Hedonist in the Cellar: Adventures in Wine Book

Introduction     XIII
Foreplay
My Favorite White     3
Friulis Favorite Son: Tocai Friulano     7
Thin Is In: The New Wave of California Chardonnays     11
The Whites of the Andes     15
The Forgotten Whites of Bordeaux     19
No Respect: Soave     23
Gray Is the New White: Pinot Gris     27
Translating German Labels     31
"All Wine Wishes It Could Be Red"
The Shedistas of Santa Barbara     37
The Roasted Slope of the Rhone     41
The House Red of the Montagues and the Capulets     46
"An Extreme, Emotional Wine": Amarone     50
Cape Crusaders: South African Reds     54
The Black Wine of Cahors     58
Major Barbera     62
Go Ask Alice: The Dark Secret of Bandol     66
The Spicy Reds of Chile     70
Malbec Rising     74
Personality Test: Julia's Vineyard     78
How to Impress Your Sommelier
How to Impress Your Sommelier, Part One: German Riesling     85
No More Sweet Talk, or How to Impress Your Sommelier, Part Two: Austrian Riesling     89
The Semi-Obscure Treasures of Alsace     93
The Discreet Charms of Old-Style Rioja     97
The Mysterious Beauty of Sagrantino di Montefalco     101
Lovers, Fighters, and Other Obsessives
Oedipus at Hermitage: Michel Chapoutier     107
Ghetto Boys: Greg Brewer and Steve Clifton Get Radical     111
Jilted Lover: Auberon Waugh     115
The Obsessive: Remirez de Ganuza     119
Berkeley's French Ambassador: Kermit Lynch     123
The Mad Scientist of Jadot     127
Voice in the Wilderness: Willy Frank and the Finger Lakes     131
Finessing the Fruit Bombs     135
Mountain Men: The Smith Brothers of Smith-Madrone     139
Do the Brits Taste Differently? Michael Broadbent and Jancis Robinson     143
Robert Mondavi's Bizarro Twin: The Passions and Puns of Randall Grahm     147
Expensive Dates
First Among Firsts? The Glories of Cheval-Blanc     153
The Name's Bond     158
"A Good and Most Perticular Taste": Haut-Brion     162
The Maserati of Champagne     166
Bacchanalian Dreambook: The Wine List at La Tour d'Argent     170
Matches Made in Heaven
Fish Stories from Le Bernardin     177
What to Drink with Chocolate     181
Provencal Pink     185
Odd Couples: What to Drink with Asian Food     189
Bin Ends
Baby Jesus in Velvet Pants: Bouchard and Burgundy     195
Strictly Kosher     199
Body and Soil     203
New Zealand's Second Act     208
Bubbles and Spirits
Number Two and Bitching Louder: Armagnac     215
White on White: Blanc de Blancs Champagne     219
Monk Business: The Secrets of Chartreuse     223
Tiny Bubbles: Artisanal Champagnes     227
The Wild Green Fairy: Absinthe     231
Epilogue: What I Drank on My Forty-eighth Birthday     337
Selected Bibliography     241