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The Accidental Connoisseur: An Irreverent Journey Through the Wine World
What is taste? Is it individual or imposed on us from the outside? Why are so many of us so intimidated when presented with the wine list at a restaurant? In The Accidental Connoisseur , journalist Lawrence Osborne takes off on a personal voyage through a little-known world in pursuit of some answers. Weaving together a fantastic cast of eccentrics and obsessives, industry magnates and small farmers, the author explores the way technological change, opinionated critics, consumer trends, wheelers and dealers, trade wars, and mass market tastes have made the elixir we drink today entirely different from the wine drunk by our grandparents.
In his search for wine that is a true expression of the place that produced it, Osborne takes the reader from the high-tech present to the primitive past. From a lavish lunch with wine tsar Robert Mondavi to the cellars of Marquis Piero Antinori in Florence, from the tasting rooms of Chateau Lafite to the humble vineyards of northern Lazio, Osborne winds his way through Renaissance palaces, $27 million wineries, tin shacks and garages, opulent restaurants, world-famous chais and vineyards, renowned villages and obscure landscapes, as well as the great cities which are the temples of wine consumption: New York, San Francisco, Paris, Florence, and Rome. On the way, we will be shown the vast tapestry of this much-desired, little-understood drink: who produces it and why, who consumes it, who critiques it? Enchanting, delightful, entertaining, and, above all, down to earth, this is a wine book like no other.
In his search for wine that is a true expression of the place that produced it, Osborne takes the reader from the high-tech present to the primitive past. From a lavish lunch with wine tsar Robert Mondavi to the cellars of Marquis Piero Antinori in Florence, from the tasting rooms of Chateau Lafite to the humble vineyards of northern Lazio, Osborne winds his way through Renaissance palaces, $27 million wineries, tin shacks and garages, opulent restaurants, world-famous chais and vineyards, renowned villages and obscure landscapes, as well as the great cities which are the temples of wine consumption: New York, San Francisco, Paris, Florence, and Rome. On the way, we will be shown the vast tapestry of this much-desired, little-understood drink: who produces it and why, who consumes it, who critiques it? Enchanting, delightful, entertaining, and, above all, down to earth, this is a wine book like no other.
272 pages, Paperback
First published March 15, 2004
48 people are currently reading
807 people want to read
About the author
Lawrence Osborne
40 books585 followersLawrence Osborne is the author of seven critically acclaimed novels, including The Forgiven (now a major motion picture starring Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain), and Only to Sleep: A Philip Marlowe Novel, a New York Times Notable Book and nominated for an Edgar Award, as well as six books of nonfiction, including Bangkok Days. He has led a nomadic life, living in Paris, New York, Mexico, and Istanbul, and he currently resides in Bangkok.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
November 3, 2020
Osborne takes us on a journey through California, France & Italy and what he found out about wine.
August 2, 2009
This is one of those well-written journalistic travel books by an author with expertise in a specific field, this time a wine critic rambling through California, Italy, and France. Osborne is a fabulous writer, entertaining and self-deprecating. Some of his turns of phrase are a little exuberant, others require a dictionary, but all in all I enjoyed this book.
One thing that was interesting: Osborne rails on Napa. The town is "Disneyfied," the sunlight "shrill," everything is a copy without sense of history. As a native Californian, I was a little taken aback, but as a Californian traveling through Bordeaux as I read it, I have to admit I can see where he's coming from.
I do think that in a very sly way, Osborne teaches the reader lot about wine in this book. It's probably a little more than I ever wanted to know, but now I'm curious to taste all those Nebbiolos, Lafites, and Opus 1s. It may take me 80 years to earn enough to pay for a bottle, but who cares. Osborne does a great job of showing how deeply individual wine taste can be; and that much of great wine is simply being in a magical place or drinking with people who you care about.
One thing that was interesting: Osborne rails on Napa. The town is "Disneyfied," the sunlight "shrill," everything is a copy without sense of history. As a native Californian, I was a little taken aback, but as a Californian traveling through Bordeaux as I read it, I have to admit I can see where he's coming from.
