One night, Sanders (From Here, You Can't See Paris
) sat outside a hotel in southwestern France. An old Frenchman explained to the American that he had no use for wine criticism or the numerical rankings that hold sway in today's wine world: " 'Me, I say I like this wine or I don't like this wine.' " Sanders focuses on three winemakers in one of France's secondary wine regions, Cahors, following its "difficult" and "shy" eponymous wine (made primarily from the Malbec grape) from vine to barrel to glass. In doing so, he seeks to capture a way of life that existed before global marketing and the influence of the American wine critic Robert Parker, who devised the ranking system. Sanders shows the winemakers in the family-owned, family-run vineyards; describes the pathos of the harvest during the drought-ridden year of 2003; and even explains how barrels are made. Laced throughout this solid, affectionate portrait are unusual insights (e.g., "Built into the concept of terroir... is the simple acknowledgement that the French winemaker knows all this as a sailor knows from the way his boat moves through the water that his sails are trimmed as they should be"). Sanders succeeds in showing us that a knowledge of wine really can't be imparted by experts, that it takes firsthand experience and time. (Apr.)
