ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 23, 1997 TAG: 9704230018
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 8 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: THE WINE LIST
SOURCE: BETH CRITTENDEN
Are you looking for the perfect gift for mom, dad, your co-workers or other gift-deserving people for all the upcoming spring occasions? Consider a gift of wine or a wine-related present.
If you haven't yet taken the opportunity to thank a secretary today, local wine shops have gift baskets available in all price ranges, ready-made or created to your specifications. Or you may prefer to buy a special bottle of wine as a gift, suited to the recipient's taste.
Some of my favorite wine gifts include Robert Pecota Moscato D'Andrea, a delicate sweet wine that comes in a half bottle (.375 ml). It's perfect as a chilled afternoon sipper, for dessert or before dinner, and appeals to wine newcomers as well as experts. Chartron La Fleur Bordeaux Blanc is an inexpensive, crisp and refreshing wine, great for shellfish and warm weather. Chardonnay fans will cherish the smooth Calera Chardonnay from California's Central Coast. Red wine lovers will adore Silver Oak Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, which can be hard to find, but worth the search.
Local bookstores are carrying a wealth of wine books. A few ``wine courses'' provide readers with step-by-step guides to understanding and appreciating wine. ``The Wine Tasting Class'' by Judy Ridgeway (Clarkson Potter Publishing) offers 12 lessons on tasting and learning about wine and features a step-by-step guide on how to structure a wine tasting so you can put into practice what you have learned. It costs about $40.
For visual entertainment, illustrator Ralph Steadman's ``The Grapes of Ralph'' ($35, Harcourt Brace & Co.) presents a humorous, often irreverent view of growing grapes and making wine in various winemaking regions around the world. Sketches of stern-looking little grape people in Bulgaria and descriptions of the world's darkest grapes, grown in Portugal before they are squished by six pairs of feet, give this book a Gary Larson kind of humor that I found fun to read.
``Daniel Johnnes's Top 200 Wines'' ($14.95, Penguin Books) is appropriately billed as ``An Expert's Guide to Maximum Enjoyment for Your Dollar.'' I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who did not already have a solid knowledge of wines and wine regions. For the expert, however, this comprehensive guide gives lots of insight and information on where to look for high-value wines and how to shop for a personal wine collection.
Wine novices (as well as experts) can learn a lot from Ed McCarthy and Mary Ewing Mulligan's light-hearted, but extremely informative ``Wine for Dummies'' ($16.99, IDG Books World Wide, Inc.).
``TasteTour WineGuides,'' $74.95, by Ronn Wiegand and Brenda Boblitt, self-published by TasteTour, Napa, Calif., comes as a set of six guidebooklets, one for each of six grape varietals, and tells ``everything a person needs to know about each varietal,'' including food-pairing suggestions, regions and districts where it's grown and general styles. You can find out more or order it through the Internet at www.winetaste.com or by calling (707) 224-4777.
Cheers!
RECOMMENDED SPRING WINES
Robert Pecota Moscato D'Andrea, Calif., $11 (half bottle)*
Chartron La Fleur Bordeaux Blanc, France, $7.50*
Calera Chardonnay (Central Coast), Calif., $17*
Silver Oak Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, Calif., $40*
*PRICES ARE APPROXIMATE THE WINE LIST runs monthly in the Extra section. Beth Crittenden is a local wine wholesaler, wine educator, writer and founder of the Roanoke Valley Wine Society, which usually meets for programs on the fourth Thursday of each month. If you have a wine-related question, or would like more information on the society, call 562-2078.
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