I do think that in a very sly way, Osborne teaches the reader lot about wine in this book. It's probably a little more than I ever wanted to know, but now I'm curious to taste all those Nebbiolos, Lafites, and Opus 1s. It may take me 80 years to earn enough to pay for a bottle, but who cares. Osborne does a great job of showing how deeply individual wine taste can be; and that much of great wine is simply being in a magical place or drinking with people who you care about.
April 2, 2007
The title says it all, sarcastic, hilarious, and lacking pretension; the Accidental Connoisseur is a memorable road trip through the world of wine. You will meet a lot of the big players in the global wine industry, become familiar with the vocabulary of an oenophile; all without the snooty, dryness associated with books on wine tasting. Open a nice bottle and enjoy the journey.
July 28, 2019
I loved absolutely everything about this book. His playful and engaging style of writing reminded me so much of the young William Dalrymple-- humorous and self-deprecating, not to mention charming! The project itself is very fun: person who can't put in words why he loves the wine he loves, sets out to travel the world of wine to see what happens. First, there is the idea of taste: living life well versus a kind of consumer fetish... What does it mean to have good taste? One's own taste?
Also, I have since read that it was Osbourne who really first verbalized this "slow foods" idea of terroir wine versus corporate wines. Like Osbourne, I too came to wine late in life. 25 years in Japan, I was definitely a beer drinker. The wines back in the 90s and early 2000s in Tokyo was expensive and not great. I think things have changed but back then, what was available to me were overly priced New World wines in the international style (sweet and oak). These days, I like all kinds of wines, but his book really helped me to understand what I resisted in California and south American wines for so long. And I do think it is true that the corporate style of wine has done harm since it pushes a style that sells and seeks to streamline profits with efficient uses of chemicals and standardization of varietals.. you can watch the Montovino movie or the multi-part series or read Alice Feiring.
A taste for minerality over right bananas? It was interesting to learn that famous Italian winemakers like Terni make two kinds of wine, terroir wine and international. Yummy wines that check all the boxes versus wines tied to somewhere, to place. Also, where super Tuscans it in here. His chapter on Antinori was also fantastic!
Bad guys, Mondavi? But real bad guy is Robert Parker (Feiring has a book about her attempts to save the world from him).
My favorite chapter though had to be about wine vocabulary. How do we describe wine? Isn't it fascinating to imagine that in the old days, there was a vocabulary based on class and gender... so wines were described as elegant ladies or strong and charismatic, masculine? Etc.... and then he follows the road leading to UC Davis and Napa and the emergence of a "scientific" vocabulary based on food analogies.... so we have endless descriptions of Asian pears, peaches, melons, plums, figs, tangerines with cheese and pineapple and the all time favorites of strawberries raspberries BlackBerries boysenberries mulberries goose Gooseberries cranberries blueberries blueberries relentless berries? It was fantastic to read and ponder...
I bought his the Wet and Dry and would also love to read one of his novels. I know he is compared by one reviewer in the Guardian as the next Graham Greene--high praise indeed! I worry he will be more like Jay McInerney or the guy who wrote the Beach.... anyway this book was wonderful!
Also, I have since read that it was Osbourne who really first verbalized this "slow foods" idea of terroir wine versus corporate wines. Like Osbourne, I too came to wine late in life. 25 years in Japan, I was definitely a beer drinker. The wines back in the 90s and early 2000s in Tokyo was expensive and not great. I think things have changed but back then, what was available to me were overly priced New World wines in the international style (sweet and oak). These days, I like all kinds of wines, but his book really helped me to understand what I resisted in California and south American wines for so long. And I do think it is true that the corporate style of wine has done harm since it pushes a style that sells and seeks to streamline profits with efficient uses of chemicals and standardization of varietals.. you can watch the Montovino movie or the multi-part series or read Alice Feiring.
A taste for minerality over right bananas? It was interesting to learn that famous Italian winemakers like Terni make two kinds of wine, terroir wine and international. Yummy wines that check all the boxes versus wines tied to somewhere, to place. Also, where super Tuscans it in here. His chapter on Antinori was also fantastic!
Bad guys, Mondavi? But real bad guy is Robert Parker (Feiring has a book about her attempts to save the world from him).
