I don't review many books on this blog but Living with Wine by Samantha Nestor was too tantalizing to pass up. What wine collector wouldn't want a voyeuristic photographic tour of some of the most luxurious, tasteful, "high design" wine cellars in the U.S.? After all, how could you possibly design a better one than your friends if you don't have sufficient examples to stimulate how high to set your standards?
"Wow" cellars
Living with Wine showcases 30 cellars in 256 pages including associated tasting rooms, storage areas, and some perspective from the owners (some of whom have celebrity status). The cellars are split into five categories with names like "The Gentlemen's Haven" and "Urban Retreats and Inspiring Spaces." Each cellar is aptly named too with appropriate (and clever) names like "The Man Cave". "Chelsea Girl", and "Morrocan Moods."
Various styles, sizes, and ambiances of wine cellars are depicted with large scale, glossy photos (including double page spreads to ensure you can fully capture the scale of some cellars). I wasn't surprised the author works at
Metropolitan Home magazine as that design flair comes through. The book is coffee-table sized (pages are 12 inches high by 11 inches wide) and its cover photo (see above) just begs you to open it.
The good news for those of you looking to use this book as a guide to finding the right resources for your own purposes is that Samantha included a detailed list of resources used to create each cellar from designers to architects to cooling system providers.
Bottom line: Every wine collector would love to have this book. As the holidays approach, it's a great gift idea instead of the latest wine accessory or botltle of wine for your wine collector friends (or spouse). The book retails for $75 but you can pre-order it at Amazon using one the links above for $47.25 (it releases in two days on October 27).
P.S. All book reviews such as this are offered to readers without receiving any compensation from book publishers (other than a free copy of the book to review) or commissions from book sales.
