We're making our annual recommendations of regional books about food and wine. Today, two more, one of which we've already reviewed.
Langdon Cook, who wrote a book about foraging a few years ago called "Fat of the Land," is back this year with a book about mushroom hunting. It's a delight, as we wrote in these very columns back in September. "The Mushroom Hunters" (Ballantine, $26) may describe your average weekend, or, for the more sedentary, the closest you get to a trek through the woods. Either way, highly recommended.
Katherine Cole grew up in Seattle and currently lives in Portland, where she's the wine critic for The Oregonian. Her new book, "Complete Wine Selector: How to choose the right wine every time" (Firefly Books,$24.95) sounds slightly intimidating, as if there were anything as disastrous as picking the wrong wine. But the foreword is by no less than the distinguished wine historian Hugh Johnson, and he's saying we should pay attention,
Cole builds a whole wine primer around the structure of wine flavors and weights (from light, aromatic whites to rich sweet reds), a concept that Johnson himself had sketched out 30 years ago with his own "Wine Companion." Cole has fleshed out the concept, explaining that it's far better to organize wine by style than by geography. Crisp, lean whites, for example, include Italy's Soave, Germany's silvaners, French melon de bourgogne (Muscadet), Spanish Albarinos and Portuguese Vinho Verde. Moving along to lively, aromatic whites, Cole lists sauvignon blanc from New Zealand, pinot gris from Oregon, gewurztraminer from Alsace, and riesling from Germany. For sparkling wines, there's true Champagne, of course, but also prosecco from Italy, cava from Spain and Sekt from Germany. On the red side, medium-bodied reds like Italy's sangiovese is in the same category as tempranillo from Spain. Richer, fuller-bodied? Try Malbec from Argentina, merlot from Bordeaux, nebbiolo from northern Italy, or shiraz from Australia, or Zinfandel from California.
But the ten wine styles are just the skeleton for a raft of suggestions on what to eat, what to spend, what the experts like, where to buy (Pike & Western is her pick in Seattle). Cole's previous book, "Voodoo Vintners," described (and deftly skewered) the earnest, well-meaning and self-absorbed practice of biodynamic wine making in Oregon. Now firmly in the mainstream, Cole has assembled a terrific guide to the entire world of wine.
Coming up next: three or four more selections.
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