Dover Canyon Winery

Rainy Day Reading: Practical Demonkeeping

Desperate to rid himself of his demons, or in this particular case a people-eating demon named "Catch," Travis O'Hearn arrives in the sleepy coastal town of Pine Cove, looking for the talisman that will finally allow him to finally banish Catch to hell.

The sleepy village of Pine Cove is nestled in a evergreen grove on California's Highway 1.  Just north of a college town called San Junipero, Pine Cove bills itself as the "Gateway to Big Sur" as it is the last food/gas/hospitality stop until at least Gordo.  Its eclectic and very fake Tudor facades decorate a main street filled with kitch, art, sculpture and very little in the way of practical goods.  Shopkeepers may open at 10, or 11, or after lunch, or not at all.

Pop quiz:  What 'real life' central coast town inspired the village of Pine Cove?

When Travis and Catch roll into town, their very presence sets off an epidemic of lust and chaos.  It falls to white-haired Augustus Brine, the cabernet-drinking owner of Brine's Bait, Tackle, and Fine Wines, to assemble his lustful and confused townspeople, control a djinn with an agenda of his own, find the talisman that will send Catch to hell, and rescue the damsel, all while avoiding a very confused but determined undercover narc.

The characters are colorful, yet so well drawn they'll feel like someone you know, and even Catch himself is strangely endearing in spite of his bad habit of eating people.   At just 250 pages, Practical Demonkeeping is a fast and easy read--perfect for a rainy winter weekend.

First Big Crush

First Big Crush: The Down and Dirty on Making Great Wine . . . Down Under

Author:  Eric Arnold

(Join us at Cellar Rats for a Q&A discussion with Forbes lifestyle editor Eric Arnold. Eric has posed a question: "What are the best and worst wine books you've read, other than mine, and why?" Registration on Cellar Rats is free! Come on in and enjoy the discussions.)

In First Big Crush, Eric Arnold combines a nine-year-old’s disgust for females with the sex drive of an orangutan and the intellect of a potentially brilliant and funny journalist, in a raunchy, high energy adventure in New Zealand wine country.

Arnold hires on as a crush intern at Allan Scott Wines & Estates in Marlborough, New Zealand. Throughout his experience Arnold reports on the inner workings of an internationally distributed winery. Arnold’s journey is arranged more by topic than as a journal, and his story is a progression told in three stages: harvest, winemaking, and then the vineyard. His personal journey also takes him from buoyant, obnoxious, clueless crush help to a more settled and professional outlook. Although Arnold uses his innocent curiosity as a springboard to explain the issues of crush and harvest, he never dumbs down the material, and manages to convey a lot of information and insight in few words, seriously peppered with collegiate language, colorful characters, and hilarious anecdotes.

Being myself a veteran of having to endure crush interns, I am familiar with the "winemaker’s buddy." Generally they suck as interns, showing up to run the equipment or drive the forklift, and then disappearing as soon as it gets cold, dark and wet and it’s time to clean, scrub and sanitize. But Arnold apparently embraces his position as low man on the totem and works energetically throughout wind, rain and crush distemper. This gives him an accurate insider’s perspective on the emotional demands and rhythms of crush.

Working closely with the winemaking team of Josh Scott and Jeremy McKenzie, Arnold learns the ropes, frequently the hard way. After nearly imploding a tank on his first day, greeting a grapefruit-sized gonad, and breaking his toe, he begins to grasp the logic and language of crush. In addition to some phonetic portraits of New Zealandese, Arnold includes a footnote or two on popular crush slang. "In case you’re American and don’t know what ‘wank’ means, it’s British slang for a daytime nap. When an English person seems tired or yawns, it’s generally considered polite for you to ask him if he could use a good wank. Especially if he’s a stranger."

Feiring's Fantasy: Alice Feiring Saves the World from Robert Parker

The Battle for Wine and Love
or How I Saved the World from Parkerization

Author: Alice Feiring

The font of the title is pleasantly wacky, and the title itself promises a dream-like escapade in which Feiring daydreams herself “saving the world” and falling in love with a superhero winemaker. Not a bad concept.

This is not a journalistic effort like other recently released wine books, To Cork or Not to Cork, The Billionaire’s Vinegar, First Big Crush, Wine and Philosophy. This is a personal essay on a personal point of view. The book is a small-format book—hardbound, 5 ½ “ by 8”, 258 pages exclusive of acknowledgments and index, and can easily be read in a few hours.

In the introduction she says, “I am hoping to intrigue those who want wines that truly have a story to tell. Once people experience these wines and winemakers, once they know that wine truly does have soul and character, it will be difficult for them to cozy up to wines made by the numbers and not from the heart.”

I hope that this book fulfills her mission.

Unfortunately . . .