My favorite chapter though had to be about wine vocabulary. How do we describe wine? Isn't it fascinating to imagine that in the old days, there was a vocabulary based on class and gender... so wines were described as elegant ladies or strong and charismatic, masculine? Etc.... and then he follows the road leading to UC Davis and Napa and the emergence of a "scientific" vocabulary based on food analogies.... so we have endless descriptions of Asian pears, peaches, melons, plums, figs, tangerines with cheese and pineapple and the all time favorites of strawberries raspberries BlackBerries boysenberries mulberries goose Gooseberries cranberries blueberries blueberries relentless berries? It was fantastic to read and ponder...
I bought his the Wet and Dry and would also love to read one of his novels. I know he is compared by one reviewer in the Guardian as the next Graham Greene--high praise indeed! I worry he will be more like Jay McInerney or the guy who wrote the Beach.... anyway this book was wonderful!
January 5, 2018
This was quite the mixed bag for me. I think the best way to review this will be a pros and cons list.
PROS:
-Some wonderful moments where the author delves into the regional history of wine. I enjoyed these moments very much.
-The interviews with the more eccentric winemakers are a treat.
-Luckily, a good amount of the book contains either one or both of the above.
CONS:
-The author himself is... hard to like. The idea of this book seems to be to have a guy who doesn't consider himself to be a connoisseur exploring the wine world. In other words, someone who is humble and without pretension figuring this thing out along with the reader. Unfortunately, he comes off to me as stuck up, judgmental, and somewhat cruel. For someone who supposedly doesn't trust his own taste, he sure does have plenty of negative things to say about lots of wine. He also seems to really hate Americans, or, at least, the influence America has had on wine. He casually grinds that ax a lot.
-Oh my god please stop talking about Robert Parker. I'd really like to read a book about wine that didn't spend such a significant amount of time talking about this dude. I get that he has been an important figure in the wine world, but I'm about tired of hearing aaalllll about him, especially from people who claim to want to move on from Parker style wines. How long has it been, now, since the wine world started claiming that it was moving away from Parker style wines, and towards drinks with more balance and elegance? If this is true, why can't people stop talking about him?
-I think this book could have used a more well defined guiding principal or thesis. It was regularly difficult to want to keep reading, because the book really didn't seem to have all that much to say.
-I think Osburne just wanted to write a sequel to Kermit Lynch's "Adventures on the Wine Route," which is a noble undertaking, but he lacks the knowledge and isn't as charming as Lynch. I learned from Lynch when I read "Adventures." Osborne didn't have nearly as much of value to say.
To put my thoughts into stars, this was a four star book when someone other than Osborne was talking, or when Osborne was writing about history. He was wonderful at that. The rest of the book, unfortunately, was a two star book - mostly frustrating, annoying, and kind of hard to get through. We'll meet in the middle and go with three out of five.
And I'm finally free to read something else.
PROS:
-Some wonderful moments where the author delves into the regional history of wine. I enjoyed these moments very much.
-The interviews with the more eccentric winemakers are a treat.
-Luckily, a good amount of the book contains either one or both of the above.
CONS:
-The author himself is... hard to like. The idea of this book seems to be to have a guy who doesn't consider himself to be a connoisseur exploring the wine world. In other words, someone who is humble and without pretension figuring this thing out along with the reader. Unfortunately, he comes off to me as stuck up, judgmental, and somewhat cruel. For someone who supposedly doesn't trust his own taste, he sure does have plenty of negative things to say about lots of wine. He also seems to really hate Americans, or, at least, the influence America has had on wine. He casually grinds that ax a lot.
-Oh my god please stop talking about Robert Parker. I'd really like to read a book about wine that didn't spend such a significant amount of time talking about this dude. I get that he has been an important figure in the wine world, but I'm about tired of hearing aaalllll about him, especially from people who claim to want to move on from Parker style wines. How long has it been, now, since the wine world started claiming that it was moving away from Parker style wines, and towards drinks with more balance and elegance? If this is true, why can't people stop talking about him?
-I think this book could have used a more well defined guiding principal or thesis. It was regularly difficult to want to keep reading, because the book really didn't seem to have all that much to say.
-I think Osburne just wanted to write a sequel to Kermit Lynch's "Adventures on the Wine Route," which is a noble undertaking, but he lacks the knowledge and isn't as charming as Lynch. I learned from Lynch when I read "Adventures." Osborne didn't have nearly as much of value to say.
