Wine qualification (Andrew).
The book, quite different in style and substance from most other wine publications, contains two parts. The first is an entertaining, illustrated practical guide on a variety of subjects such as wine service, noble grape varieties, top wine lists —with deserved praise for Elkano, Kaia-Kaipe, Ganbara in San Sebastian and Villa Mas in Sant Feliu de Guíxols— or the irreverent and alternative wine aroma wheel.
The second begins with a piece on La Dive Bouteille —the Loire wine fair where many of us wine buffs want to go at least once in our lifetime— and continues with a collection of lively and stimulating features describing the authors' visits to their favourite producers and places in Europe —including Rioja, Gredos, Penedès, Tenerife and Ribeira Sacra. Some of them are shorter versions of the articles in the Noble Rot magazine so this part of the book might feel a bit repetitive if you are a subscriber.
Before the brief final glossary and a page with the highly original covers of all the Noble Rot magazines published so far, Keeling and Andrew, who claim at one point in the book that "numerical scores are for wine accountants", list their favourite areas, restaurants and wines. France wins by a landslide, but some Spanish names also slip through the ranks, such as Suertes del Marqués, Envínate, Cota 45 and, of course, López de Heredia.
Peter Stafford-Bow
Acorn ISBN 9781911079354
€12.50 at Amazon
Our last review is a satirical novel, the first of a trilogy, whose language and content may offend more than one reader. We confirm this, but it's the author who warns us on the first page of the book: "the consumption of alcohol significantly in excess of government guidelines, references to sexual activity (both conventional and non-conventional), the casual use of and befuddlement by illegal drugs, contempt for all norms of ethics and decency, blasphemy and some vomiting".
It is penned by Peter Stafford-Bow, the nom de plume of a person who seems to be well acquainted with the wine industry and who displays a scathing and rather irreverent wit when it comes to chronicling the adventures of his protagonist, Felix Hart, an orphan who gets a job in a wine shop after being expelled from a posh school.
Armed with a cheeky attitude, deceit, a positive attitude, good manners and the help of a mysterious psychotropic substance, the young Hart embarks on a career as a wine buyer, which takes him to travel around different countries and meet all kinds of farcical characters. Everything and everyone in the world of wine is subjected to Stafford-Bow's satire: independent shops, supermarkets, bosses, hippie and posh colleagues and flatmates, journalists, masters of wine (in the book, minstrels of wine), producers, blind tastings and biodynamic and natural wines (there's an English one called Cuvée Placenta).
So many mentions of the protagonist's sexual prowess may have you thinking of Lou Bega's Mambo No. 5, but the truth is that Corkscrew is a fun book, perfect to pass the time and to laugh at some of the situations Hart gets into. These are obviously outlandish —it's only fiction— but will sound familiar to many professionals or insiders in the wine industry. The second volume, called Brut Force, continues with the exaggerated and somewhat puerile adventures of Hart but I must admit that it still has its moments of brilliant humour. Before tackling the third, Firing Blancs, I think it's best to take a break and engage in some serious reading.