Paso Robles: An American Terroir

An extraordinary look at the soils and geology of Paso Robles, Paso Robles, An American Terroir is the result of ten years of study and exploration by soil scientist Tom Rice. Dr. Rice heads the soil science department at California Polytechnic Institute in San Luis Obispo, and their soil science program is understandably the largest and most popular in the United States. As the local "dirt guy," Dr. Rice has also done soil surveys for a number of local vineyards.

The book is lushly illustrated with color photos, charts, graphs, diagrams and aerial shots. Paso Robles: An American Terroir is divided into two main sections—the first third of the book deals entirely with the geologic origins of the Paso Robles area, its soils, parent soils, geography, wind tunnels, water issues and climatology. It is densely factual, but attractively broken up by color art and photography, and Dr. Rice’s "prose cards."

Dr. Rice created the narrative prose cards for his introductory soils class, as a way of helping his students visualize the science. "If a scientist can take science/tech language and rewrite it in a form that any layman can understand, then that person will truly understand it." He would frequently choose a photograph he liked or simply sit down outdoors at a site, and write a semi-poetic prose narrative, weaving a story about a soil or landscape and how it integrates with plants, animals, and native ecology.

"While a lot of people might think of soils as being inanimate, I think of soils as living, because of the integration of the mineral with the organic material, which includes microbes, roots, decomposing leaves . . . I think of every soil as an individual . . . and every individual as a soil."

Cultivating a Life

Susan Sokol Blosser's account of building a life in the Dundee Hills of Oregon speaks to me on many levels--as a woman working in the wine industry, a woman working with her husband, a woman running her own business, and a mother. Susan turns her trials into triumphs and exercises a sense of humor along the way. From the Great Goose Experiment to the day her tearful son rides his bike all the way to school by himself, this is a story that will transport you into "The Life" of owning a vineyard and winery, with a judicial salting of reality and romance.

In At Home in the Vineyard: Cultivating a Winery, an Industry, and a Life, Susan talks about their wild card decision to plant a vineyard in Oregon in the 1970's.  But it's also the story of a young, idealistic bride who has been groomed to "please" her husband and family.  Said bride is confronted with unhappy investors, disgruntled family members, distributor ennui, divorce, and disastrous vintages.  But along the way she collects some overly affectionate geese, useless peacocks, a three-legged cat, and some loyal staff members. 

By the end of the book, we see a woman who can confidently drive a vineyard tractor with her baby daughter strapped in beside her, navigate the corridors of politics, travel widely in support of her brand and her region, and take the reins as owner and CEO of her own company. 

If you dream of someday owning your own vineyard or winery, this autobiography should be part of your literary quest.  If you are a single, working mother you will resonate to young Alex' cry when he says, "Mom, why can't you stay at home and be a real mother like Wilma?"   But most of all, I was impressed by Susan Sokol Blosser's willingness to lay her heart on the table, to pour her sorrow, joy and fears into a glass.  It's one thing to critique a winegrower's wines.  Susan is offering her heart.

Bones: Recipes, History & Lore

Just the name of this book intrigued me, but when I saw the cover I was hopelessly hooked.  I love bones.  I love the juicy bits of meat closest to the bone, the fatty edges radiating outward from the bone, and darkly roasted bone marrow.  When Dan roasts marrow bones for Rebel Rose, he drizzles a little olive oil over them, salts them a little and roast them in her own special pan (an old bread pan).  Then he sets the roasted bones on the stove to cool, and I walk by, sniffing the air, gazing longingly, and trying to sneak bits of searingly hot meat or marrow.   I should just buy 2 packages of marrow bones, but I haven't quite worked up the courage yet.  Store checker:  "Bones, eh? You must have two dogs?"  Me:  "No, just one dog.  The other bones are for me."

So imagine my delight when I found a cookbook that celebrates all things bone.  From traditional dishes like "Double-Bone Beef with Red Wine Sauce" and "Osso Buco with Fennel and Blood Orange Sauce," to slightly more esoteric versions of pig's feet and fried fish bones, Bones: Recipes, History and Lore covers all the major meat groups:  beef, veal, pork, lamb, poultry, fish and game.   Author Jennifer McLagan includes lessons in cuts of meat, carving, making consomme and broths, and brief, entertaining essays on bone lore and history. 

I was going to call out my favorite recipe titles, but there are too many mouth-watering titles to choose from . . . "Pork with Caramelized Milk Sauce," "Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic," "Guinea Hen with Raspberries,"  "Lamb Shoulder with Preserved Lemons and Dates."

McLagan's writing style is relaxed and friendly, and the recipes clear and straightforward, with room for improvisation.  This is a book to leave visible on the kitchen counter for reading and inspiration.

'Getting' Sideways

I finally broke down and read this book by Rex Pickett. During the first few chapters my reaction was 'ho-hum, it's just like the movie." But after a few chapters, as relationships deepened, I really began to get into it.   

Paso Robles was only briefly mentioned in the movie, but although the movie takes place entirely in the Solvang / Santa Ynez wine region, the looming matrimonial destination, Paso Robles, is mentioned frequently in the book.