To put my thoughts into stars, this was a four star book when someone other than Osborne was talking, or when Osborne was writing about history. He was wonderful at that. The rest of the book, unfortunately, was a two star book - mostly frustrating, annoying, and kind of hard to get through. We'll meet in the middle and go with three out of five.
And I'm finally free to read something else.
October 14, 2008
Think Anthony Bourdain meets the wine world. Clever, witty, intelligent. Osborne's unforgiving British humor combined with his unwillingness to buy into the pretentiousness of the wine industry makes for a laughable but decidedly intriguing read. This is a book for those who love wine but on a "normal consumer" level. He investigates diverse snapshots of the wine industry, including questioning the merits of a Napa Valley "vintner" who has patented software that tells you how (on a chemical level) to create a wine that the critics will score high, the vestiges of the Mondavi and Gallo dynasties, what it's like in Bourdeaux for beginners, and wonderfully irreverant side journeys. One warning: keep a dictionary close by because Osborne is either one of the most literate people I've ever read or is very good with a thesaurus.
April 6, 2014
Excellent book on wine that among other concerns tries to winkle out the whys of price/value, the homogenization of modern wine and just what is tradition anyway. The author is an accomplished, acerbic and witty travel writer and that's shown to good ends here. This is one of the most entertaining (while also pretty merciless) wine books I've read and I look forward to reading the author's other books.
June 24, 2007
This book took away my fear of drinking wine (or rather, my fear of not knowing what I'm "supposed" to be tasting), it's fun, easy to read, light on wine technicalities and let me in on the secret that sometimes even wine writers don't understand what they're drinking. Great for the beginning wine enthusiast!
Read
June 20, 2007This book is a nauseating combination of pretentious and uninformative. I loathed it.
April 13, 2011
While there were a few sections that made me chuckle, and a few little insights into the wine world, this book wasn't as funny, irreverent, or interesting as I thought it was going to be.
July 11, 2019
In Italien, USA und Frankreich tafelt, bechert und palavert Lawrence Osborne mit Star-Winzern, aber auch mit weniger bekannten Bauern und Landwirten, die nebenher eigene Tropfen keltern, sowie mit ein paar Beratern und Importeuren. Gastronomen oder Endverbraucher kommen kaum zu Wort (Osborne sieht sich selbst als weniger erfahrener Endverbraucher). Spanien, Portugal, Deutschland, Österreich, Südafrika, Chile, Argentinien, Neuseeland oder Australien figurieren nicht.
Nebenher vermittelt der Autor plaudernd Grundkenntnisse über Anbaumethoden oder Geschmacksrichtungen, vor allem über die Unterschiede zwischen europäischen, amerikanischen und australischen Weinen und Geschmäckern und wie man "Terroir" festmachen kann. Ausführlich redet Osborne zudem über das sich wandelnde Vokabular der Weinkoster und über den einflussreichen Experten Robert B. Parker. Insgesamt entsteht ein vergnügliches, exzellent geschriebenes Reisereportagebuch über eine scheinbar durchgehende Reise.
Zwei Dinge fallen auf:
Osborne maßt sich kaum Expertise an, will Neues lernen und verschmäht jedes kennerhafte Geraune. Erst gegen Ende gibt er sich als zumindest "accidental connoisseur". Und:
Das Buch ist verblüffend lustig. Osborne schildert viele prägnante, äußerst vergnügliche Dialoge. Ein Beispiel für seine Unschuldsmiene bei Verkostungen – der Winzer fragt (S. 97):
"What do you taste?"
"Grapes," I said.
"Good, good. That's what's in it!"
Ich habe immer wieder gelacht,
auch wenn manche Dialoge schon einen Tick geschriftstellert klingen, mitunter die wohlfeile Winzerromantik zu dick aufträgt. Natürlich trifft Osborne in den Weinkellern viele amüsante Käuze, die US-Winzer kamen oft auf Umwegen ins Geschäft: einige studierten Philosophie oder Naturwissenschaften; in Italien und Frankreich stößt Osborne überwiegend auf langjährige Weinbauern. Meine englische Taschenbuchausgabe hat keine Fotos und keine Landkarten.
