Summer Wine Book Recc

Never had I been on a train where someone was reading over my shoulder and said – “Wow! What is that book you are reading?”

After my description they bought it immediately.

This happened last week and it was a wine book of all things. And this person was only mildly curious about wine.

That is the power of Andrew Jefford’s writing. He is a writer first – wine writer a lucky coincidental second for us!

I have always seen wine as a lens to see the world – from climate change, cultural traditions, sensorial highs and as a communion with the transcendental and timeless.

Jefford explores all of this in his beautiful, relatable and refreshingly honest prose. Warning – the old guard of wine may struggle with his calling out on the idiosyncrasies of wine language, the reductive nature of wine tastings and his questioning of ‘what really is the best wine’.

Having been in the industry for 15 years, it’s easy to become lazy in ones tasting of wine but Jefford’s words made me so excited to grab a glass and engage on a multi-sensory journey with this delectable liquid.  

It’s also very funny. His inclusion of a reference to ‘The Godfather’ in regards to Burgundy made me genuinely crease up… and made me look at Marsannay and Santenay in a whole new light.

Surely this is what wine writing should be about?

It should be the curious physical and spiritual examination of wine as ‘the original universal medicine’; the ethics of drinking wine  from dubiously moral regions, how it relates to properties and traditions of tea as well as to specific soils and skies, how we keep our palates and bodies fit as well as providing the reader with some  of the most enchanting vignettes of the people, places and food one can discover on our personal wine journeys. 

There is something here for everyone – from the scientific, to the hilarious and the profound.

I can never do justice to Jefford’s penmanship but I would urge everyone who is remotely curious about wine and the world to grab a copy. 

But for me,  a wine professional and wine lover, this book is the greatest testament why we should, in Jefford’s words: 

“value wine as one of the most beautiful of human artifacts, and one whose being reflects, with shocking fidelity, the unconformities and irregularities of our earthly home.”

Thank you for sharing these collections of essays with us Andrew, and thank you so much @academieduvin for publishing them. Available for £15.00 at Academieduvin and also Amazon…