August 2007: New Review: Dr. Vino's Wine Blog
The URL for Dr. Vino's site is at the end of the review. At the side of the page there's a hyperlink. One click will bring you to the site itself.
Dr Vino’s wine blog
wine talk that goes down easy
The wines of France in 360 compact pages? Heck, I’ve read a book longer than that on one region, the Loire! That was my incredulous reaction when I first spotted The Wines of France: The Essential Guide for Savvy Shoppers by Jacqueline Friedrich across the room at Barnes & Noble.
But upon closer inspection, what this svelte paperback ($13.75 on Amazon) sacrifices in depth, it makes up for in breadth. Friedrich has no shortage of tasting experience–or opinions–and wheels around her quick tour de France in what is essentially an annotated directory. She dispenses with such page-consuming graphics as maps, label images or chateau pictures. Divided into regions, each section leads with a one page overview and then heads straight into an alphabetical listing of producers and subregions. Her favorite producers receive a star, ones to watch get an up arrow, and she usually notes in the text if a producer is “eco-friendly” or not.
This is great for skimming and finding an instant nugget of information, as I could see a flummoxed sommelier or shopkeeper doing. Or you can say “hey what is this Vouvray region I’ve been reading about?” for example. Bam–a couple of ‘grafs on Vouvray and a list of her favorite producers including a paragraph on her six faves (Aubuisieres, Champalou, Chidaine, Gaudrelle, Huet, and Clos Naudin/Foreau for all you Vouvray junkies out there). This can be great for setting up an itinerary. But once there, you may want more info on the producers, which is possible in this case to get from Friedrich since she wrote that 400-page book on the Loire. So when can we expect other regional guides from Friedrich?
So just how are those opinions that she hands out with such ease? Well, they seem quite good on the whole–to wit, I had not tried the Chateau des Jacques wines from Beaujolais that she was rhapsodic about and included them in my recent Bojo tasting and I was very glad I did. However, the parsimony of the star system on display in the tiny Vouvray breaks down in areas where there are many good producers. Consider St. Emilion, where no fewer than 28 producers receive stars. This isn’t an undue amount, but it’s just that fast simplicity is lost. She goes some distance to making up for that with her “Bordeaux crib sheet,” which again narrows the field and includes many worthwhile producers. She seems to punt on the extracted/not-extracted issue, starring the likes of Bon Pasteur and Pavie, while commenting that the controversial 03 Pavie tasted “port-like.”
Ten months on from the publication date, as the 06s have been harvested and the 07s are about to be, I have only one question: what are the chances of getting a 2008 update to this handy little reference?
This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 15th, 2007 at 2:28 pm and is filed under books, French wine, wine travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Aug
15
2007
One Response to “The Wines of France, by Jacqueline Friedrich”
1.
On August 16th, 2007 at 1:03 pm ,Steve wrote:
Yes, this is the #1 must have buying guide for any self-respecting wine geek. My young copy is way dog-eared.
I don’t mind the copious amount of stars - it seems as if her rating of producers is as follows:
not included: either avoid or she missed it
included in appellation lists: buy
profiled: really buy
profiled and starred: buy now
http://drvino.com/2007/08/15/the-wines-of-france-by-jacqueline-friedrich
July 2007 New Review
BOOK REVIEWS (in iSante.com)
The Wines of France: The Essential Guide for Savvy Shoppers
Jacqueline Friedrich
Ten Speed Press
While all pocket-sized wine guides are marketed to consumers, they do serve as on-the-ready reference resources for over-extended beverage managers and sommeliers. When it comes to French wines, there is no better guide than The Wines of France, The Essential Guide for Savvy Shoppers. The subtitle may suggest a consumer-centric treatment, but Friedrich’s book contains a wealth of knowledge garnered over the years by a consummate wine authority and writer. This smart volume, organized by wine region in ten chapters, is filled with razor-sharp insights and with Friedrich as mentor, restaurant buyers can’t miss choosing stellar French wines for their lists.
June 2007: PICTURES!!!!! To see what my living room looked like while I was working on the book, scroll down past the blurbs.
January 11, 2007: a funny thing happened when I was cleaning out my junk mail filter: I found the book had won the Gourmand World Cookbook award for best Wine Guide in English at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Here are some unbiased blurbs from the book’s cover. Reviews and reactions follow.