Seine mitunter sich selbst und andere verachtende Attitüde aus Büchern wie Bangkok Days oder The Wet and the Dry bleibt hier im Accidental Connoiseur meist unterm Teppich; nur im ersten Italien-Teil liefert Osborne auch regelrechte Karikaturen mit einer Note Verachtung im Abgang.
Osbornes Bücher Bangkok Days und The Wet and the Dry sind weitaus schlechter als Accidental Connoisseur, alle drei Bänden werden grobe inhaltliche Fehler vorgeworfen. Die Detailkritik am Accidental Connoisseur findet sich auf wine-economics.org bei Richard E. Quandt und bei Amazon.com-Leserkritiker K.M. Pollard.
Assoziationen:
Wegen der Art, herumzureisen und lange Gespräche reportageartig atmosphärisch dicht wiederzugeben: die islamischen und die indischen Reisebücher von V.S. Naipaul
Die anderen Alkohol-Bücher von Lawrence Osborne, The Wet and the Dry und Corks and Screws
Der Wein-Snob-Roman Bordeaux: Ein Roman in vier Jahrgängen von Paul Torday (2008)
Nebenher vermittelt der Autor plaudernd Grundkenntnisse über Anbaumethoden oder Geschmacksrichtungen, vor allem über die Unterschiede zwischen europäischen, amerikanischen und australischen Weinen und Geschmäckern und wie man "Terroir" festmachen kann. Ausführlich redet Osborne zudem über das sich wandelnde Vokabular der Weinkoster und über den einflussreichen Experten Robert B. Parker. Insgesamt entsteht ein vergnügliches, exzellent geschriebenes Reisereportagebuch über eine scheinbar durchgehende Reise.
Zwei Dinge fallen auf:
Osborne maßt sich kaum Expertise an, will Neues lernen und verschmäht jedes kennerhafte Geraune. Erst gegen Ende gibt er sich als zumindest "accidental connoisseur". Und:
Das Buch ist verblüffend lustig. Osborne schildert viele prägnante, äußerst vergnügliche Dialoge. Ein Beispiel für seine Unschuldsmiene bei Verkostungen – der Winzer fragt (S. 97):
"What do you taste?"
"Grapes," I said.
"Good, good. That's what's in it!"
Ich habe immer wieder gelacht,
auch wenn manche Dialoge schon einen Tick geschriftstellert klingen, mitunter die wohlfeile Winzerromantik zu dick aufträgt. Natürlich trifft Osborne in den Weinkellern viele amüsante Käuze, die US-Winzer kamen oft auf Umwegen ins Geschäft: einige studierten Philosophie oder Naturwissenschaften; in Italien und Frankreich stößt Osborne überwiegend auf langjährige Weinbauern. Meine englische Taschenbuchausgabe hat keine Fotos und keine Landkarten.
Seine mitunter sich selbst und andere verachtende Attitüde aus Büchern wie Bangkok Days oder The Wet and the Dry bleibt hier im Accidental Connoiseur meist unterm Teppich; nur im ersten Italien-Teil liefert Osborne auch regelrechte Karikaturen mit einer Note Verachtung im Abgang.
Osbornes Bücher Bangkok Days und The Wet and the Dry sind weitaus schlechter als Accidental Connoisseur, alle drei Bänden werden grobe inhaltliche Fehler vorgeworfen. Die Detailkritik am Accidental Connoisseur findet sich auf wine-economics.org bei Richard E. Quandt und bei Amazon.com-Leserkritiker K.M. Pollard.
Assoziationen:
Wegen der Art, herumzureisen und lange Gespräche reportageartig atmosphärisch dicht wiederzugeben: die islamischen und die indischen Reisebücher von V.S. Naipaul
Die anderen Alkohol-Bücher von Lawrence Osborne, The Wet and the Dry und Corks and Screws
Der Wein-Snob-Roman Bordeaux: Ein Roman in vier Jahrgängen von Paul Torday (2008)
January 16, 2023
I had to find time to write a decent review for this one. Along with enjoying it a great deal, it taught me new things, challenged some beliefs, and was a very entertaining adventure. As someone who is a part of the industry to some degree and has gotten heavily into wine in the past few years, there were many opinions shared by many different people. Some of these opinions I agreed with, others I didn't, and some I'm still not sure about.
