Corkscrewed: Adventures in the New French Wine Country

by Robert V. Camuto

Robert V. Camuto’s interest in wine turned into a passion when he moved to France and began digging into local soils and cellars. Corkscrewed recounts Camuto’s journey through France’s myriad regions—and how the journey brought about a profound change in everything he believed about wine. 

The world of great wines was once dominated by great Bordeaux châteaux. As those châteaux were bought up by moguls and international corporations, the heart of French winemaking moved into the realm of small producers, whose wines reflect the stunning diversity of regional environment, soil, and culture—terroir. In this book we follow Camuto across France as he works harvesting grapes in Alsace, learns about wine and bombs in Corsica, and eats and drinks his way through the world’s greatest bacchanalia in Burgundy. Along the route he discovers a new generation of winemakers who have rejected chemicals, additives, and technologically altered wines. His book charts an odyssey into this new world of French wine, a world of biodynamic winegrowing, herbal treatments, lunar cycles, and grape varieties long ago dismissed as “difficult.” A celebration of the diversity that makes French wine more than a mere commodity, Camuto’s work is a delightful look beyond the supermarket to the various flavors offered by the true vintners of France.

Genres: Wine, France

212 pages, Hardcover

First published October 29, 2008

About the author

Robert Camuto is a prize-winning American author and journalist, who has lived in Europe with his family from the outset of the 21st century.

Here he has immersed in the terroirs of France and Italy, writing about wine, food, culture and travel for many publications and authoring a series of books in his personal and soulful style.

A contributing editor of features for the Wine Spectator since 2008, Camuto writes a twice monthly column, Robert Camuto Meets…, for winespectator.com.

A native New Yorker and graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, Camuto has had an incredibly varied journalistic career – from writing about New Wave music in the San Francisco area to covering Texas politics. In the 1990s he founded Fort Worth’s (still publishing) alternative newspaper FW Weekly (sold in 2000).

As an American in Europe, he has contributed to publications including Food & Wine, the Washington Post – Travel, Cucina Italiana, and Michelin Green Guides.

Over the course of his career he has become an accomplished profiler of people—from the poet Charles Bukowski to the likes of Sting, John Malkovich, and the many fascinating characters he has met along the wine roads of Europe.

He has been a home winemaker. And he speaks frequently about wine personalities, Italy, France, and storytelling. He is based in Verona, Italy.

Reviews

[Dvora Treisman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about France and about the making of wine, but in addition it is about some interesting characters met along the exploratory wine route. If you like this, you would probably also like Adventures On the Wine Route by Kermit Lynch, written some years ago.

[Jeannie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wine production in France and the new world is so different, so I found this book really helpful in understanding French wine-making. As preparation for a vacation in France it was excellent.

[Pete · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. I found that I kept searching to see if any of my local wine purveyors stocked more recent vintages of the wines mentioned in the book.

Luckily, I happened to have a 2009 Domaine Leon Barral Faugères "Jadis" in my cellar. (See Chapter 7) It was an excellent accompaniment to a grilled bone in rib-eye steak.

[Benjamin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that delivers on all parts! Excellent story telling, great people of the vine were profiled and simply written with class.

[Alex Rauket · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable romp through quiet french villages and not so quiet french personalities.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned that I need to move to France and quit my job...How does one get so lucky to learn about the wines, the terroir, the lucky chance discoveries, and the historical significance of a particular grape first hand from the very men who live and breathe in the vines?? The book strikes a good balance between the story telling and lives of the men and women who dedicate themselves to the making of the wine, the passion (or in some cases matter of factness) that drives them, the adventures the author encounters in his discoveries of wine as a living and breathing character in its own right, and the beauty of the simple lifestyle and background for a story that couldn't be told from any other place. I'm not sure whether the goal is to make readers jealous of his experiences, but Camuto certainly finds himself in an enviable position! It's a pleasurable light read for anyone with even a passing interest in wine, France, or discussion of the benefits of organic farming techniques.

[Marya Valli · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable, thoughtful series of vignettes as the author meets fascinating winemaking characters throughout France. I wish only that he had expressed a bit more of his own developing sense of what makes a good wine. Food for thought, with less of an agenda than "Mondovino" but some of the same conclusions.

[Debbie Ellis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another great educational book regarding how the smaller vineyards make their remarkable wines. Owning a home in the Languedoc allowed me to feel I was living vicariously about the vineyards through Robert's book. I look forward to reading his next book about wines from Sicily called Palemino.

[Peter Murray · Rating 3 out of 5]

A wonderful gallivant through the vineyards of France where we meet in equal parts the beauty of the country, the beauty of the wine and the mechanics of making it, and the politics and people dedicating their lives to running the vineyards.

[Mark]

Bo-ring.