"Formidable detail; genuine insight; temptations on every page: this could be the most useful single book to take with you to France."
--Hugh Johnson, author (In my opinion, the Shakespeare of wine.)
"This is an incredibly useful, comprehensive, and informative guide. The French still make more great wine than any other nation in the world, but they don't make it easy to understand. Friedrich does. Novices need this book; wine geeks will want it."
--Jay McInerney, author
“I love this book! Jacqueline Friedrich’s
The Wines of France is truly one of the most comprehensive and informative books of its kind. It is an invaluable tool for the wine professional and consumer alike with its organized, in depth coverage of the appellations and their vignerons. It is definitely the perfect companion to have with you on your next trip to the wine shop.”
--Caroline Styne, Owner/Wine Director, Lucques restaurant and AOC winebar
“Jacqueline Friedrich’s latest book is remarkable in its depth and breadth of coverage. It provides an accurate analysis of each producer and region’s styles. My entire staff uses it all the time now and it has become their favorite reference.”
--Thomas Keller, Chef-Owner, The French Laundry and Per Se
"Much needed, fabulously realized--how many guides are this entertaining and filled with useful advice? I like the author's unsnobby approach and compulsively readable style. And I learned so much. Her book is full of great wines at low prices, and she understands that wine is, above all, about pleasure."
--Kermit Lynch, author and (trailblazing) wine importer
“Straightforward, clear, concise, Cartesian, and useful. Reading Jacqueline Friedrich's
The Wines of France you will learn about the revolution in French wine making and that French wines have never been better tasting or better priced than they are now."
--Jacques Pépin, host of numerous PBS-TV cooking series, cookbook author, and cooking teacher
(Nice as this is, I was more flattered by a recent note from Pepin's secretary. She thanked my editor for having sent a complimentary copy and asked if Pepin might have two other copies of the book to give to wine-loving friends for Christmas!)
REVIEWS OF AND REACTIONS TO THE WINES OF FRANCE
February 2007
From the current issue of La Revue du Vin de France, a short but sweet review from Michel Dovaz (get out your dictionaries!):
Un panorama complet du vignoble francais L'Americaine de Paris et de la vallee de la Loire, collaboratrice des guides de Hugh Johnson, du New York times, etc., publie un panorama complet du vignoble et des vins francais. Ici,pas de photographies, mais des cartes simplifiees et priorite au texte, qui le merite: il est dense, fiable, sobre et riche. Les oenophiles francais, qui ne disposent pas de ce type de livre, sont-ils victimes des editeurs ou de leur gout (couteux) pour la photographie?
January 2007
Shopping Guides for Italian and French Wines
(SeniorWomenWeb)
By Sharon Kapnick
A couple of shopping guides for Italian and French wines have recently been published. Although quite different, they’re both a great help in getting a handle on these very important regions.
The Wines of France: The Essential Guide for Savvy Shoppers
Jacqueline Friedrich
Ten Speed Press; $19.95
Jacqueline Friedrich adores French wines, and her enthusiasm is catching. Her new book, The Wines of France: The Essential Guide for Savvy Shoppers, is meant to be just what the title says. It’s helpful whether you’re browsing in wine shops or on websites, studying restaurant wine lists or traveling in France. Friedrich covers 12 regions — Alsace, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Jura and Savoie, Languedoc-Roussillon, the Loire, Provence and Corsica, Rhone and the Southwest. She details their grape varieties and the kinds of wine they make and reviews the producers she likes best, offering tasting notes of some of their wines. If you like, you can take her mini-course, by studying the crib sheets, which feature Must Trys, Smart Buys and Safe Houses. Their information alone is worth the price of admission.
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Award-winning author and certified sommelier Sharon Kapnick has written about food and wine for many magazines, including Time, Food & Wine and Hemispheres, and many newspapers, thanks to the New York Times Syndicate. She wrote several entries for the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America.
©2007 Sharon Kapnick for SeniorWomenWeb
************
(Tony Aspler’s site)
ARTICLES More Articles
The Wines of France: The essential guide for savvy shoppers (January 12, 2007)
book review
by Dean Tudor
The Wines of France: The essential guide for savvy shoppers (Ten Speed Press, 2006, 378 pages, ISBN 1-58008-688-8, $23.95 paper covers) is by Jacqueline Friedrich, a US food and wine writer who splits her time between Paris and the Loire (she had previously written a book on the foods and wines of the Loire which won major awards such as the Glenfiddich and Beard). It has been enthusiastically endorsed by many logrollers, but only Kermit Lynch's words have any real meaning for me.