Osborne's approach to this book and his personality seem to be one of those things people either love or hate, and I personally loved it. He was familiar with wine and much of the wine world already, but he didn't act like he knew everything or was some sort of expert. He definitely had some opinions about wine, life, and the way the world goes, but you don't have to be an expert on wine to have an opinion on wine. Other reviews already summed up his personality and the voice of this adventure better than I could. Some of these reviews described him as clever, witty, genuine, honest, and self-deprecating.
Funnily enough, I had been thinking this book had a similar feel to Kermit Lynch's "Adventures on the Wine Route", and sure enough, a couple of people had similar thoughts. I think Osborne shares Lynch's "Bohemian" personality and approach to life, which clearly comes out in both books. Lynch's book is probably more authoritative in terms of the wine world, while Osborne's is more, "Hey, come with me while I drink some wine and talk to some importers and producers about the wine and the state of the wine world". While I love both books and perspectives, it can be nice to read from the perspective of a "layman" or a casual enjoyer, especially when it's something as subjective as wine and travel.
While it was only a short part of the book, his conversations with Randall Grahm and those that followed were very interesting and provided some insights. I had previously been vaguely familiar with Randall Grahm and had tried a couple of his newer wines, but I didn't really know who he was. I think he represents the confusion and frustration that we refer to more commonly as American wine. Not really having any historical culture or identity while trying to build one and tear it down at the same time; a lack of terroir while wanting terroir but only ever really using it as a marketing tactic; the dominance of a particular style of wine (heavy oak, sketchy additives, unorthodox practices, lab created) likely to cater to the most amount of people domestically, and so on. Overall, my biggest takeaway based on his exchanges with a variety of people is something that is echoed by Lynch and many others within the wine industry - Wine doesn't have to be complicated and is meant to be enjoyed.
Gonna add some good quotes later. Saved like over 300 I think.
Osborne's approach to this book and his personality seem to be one of those things people either love or hate, and I personally loved it. He was familiar with wine and much of the wine world already, but he didn't act like he knew everything or was some sort of expert. He definitely had some opinions about wine, life, and the way the world goes, but you don't have to be an expert on wine to have an opinion on wine. Other reviews already summed up his personality and the voice of this adventure better than I could. Some of these reviews described him as clever, witty, genuine, honest, and self-deprecating.
Funnily enough, I had been thinking this book had a similar feel to Kermit Lynch's "Adventures on the Wine Route", and sure enough, a couple of people had similar thoughts. I think Osborne shares Lynch's "Bohemian" personality and approach to life, which clearly comes out in both books. Lynch's book is probably more authoritative in terms of the wine world, while Osborne's is more, "Hey, come with me while I drink some wine and talk to some importers and producers about the wine and the state of the wine world". While I love both books and perspectives, it can be nice to read from the perspective of a "layman" or a casual enjoyer, especially when it's something as subjective as wine and travel.
While it was only a short part of the book, his conversations with Randall Grahm and those that followed were very interesting and provided some insights. I had previously been vaguely familiar with Randall Grahm and had tried a couple of his newer wines, but I didn't really know who he was. I think he represents the confusion and frustration that we refer to more commonly as American wine. Not really having any historical culture or identity while trying to build one and tear it down at the same time; a lack of terroir while wanting terroir but only ever really using it as a marketing tactic; the dominance of a particular style of wine (heavy oak, sketchy additives, unorthodox practices, lab created) likely to cater to the most amount of people domestically, and so on. Overall, my biggest takeaway based on his exchanges with a variety of people is something that is echoed by Lynch and many others within the wine industry - Wine doesn't have to be complicated and is meant to be enjoyed.
Gonna add some good quotes later. Saved like over 300 I think.
May 12, 2020
2.5 stars for this book. I chose this book based on the cover review blurb, “Possibly the most entertaining book about wine ever written.” At sixteen year old this book seems dated and surely there have been more entertaining books written by now. It did have some valuable insights into the wine world. As someone who isn’t a wine drinker I learned quite a bit but didn’t gain any desire to delve into the world of wine. I labored through this book and only found a groove towards the very end. My two favorite lines did come in the beginning though.
