Tag: book review

Rebecca Gibb is a Master of Wine and an award-winning wine journalist, who spends her knowledge of wine and researching for writing to educate us on the history of wine tampering from Roman times to the present.  Her newest book is “Vintage Crime: A Short History of Wine Fraud“, which could be a historical thriller set in Europe in the…

Grant Reynolds is a sommelier in the USA who worked for top restaurants that cared about the wines they served.  This helped push Grant to travel to Europe to meet with winemakers and learn more about exceptional wines. Grant’s “The Wine List” is his accounting of what he asserts are the most remarkable vintages of wines going back to the…

Having an adult beverage while bowling is common, although many people you will see may have a beer.  But in some cases, you may see a cocktail.  In part we have cocktail culture expanding everywhere, but I hope we see cocktails spread into the bowling alleys, thanks to the movie, The Big Lebowski, and now this book, The Unofficial Big…

Barbara Scott-Goodman is “a cookbook author, food writer, and content creator and an art director and designer of cookbooks, lifestyle books, food publications, videos, and websites…” and I am glad I stumbled across her book, Wine Time: 70+ Recipes for Simple Bits That Pair Perfectly With Wine.  Have you ever been invited to a party and asked to bring an…

I recently noticed the book, “New Mocktails Bible” by Editors of Fox Chapel Publishing and decided to read and review it for you.  Hopefully, this book will find its way into many mixologists’ libraries of drinks.   I drink wine, beer, and alcohol-based cocktails, but sometimes I am with other people that don’t for various reasons, such as diabetics, athletes in…

Steven Laine is a fiction writer with WSET III, FWS, IWS, SWS, CWS, and Champagne Academy credentials.  He writes his fiction around some aspect of wine.  His previous novel, Root Cause, covered what could happen if a new type of louse was attacking vineyard vines, like phylloxera did in the 1800s.  Steven brings his knowledge of wine and food into…

I have traveled to many wine-producing countries; New and Old World; Northern and Southern hemisphere, and it is always a pleasure to visit the wineries, speak with the owners about their wines, and getting a tour of the winery and vineyards.  In part, this is what you get to experience with this novel by Steven Laine, a Canadian with a wine background…

We all are at different spots on our wine journey.  Some have just stepped their toes in, while others have been swimming for many years, splashing about.  But there is always something new that we can try or learn, which can help us to enjoy some aspect of wine more.  I recently received an advanced copy of Jim Laughren, CWE’s,…

There are Dummies books for everything, from using Microsoft Word, to growing roses, and now for pairing food & wine.  I don’t consider myself a dummy in the food & wine pairing realm, having spent many years in the South World Wine Society executive, taking WSET courses, and attending many wine and food pairing seminars over the year.  But I…