If you like reading about wine as much as drinking it, there are a couple of new and different titles to peruse this month…. From the University of California Press, we have Been Doon So Long: A Randall Grahm Vinthology, from the colorful founder and spokesman of Santa Cruz’ Bonny Doon Vineyards. Grahm takes the reader on a journey through his own personal history with wine, using everything from newsletter excerpts and essays to images of the winery’s famous labels. If you’re a fan of the vintner’s particular sensibility (which I’d describe as a charming mix of pun-addicted, brash, populist and Rhone-reverent), start hinting to your loved ones now that you’d like a signed copy for Christmas.
If you’re craving something a bit more self-consciously serious, consider The Psychology of Wine (Praeger, June 2009) by Evan and Brian Mitchell. The subtitle, “Truth and Beauty by the Glass,” succinctly captures the tone of this well-researched tome from a sommelier son and his psychologist father. It’s serious but not too serious: consider a chapter that compares particular varietals to movies, with Rocky cast as a California Chardonnay (“heavyweight without being serious,”) and a German Riesling likened to Last Year at Marienbad—”cold, austere, impeccably stylish but aloof.” The authors pledge to avoid “the vinous equivalent of Dude, Where’s My Car?” at all costs.
The Home Glass 