“I grew deliriously content...Is there anything better than drinking? When the happiness of drinking overwhelms you, you cannot resist it.” Pg. 21
“The fantastical mansions with their wooden turrets, cavernous porches, and barricade of cherry trees are like the high-water mark of a tide of wealth which receded decades ago.” Pg. 43
“I grew deliriously content...Is there anything better than drinking? When the happiness of drinking overwhelms you, you cannot resist it.” Pg. 21
“The fantastical mansions with their wooden turrets, cavernous porches, and barricade of cherry trees are like the high-water mark of a tide of wealth which receded decades ago.” Pg. 43
Read
June 21, 2022It took me many months to read this book and yet by the end I was very fond of it, so I don't feel confident giving it any kind of star rating and will stick to impressions. I was expecting Osborne to be more of a layperson than he actually turned out to be, which was positive in some ways (I learned more than I expected to) and negative in others (he assumed a high level of existing knowledge that was sometimes unhelpful and, in books that have anything to do with any kind of culture, sometimes doesn't age well as norms and references change). Osborne is a good writer and there were some individual lines I really enjoyed.
January 2, 2018
Osborne takes readers on a lovely romp around the Western world of wine, most prominently lingering in France, Italy, & California. He blends an interesting amount of history with anecdotes of his own encounters. And he's as down-to-earth as someone writing about elite vineyards and vintages can be. A true delight for any wine lover.
May 27, 2025
DNF'd. The parts where the author would dive into the history of the area were interesting, but far too much of it was him blaming everything on Americans, lying pretending he knew things about wine to winery owners, and noting the appearance of Japanese tourists (which just felt odd and slightly racist for the amount of times that it would occur)
September 27, 2024
Such an enjoyable read from someone who doesn’t take themselves or wine too seriously, and yet I leaned a lot about wine from his storytelling as well. feels like an OG wine route book, with many circular references to Gerald Asher and Kermit lynch. Fun!
April 24, 2020
A meandering of wineries and too cerebral for me.
March 8, 2021
If you're a cork dork, you might enjoy this book. I, however am not and did not.
March 11, 2021
The writing is not my style - I found it boring and surprisingly offputting.
January 1, 2024
DNF
I quit after reading about half the book. Just couldn’t get any momentum with this wine world story.
I quit after reading about half the book. Just couldn’t get any momentum with this wine world story.
August 31, 2018
GoodReads Summer Reading Challenge 2018 task: Read a book about drinks or drinking
Though I prefer mixed drinks, I do sometimes drink wine. I am by no means a wine expert though. This book had some interesting factoids about wine in it and I found it fascinating how there is very much a science to how American vineyards make wine. The book had bits of humor and irreverence throughout (for example, the author referred to the wine in a Catholic mass as "Our Lord's hemoglobin".
Though I prefer mixed drinks, I do sometimes drink wine. I am by no means a wine expert though. This book had some interesting factoids about wine in it and I found it fascinating how there is very much a science to how American vineyards make wine. The book had bits of humor and irreverence throughout (for example, the author referred to the wine in a Catholic mass as "Our Lord's hemoglobin".
January 5, 2010
This is a great piece of travel writing as well as a good book about wine.
If you enjoy drinking wine and tasting wine but feel a little like you don't get it in the same way as the enthusiasts, this is a great book for you.
Osborne Journeys across Europe tasting, or more accurately, drinking wine with growers and buyers, makers and sellers. It is a journey that has you wondering where you went wrong in life. How is it that some people get to vagabond round the vineyards of Europe, relaxing, eating, experiencing and getting paid for it and you can only read with admiration and envy.
It is a book that made me feel better about the fact that I like wine but couldn't describe the taste of something I drank last week let alone last month and I will probably forget the name of the chateaux but I might recognise the bottle if I saw it again and I would certainly remember that I enjoyed it although I might not know why.
If you enjoy drinking wine and tasting wine but feel a little like you don't get it in the same way as the enthusiasts, this is a great book for you.
Osborne Journeys across Europe tasting, or more accurately, drinking wine with growers and buyers, makers and sellers. It is a journey that has you wondering where you went wrong in life. How is it that some people get to vagabond round the vineyards of Europe, relaxing, eating, experiencing and getting paid for it and you can only read with admiration and envy.
It is a book that made me feel better about the fact that I like wine but couldn't describe the taste of something I drank last week let alone last month and I will probably forget the name of the chateaux but I might recognise the bottle if I saw it again and I would certainly remember that I enjoyed it although I might not know why.
