cover image What Makes a Wine Worth Drinking: In Praise of the Sublime

What Makes a Wine Worth Drinking: In Praise of the Sublime

Terry Theise. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $25 (192p) ISBN 978-1-328-76221-4

In this enthusiastic manifesto, James Beard Award–winning wine importer Theise (Reading Between the Wines) celebrates unassuming vintages that “make you feel better without your noticing.” Theise supports “small-scale family viticulture” over commercial operations, and offers guidance for interpreting and enjoying the distinctive wines he favors (many originating in regions from which he imports—Champagne in France, as well as Austria and Germany). He reveals how industrial producers manipulate flavors to appeal to mass markets (by using oak, or adding residual sugar); shares his negative opinion of “coarse” high-alcohol wines (he prefers the “clear... animated” vintages with lower alcohol content); and administers caution around trendy, often funky natural wines that can be “no more virtuous than body odor” if not guarded by “a few wise elders.” Theise philosophizes about his relationship with what is, to him, much more than a beverage: “Wine was a citizen of eternity, just as I was, just as we all are.” Yet, despite his disdain for wine writing today, his sensual tasting notes ground the work: a 1953 Riesling “smelled like every weeping buttered nut since the beginning of time,” and with Theise at the helm, a “wine moment” like this feels achievable, even to the novice. This intoxicating book illuminates a path to savoring good wine, body, and spirit. (Nov.)