The book is meant mostly for travelers to France, to indicate the best-value wines there and the hot new winemakers in France. She notes the up-and-coming French wine regions and sub-regions, a boon for the consumer both traveling in France and for buying wines at home. Her listings of top wine producers in each of the ten regions include a broad overview, price ranges, recent vintages, and contact details. Each region has a basic map and a one-page crib sheet for lists of "Must Trys," "Smart Buys," "General Good Values" and "Safe Houses". Believe it or not, Ontario imports a ton of "Safe Houses"!
France created the benchmark wines: pinot noir in Burgundy, sauvignon blanc in Loire, riesling in Alsace, shiraz-syrah in North Rhone, sparkling in Champagne. Unfortunately, while France makes (to most of us) the best and worst wines in the world (and charges accordingly), they are not business marketers. Friedich documents this quite well and notes all the changes. But perceptions of inexpensive wines are slow to change – just ask the Ontario wine people. Her takes on unknown wines are valuable: just check out the sections on Jura, Savoie, Languedoc, Provence, and the Southwest of Bergerac and Gaillac. There is a small piece on how to order wine in a French restaurant or in a wine store (she lists eight top stores in Paris), as well as a glossary and an index.
Audience and level of use: Travellers, French wine lovers, libraries.
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: She comments on extreme wines (micro-oxygenated, garagiste, biodynamic, hypernatural): "And the resulting wines were plush, immediately seductive, awash in sumptuous ripe fruit and fine oak flavors, and low in acid; any abrasive tannins were absent." Hardly a food wine.
The downside to this book: It is a bit oversized for ease of portability by hand.
The upside to this book: She is very diplomatic. About Beyer wines, a major Alsatian producer in the Ontario marketplace and found in many restaurants, she says "They are pleasant and professional and suited to the distractions of a bustling public space." Is this lady available to write up the rest of the world's wine regions?
Quality/Price Rating: 95
(NOTE THAT ON HIS OWN BLOG HE REPRINTS THIS REVIEW UNDER THE HEADING “WINE BOOK OF THE MONTH”)
From Jancis Robinson's superb website:www.jancisrobinson.com
(Explanatory note: I had placed a query on the members' forum site asking if anyone knew anything about a grape called Verdanel. I forgot to sign my name, thinking it would be automatic. There were a number of responses, among them:)
Jancis Robinson (Mission Control) (08:54 AM - Dec 9, 2006)
Just mended Jacqueline's subscription details so that she is no longer billed as Anonymous, which would indeed be highly inappropriate for such an accomplished wine writer.
Everyone should know that she has just produced a stunningly useful and opinionated new book, The Wines of France , a paperback regional then alphabetical directory of France's better wine producers and appellations with contact details (including lots of email addresses - manna) and Jacqueline's trademark passionately held opinions. It's well designed and vary easy to navigate. I shall certainly be taking it with me to Burgundy next week. It's published by Ten Speed Press of California who are at www.tenspeed.com.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
December 6, 2006 The New York Times
The Pour
Settling in, Glass in Hand, to Read of Wine
By ERIC ASIMOV
USED to be you could tell the time of year in New York by the weather, but you can’t always count on that anymore. This week’s chill was preceded by a spell of humid muck that required other means for gauging the season. Like the Christmas trees on the streets, despite the salesmen in shorts. And, for me at least, the wine books that engulf my desk before the holidays.
Not that I mind. Most people who love wine love reading about wine, the regions where it is made and the people who make it. Among this year’s crop, here are six volumes that I found especially noteworthy. ...
With their emphasis on tasting notes and vintages, shopping guides can be hard slogging, but three new ones offer absorbing reading. Foremost among them is The Wines of France: The Essential Guide for Savvy Shoppers (Ten Speed Press, $19.95) by Jacqueline Friedrich, whose last book, “The Wine and Food Guide to the Loire,” published in 1996, cries out for a new edition. In this book she embraces France region by region, offering opinionated reviews of producers and concise demystifications of the French nomenclature that bedevils American consumers.