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December 6, 2011The in-the-know thing to say about what a wine tastes like is to say it tastes like "grapes". A couple of the wine makers that Osborne interviews scoff at the language of the wine reviewers and instead use that description.
This is also a kind of critique of the idea of "terroir". Can you really taste the environment in which a wine is produced? In some incredibly indirect sense, but we're hardly discerning enough for its effect to be other than "psychological"---in the sense that one tastes what one expects to taste.
This is a perfect companion to Schwitzgebel's skepticism about our ability to know the qualities of our experiences. The experience of tasting wine is an ideal location for the effects of suggestion, priming and bias of various kinds to be felt. I think I have very little sense of what the wine I drink tastes like (other than grapes---though it doesn't even really taste like that).
Though reading this did make me really want a glass of wine.
This is also a kind of critique of the idea of "terroir". Can you really taste the environment in which a wine is produced? In some incredibly indirect sense, but we're hardly discerning enough for its effect to be other than "psychological"---in the sense that one tastes what one expects to taste.
This is a perfect companion to Schwitzgebel's skepticism about our ability to know the qualities of our experiences. The experience of tasting wine is an ideal location for the effects of suggestion, priming and bias of various kinds to be felt. I think I have very little sense of what the wine I drink tastes like (other than grapes---though it doesn't even really taste like that).
Though reading this did make me really want a glass of wine.
November 14, 2008
I got nervous at first that I needed to know too many of the wine world identities to appreciate this book, but I soon realized that although Osborne meets with all of those people in his book, he is using them simply as the canvass for which to introduce bigger questions about wine.
What is the best bottle of wine? Is it based on the grape, the terroir, the experience you are having while you drink it, etc.
What is taste?
Is there any reason to buy into the Parker categorization (or any other, for that matter)?
And so on.
Great philosophical questions about wine. Such an enjoyable read.
What is the best bottle of wine? Is it based on the grape, the terroir, the experience you are having while you drink it, etc.
What is taste?
Is there any reason to buy into the Parker categorization (or any other, for that matter)?
And so on.
Great philosophical questions about wine. Such an enjoyable read.
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January 20, 2016I found this book languishing in the headboard of the bed ... my wife bought it but found it too boring to actually read. The cover has a quote from a Financial Times review - "Possibly the most entertaining book about wine ever written." My conclusion - it is more entertaining to drink wine than to read about it ... Not a bad book - just not that entertaining. A tour through the famous and not so famous wineries of California, France, and Italy. Note that there are many phrases in French and Italian that are not translated. Chritably, I assume that the truly entertaining elements of the book are in these untranslated phrases and hence I missed them ...
January 2, 2017
You pretty much have to be a wine enthusiast to enjoy this book. You'll enjoy his lack of pretension, appreciation of wine and context, and humor. Being a Francophile also would enhance your reading experience. But, I must confess that, months after finishing the book, I find it not that memorable; it left a pleasant taste in my mouth, but I'm not sure why. As the author says about his encounter with the revered Lafite: "I couldn't honestly remember that much about the Lafite. It had been good, but I couldn't go much further."
August 6, 2009
A humorous and offbeat take on the world of wine set as a travelogue. Osborne travels the world and visits various wine producers to get at the elusive quality of taste. His observations are keen and he really appears to be genuine in his quest to learn all he can about the wines he is drinking. Not a book for those seeking an education in the finer points of wine and its enjoyment-this reads more like a Bryson's book on hiking the AT. Highly recommend.
February 8, 2016
An interesting read for enophiles though not enthralling. Learned a lot about wine regions I didn't know much about i.e. Languedoc, Piedmont, and Tuscany. I appreciated Osbournes historical accounts of the 1855 Bordeaux classification, the evolution of wine descriptors from the 50s to 70s to Parker, and his rationale behind romancing the past and the dehumanizations that comes from the modernizing and homogeneity of today's mass market wines.
January 23, 2009
author looks at wine, wine appreciation, wine growing, wine making, in a few locations around the globe, California, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Tuscany. he talks to some of the biggest, heaviest hitters in the mundo vino, so that's interesting. and he's irreverent as hell, and likes to get drunk and write about it, so that's good too but, skip to page 120 to start and it will be better.
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