Hedonist in the Cellar or MinuteMeals

Hedonist in the Cellar: Adventures in Wine

Author: Jay McInerney

In the two decades since Bright Lights, Big City reinvigorated contemporary fiction, Jay McInerney can claim a great many accomplishments, including the mantle that Salon has given him: “the best wine writer in America.” Of his previous collection, Bacchus and Me, Robert M. Parker, Jr., concluded:  “Brilliant, witty, comical, and often shamelessly candid and provocative.” And The New York Times added: “McInerney’s wine judgments are sound, his anecdotes witty, and his literary references impeccable. Not many wine books are good reads; this one is.”

In A Hedonist in the Cellar, he gathers more than five years’ worth of essays and continues his exploration of what’s new, what’s enduring, and what’s surprising, giving his palate a complete workout and the reader an indispensable, idiosyncratic guide to a world of almost infinite variety. Rieslings from the Finger Lakes, Armagnac from Gascony, powerhouse amarones from Valpolicella, the most fearsome critics in England, chocolate-friendly bottles from all over the globe, new developments in Chile and Argentina—these are only some of the delights now ready to be savored in a collection driven not only by wine itself but also the people who make it and those whose enjoyment is matched by their curiosity. 

Full of terroir and flavor, svelte personalities, and keen insight into the trade, these are irresistible essays for anyone enthralled by the manifold pleasures of wine.

The Washington Post - Bruce Schoenfeld

In the prologue to A Hedonist in the Cellar, his second collection of columns, [McInerney] offers what may be the clearest, most direct explanation I've read for why wine is worthy of our interest. It's "an inexhaustible subject," he writes, "which leads us, if we choose to follow, into the realms of geology, botany, meteorology, history, aesthetics, and literature. Ideally, the appreciation of wine is balanced between consumption and pleasure on the one hand and contemplation and analysis on the other." I promptly ran down to the cellar to grab a bottle.

The New York Times - Michael Steinberger

… what's impressive is how fresh and jargon-free McInerney's wine writing remains a decade into his House & Garden gig. From start to finish, first sip to last, A Hedonist in the Cellar is crisp, stylish and very funny.

Publishers Weekly

Those who've ever thought wine writing was a bit sniffy will find McInerney's cheeky and informative squibs on wine a generous, almost ham-handed pleasure. In this collection of short essays, reproduced from his monthly column in House & Garden, the increasingly avid reader is enveloped in the various wines he tastes. It's sexy. But it's not just wine that's sexy here, it's also the people who have "caught the wine bug" and dedicate themselves to making their own labels. McInerney (Bright Lights, Big City; The Good Life) ferrets out the small winemakers, investigates their ethos and tastes their efforts with the same glee and tireless interest he dedicates to the big bottlers. This sense of discovery permeates each essay as he links the wine to its history, where the grapes come from and the culture that goes into its making. Readers will learn more than even the most dedicated oenephile can use, but everyone can be inspired to find the next bottle of something special for any occasion. (Oct.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Table of Contents:

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

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