Ms. Friedrich does not try to be complete, but she clearly understands the trends that are reshaping the French wine industry. She shows a marked preference for what she calls hypernatural wines, those made with the least intervention possible, yet she is sympathetic to styles that would seem to be diametrically opposite, like the plush, oaky garagiste wines of St.-Émilion.
{Note from me: I certainly appreciate having been singled out by Asimov but take issue with just two things: I don't think I have a marked preference for hypernatural wines, and I do think the guide is pretty complete. But that's what makes horse races. I think Mariani, whose review is below, gets it exactly right -- or totally gets what I hoped to do. That, as they say, is what makes horse races.}
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Holiday Cheer -- Four New Books on Wine and Beer: John Mariani
By John Mariani
Nov. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Three new volumes about wine, and one on beer, have impressed me for the pleasure of their prose as well as the depth of their expertise. For the holiday season I would happily give them to friends who like to read as much as they like to drink.
Passion for France
Despite its wide-eyed subtitle, the ``The Wines of France: The Essential Guide for Savvy Shoppers'' (Ten Speed Press, 384 pages, $19.95) by Jacqueline Friedrich is highly informed, offering far more than the usual screed of regional names and endless tasting notes. It's personalized but based on decades of Friedrich's visits and interviews with the best and the not-so- wonderful vignerons of France, and I trust her judgment -- especially with less familiar young wineries.
``There's the occasional rough edge in the wines from this eco-friendly family domaine,'' she writes of Rene Simonis in Alsace, ``but most of what I've tasted is delicious. The limpid, sweet riesling Cuvee Reserve is charmingly (sic*) priced.... The mellow, syrupy tokay-gris Vogelgarten VT would be lovely paired with fish in a mushrooms sauce.''
Friedrich, who is never doctrinaire or didactic like Robert M. Parker, splits her time between Paris and the Loire Valley. She has no agenda, and throughout more than 300 pages her enthusiasm and passion for French wines comes through in descriptions of even the most obscure bottles. It's a lively read, like spending time with a connoisseur who would rather share than preach.
(* the word should be 'charitably') (The other three books are the third edition of Jancis Robinson's Oxford Companion to Wine, a book on Italian wine and another on beer.
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Michèle PIRON SOULAT
Communication Vinicole Internationale
Ton livre est un guide personnel... A l'ouverture il a l'air hyper rigide et sévère, mais à la lecture des appréciations très sympas et chaleureuses, surtout précises et justes (pour ceux que je connais)... Et surtout quel travail ! on se rend compte du temps que tu as passé, car c'est bref sur chacun mais précis.
Un guide donc qui fait la différence, bravo !
(Michele, a trained enologist, is one of the best PR people in France.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bonjour Jacqueline,
Je viens de recevoir ton livre. C'est un double cadeau: le livre en lui-même, et les choses que tu y écris.
Merci donc et double merci! Je suis également très heureux de lire tes excellents commentaires sur des collègues que j'apprécie beaucoup.
Je l'ai parcouru avec avidité, et mes premières impressions sont confirmées. Le style est direct, enthousiaste et spontané. Un vrai bain de jouvence au beau milieu de cette presse spécialisée pompeuse, rabacheuse et défraichie.
Le livre est vraiment original, dans sa forme et dans son contenu. Tu évites également le piège des notes ou des étoiles. C'est un vrai travail d'auteur, de créateur, et de journaliste. Je suis sûr qu'un grande quantité d'amateur trouveront leur bonheur dans ce livre.
Et bravo pour l'humour!
Finalement ton livre n'est pas sans me rappeller, par sa verve et son style alerte et piquant, celui de Kermit Lynch ("Voyage à travers les vignobles de France").
Faut-il que ce soit vous, les américains, qui nous apportiez un peu de vent frais et de fantaisie?
En tout cas, bravo! Ca valait le coup que tu croules sous les échantillons.
Amitiés,
Alain (This is Alain Hasard from Champs de l'Abbaye in Burgundy.)
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(Many of France's wine committees have written notes similar to the one below.)
Bonjour,
Je tenais personnellement à vous remercier de vos écrits sur l'appellation Côtes de Bourg pour votre guide "the wines of France".
Votre approche qualitative de l'appellation est extrèmement fine et votre sélection reflète une véritable connaissance du monde des vins.
A très bientôt dans les Côtes de Bourg
Didier Gontier
Directeur du Syndicat Viticole des Côtes de Bourg
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