num_pages: 335
description: Andrew Jefford is in the words of winemaker Randall Grahm the most thoughtful person we have writing about wine. Discover why in this selection from Jeffords work celebrating the limitless beauty of wine difference. This book anatomizes the pleasure that awaits every drinker while simultaneously furnishing a philosophy of wine  one founded on astonishment and drawing on personal discovery rather than hierarchy and mastery. There is no other wine writing like this.Poet philosopher author radio presenter and journalist Andrew lives in France; but buried deep in one wine country what does he miss most about the rest? The Drinking young port. Its the wine drinkers equivalent of zorbing wing-walking base-jumping  you wont fully understand it unless you have tasted it young in its Ride of the Valkyries stage when it comes hurtling out of the glass and puts the screamers on youAndrew Jefford is the ideal companion for anyone wine-curious. In this collection of his essays opinions and articles he shares his fascinating observations from half a century of discovery. For Andrew wine should be listened to and admired wherever it comes from; old-school pretentions turned on their head; style-points disdained; stellar prices dismissed; questions asked Which is wines greater the villainous Mistral or the blue Mediterranean? Chablis shivers (undoubtedly) but does it really taste of stone? take a single grape like this and you can make wines as soft as a trembling jellyfish or as resolute as a guardsman: how can this happen? Do the factors affecting wine flavour influence anything else in our lives? Like tea cheese lentils or roses? Or violins? Has wine been around longer than man? The tragedy of wines transactional is expensive wine really the best? Making wine strange should true wine lovers find astonishment in every newglass? A lifes wine is a representation of the worlds intricacy and beauty but whychoose it for a career? Lessons from the winemakers and novelists  as harnessers of emotionalforce are they the same?
language: English
title: Drinking with the Valkyries: Writings on Wine
publisher: Académie du Vin Library