The Wine Collector

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.

The New Yorker Book of Wine Cartoons is one of my favorite Christmas presents received yesterday. Collecting wine should be fun and the 90 pages of wine-related cartoons in this book will bring a smile to any wine lover's face.

The book, published in 2004, appears to be out of print now but you can still buy it used on Amazon (which is where mine came from). Or, just pay a visit to the New Yorker's site, Cartoonbank.com, search for "wine" and view all 219 wine cartoons.

P.S. The eRobertParker.com site also has a wine cartoon of the week (site subscribers only though).

No wine collector can ignore the market impact of Robert Parker’s reviews and scores. My last post was about a recent Bloomberg article written by Elin McCoy but she is better known to me for authoring the best-selling The Emperor of Wine: The Rise of Robert Parker, Jr., and the Reign of American Taste.

While her book was first published in mid-2005 and in paperback in mid-2006, it will remain a classic as it delivers rare personal insights into Robert Parker and his abilities. Personally, even though I’ve never met him, I felt like I had a personal connection after reading the book and a greater admiration for what he’s achieved.

Bottom line: It’s an entertaining “must read” for any wine collector or enthusiast if you’re looking for a good last minute holiday gift item.

Over lunch today with the charming, down-to-earth Karen MacNeil in St. Helena, she mentioned that her book, The Wine Bible, has sold over 380,000 copies compared to the average for a wine book of only 6,000 copies. Released in 2001, sales are still going strong (still ranked #957 on Amazon amongst all books). While this is a great book for a wine novice, it’s equally appealing to the experienced wine collector, especially in its succinct coverage of wine regions often neglected by collectors like Germany. Selling for less than $14 on Amazon, this 904-pager (which took Karen 10 years to write) is a steal and another great holiday gift idea.

Karen just released a new book on food and wine pairing in September 2006 titled Wine, Food & Friends. It apparently sold out of its 100,000 copy pre-release production run so Karen may soon have the top two best-selling wine books of all time.