New Wine Book - A Great Present for Wine Lovers

‘The Wine in My Glass – Tales of Wines, Winemakers and Places’

I have to preface this with a warning that this post is publicity for a new wine book for which any/all profits go to charity, to Vendanges Solidaires, an association that helps winery owners whose crop and livelihood has been ruined by the ever more frequent extremes of the weather.

That said, I can admit that I wrote and financed it, so if you enjoy this blog, hopefully the book might bring pleasure too.

I don’t like scores or tasting notes which are generally boring, personal and outdated, but I do like people, places and the stories behind them. So, this is not a book about showing off the ego-boosting labels that I might have drunk or a lecture on what you ‘should’ buy, but one that travels from California to Sicily, via Salta, Jujuy and Patagonia in Argentina; Valtellina, Piemonte and Tuscany in Italy; Madeira and of course all over France (Burgundy, Chablis, Sancerre, Beaujolais, Bordeaux, the Rhone). What I am trying to do is capture some of the characters, the places and beauty, their histories and hopefully some of the fun and joy that goes with vineyards and a glass in hand.

The Chapel in La Morra, Barolo

Being just a passionate amateur with no professional or financial interests, I can say what I actually think, (which is not always the case with those in the trade whose business may depend at least partly on being invited to tastings and receiving bottles) and I suspect that you can often have more honest fun with winemakers when you are a keen nobody, and I’ve been fortunate enough to do this for over 30 years, well before the era of cult labels, influencers and stratospheric prices.

Cactus, vines and multicoloured Andes in Jujuy, Argentina

Along the way you will encounter prehistoric dinosaurs, truffle hounds, Napoleon and his nemesis Nelson, Homeric ogres, Churchill, prescient medieval dukes, vines at over 10,000 feet high (3,000 metres), volcanoes, seventeenth century London diarists, Michelangelo and da Vinci, painters in Barolo, a wizard in Montalcino and a couple of queens (& a king) of England. And, of course, a lot of wines and the stories that make them.

A remarkable Medieval Duke, father of Pinot Noir

What also makes this book unusual and special is that it’s beautifully and wittily illustrated by Arabella (whom some will recall from Willis Wine Bar in Paris).

As it’s all for a good cause I hope you will buy a copy and enjoy it, and then pass on the word, as we have few contacts in the wine or book trade.

‘The Wine in My Glass – Tales of Wines, Winemakers and Places’

Published by The Medlar Press Limited, Fishguard, Pembrokeshire, September 2025. www.medlarpress.com       

https://medlarpress.com/bookstore/?store-page=The-Wine-in-My-Glass-p768838784

Available from Medlar in UK, and/or from me in France.

Price UK Pounds 26 or 30 Euros. All profits to charity.

The most famous vineyard of all