Miles and Jack seem to be about as different as they can be, but like a lot of friendships, they need each other . . . they complement each other. Throughout their trials on the road trip they begin to open up to each other more and more, and they learn to smooth over the rough spots with humor and faith in each other.

Jack is as randy as his movie character, but his fiance is no blushing rose either, and there's a generous, faithful side to Jack in the book that is not portrayed in the movie. That being said, they screw up alot, and Jack's accumulation of hilarious injuries were abbreviated in the movie plot. He's not looking too good going into his wedding . . . and then there's the psychotic boar-hunting chauffeur, who's not even featured in the movie. There is a lot of 'road trip' language--which I initially found annoying (being a lady and all), but after a while it became part of the natural rhythm between Jack and Miles.

In the true spirit of an indie movie, you also have to pay attention to what is not said.  Viewers objected to Miles' theft of money from his mother.  She had already made a fuss over Jack and, ignoring Miles' wishes, tried to rearrange his plans.  After he rejoins them at the patio table, she makes a point of asking him--in front of Jack--if he needs money.  Clearly Miles is used to being humiliated by his mother, and the theft (or borrowing from his inheritance, as he put it) was a pre-emptive strike. 

Miles has not had much of anything going for him since he was a child, caring for his ill father.  If you miss the first few lines of the movie, you miss a lot of what is key about Miles--he led a sheltered, frightened childhood, his mother abandoned them yet constantly criticizes him, and he clings to his wine knowledge as a way of maintaining some semblance of self-esteem. 

I particularly liked the ending, after Miles finally agrees to attend Jack's wedding reception in Paso Robles, and Maya shows up in all her radiance. They decide to blow off the reception, and Maya says, "I know a few places in Paso Robles . . . "

Sideways  . . . 2?

Red, White and Drunk All Over

Natalie MacLean won me over completely in chapter one, The Good Earth, as she describes touring the caves and tunnels of Domaine LeFlaive in Puligny-Montrachet with Madame Anne-Claude LeFlaive. No nonsense about swirling aromas and eclectic flavors . . .

"As we pass each dark tunnel and room, I’m like a well-trained rat in a science maze experiment, looking for an upended barrel with a bottle on top of it. At last we get to it: four open bottles and several wineglasses."

MacLean opens her book with tours of Domaine LeFlaive and lunch with the formidable Madame Lalou Bize-Leroy "La Tigresse" (whose rambunctious dogs set off the cellar alarms while Madame’s oven smokes up the house.)

Over luncheon, MacLean asks Bize-Leroy how long her Burgundy productions should be aged.

Her face darkens. "Who knows?" she snaps. "Certainly, the critics don’t. How can they predict when to drink my wine, when even I can’t? They’re making it up. C’est terrible! And their descriptions—filled with every silly berry on the planet!"

We both shake our heads grimly over the stupidity of wine writers.

Rainy Day Reading

I am not much of a history buff because history tends to be so repetitive and depressing (what year did one nation kill every one in the neighboring country again?) so I had expected to slog through Wine & War, by Don and Petie Kladstrup. But I found myself with my stockinged feet up on the sofa turning page after page, laughing out loud in places, and rooting for the French vignerons as they stubbornly attempt to thwart the Nazis in even the most impossible circumstances. I particularly enjoyed the true story of the unarmed supply convoy trapped on the beach at Normandy with 20 cases of Sancerre. They decided to hunker in a bunker and drink all the wine so as not to let it fall into the hands of the Nazis. They confessed later they were pretty easy to capture, greeting the German soldiers with cheerful hiccups.

God Is My Broker : A Monk-Tycoon Reveals the 7 1/2 Laws of Spiritual and Financial Growth is a rollicking satire by Christopher Buckley, creator of Little Green Men. In his usual hilarious, no holds barred style, Buckley relates the tale of a down and out, and really drunk, investment broker who joins a monastic brotherhood to dry out. The monastery produces some pretty god-awful wine from their own vineyard, in old cement tanks with rotten and rusting plumbing. Each year the monks send a case of wine to the Pope, but the current orange-flecked vintage makes the Pope dangerously ill and consequently the Vatican cuts off the monastery’s funding, resulting in a series of investments and adventures from which we are encouraged to learn lessons about life, love, and the price of success. According to Amazon.com, the book has been optioned by New Line Pictures.

And for a combination of Romancing-the-Stone adventure and a quest for great wines, John and Erica Platter take us through Africa Uncorked: Travels in Extreme Wine Territory. From armed Muslim guards to vineyards that fall off cliffs into active volcanoes, the Platters search the continent (or at least part of it) for the greatest wines and winemakers in Africa. A combination of travelogue, wine critique, and humor, the Platters write with suspense and wit about the unusual challenges that face African winemakers, vineyardists, and drinkers.