Back to school & work !
Our reading suggestions about wine
It's back to school time! The end of vacation often signals the return of busy weekly schedules and personal and professional responsibilities. But it's still important to dedicate time to hobbies that we often put aside due to lack of time. Among these leisure activities, reading has the advantage of being able to be practiced in most time contexts. Take advantage of any downtime on public transportation or in your healthcare professional's waiting room to devour a few pages of books that will tell you the story of wine or give it a special place at the heart of their narrative. Here are a few suggestions, available at any good bookstore.
Histoire des grands vins
Discover the secrets of the greatest vintages in history, the wines famous since Antiquity, in a comic book documentary! The duo Benoist Simmat and Daniel Casanave, authors of The Incredible History of Wine, deliver in this comic book multiple anecdotes on the thousand-year-old saga of great wines. "This is about the history of famous wines, since Antiquity and all over the planet" with an angle, "that of great wines, their vineyards and their appellations."
The story : It all began in ancient times in Eastern Anatolia, not far from where Noah's Ark is said to have run aground according to the Bible; Noah is said to have planted vines there and made wine. Field studies, archaeology, and genetics show that 9,000 years BC, humanity domesticated grapes, which until then had been a very tenacious wild vine. In Transcaucasia (present-day Georgia), one of the oldest vineyards is found, dating back to 6,000 BC. It is with near certainty that the ancient Georgians invented viticulture, organized the first trade involving wine, and began to ritualize the sharing of wine. From the fertile lands of ancient Canaan to the rich terroirs of Northern California, the search for exceptional, praiseworthy wines is a quest for perfection. It also marks the oligarchy's hold on these elitist products. A global epic told for the first time by the authors of the bestseller The Incredible History of Wine, translated into 10 languages.
About the authors : Benoist Simmat is a business journalist, a recognized specialist in the global wine economy, and head of news for La Revue du vin de France. Co-author of several essays, including La Guerre des vins (Flammarion, 2012), he is also the writer of comic-reportage novels such as Robert Parker, La Gauche bling-bling, and La Ligue des économistes extraordinaires.
A jack-of-all-trades, Daniel Casanave is a comic book author, writer, and set designer. Passionate about history and literature, he explores the world of comics through these lenses. He has notably adapted Jarry's Ubu roi and contributed to An Incredible Adventure of Attila the Hun – The Scourge of God and Nerval the Inconsolable.
For your next wine-sports getaway
About : Travel through France and enjoy its organic wines! What better way to understand an organic wine than to walk in the terroir from which it comes? From Haut-Languedoc to Brittany, from the Pyrenees to Metz via Châteauneuf-du-Pape, explore France to meet its wines and winemakers. Passionate about wine and terroir, Damien Courcoux has traveled the trails of France to select 50 itineraries that end, without exception, with a glass in hand. Wines and a wide variety of grape varieties chosen by a connoisseur, a spotlight on organic wines, renowned wine regions and new terroirs, 50 hikes in all seasons and for all levels.
Randos Vin en France by Damien Courcoux and published by Helvetiq, offers 50 hikes through the vineyards of France. From Chablis to Bordeaux, via Paris, Marseille, Pommard, Château-Neuf-du-Pape… 566km that reveal the intimacy of the wines of passionate winemakers. The routes, with an average length of 11km, form loops starting from wineries, urban cellars, wine bars, and even wine museums. This diversity seeks to reflect the different experiences possible around the precious nectar, at the heart of local terroirs and know-how.
About the author : Originally from Hauts-de-France and trained in art in Paris and London, Damien Courcoux is active in the tourism and cultural development of his region. Passionate about wine, beer, and spirits, he specializes in the field. Before launching Randos Vin en France, he learned his trade with Randos Bière Hauts-de-France (Helvetiq 2023) and created the "Route du Malt," a tourist trail that invites visitors to meet brewers and distillers. He lives in Tourcoing.
L’année du gel (The year of frost)
Summer 2017, after a frost devastated his vines, Bernard Mazet agrees with his wife's idea of opening a bed and breakfast to save the family property in Haut Méac. The château is fully booked with a group of thirty-somethings staying for a week. The whimsical Olivia, the flighty bachelor Vincent, the discreet Clara, and their two couples of friends seem happy to be together again. But in the crushing heat, tempers flare and personal dramas resurface. At dawn on the fourth day, a corpse is discovered in the château's cold room... Major Dambérailh, head of the local brigade, is put in charge of the case. While conflicts of interest emerge within his team, his aunt Daphné, a zany spinster, interferes in the investigation. Many secrets will have to be unearthed before the matter is finally resolved.
About the author : Agathe Portail began writing in 2020, publishing a detective trilogy with Calmann Levy. A trip to Patagonia marked a change of direction, as her new novel, "Les Âmes torrentielles," which will be published on April 5, 2023 by Actes Sud, leaves the field of detective fiction while exploring themes dear to the author: rurality, the burden of family, and the desire for reparation. The same year, she began Le Cercle des Audacieux, a historical-fantasy youth series about the Notre-Dame de Paris construction site published by Éditions de l'Emmanuel, while continuing to create audio stories for children (Lunii) and adults (ZenbyDeezer). Co-founder of the collective Les Louves du polar, she works to promote French-language women's detective fiction. She now lives with her husband and four children in the Bordeaux region.
Les Femmes de la Principal
Spain, Catalonia, the twenty-first century, Francoism, three generations of women at the head of a vast winery in the Priorat region, renowned for its extremely high-quality wines, a police investigation... This is a family saga spanning more than a century, filled with secrets and passions, dominated by three proud, eccentric, and unforgettable women. The women of the Principal will rule the estate and "reign" over the village. They will love men, sometimes fervently, but never as much as their land and their vines. When phylloxera struck the Catalan vineyards in 1893, Maria was twenty years old and, unfortunately for her, had four brothers. The family's future would now be decided in Barcelona, where the patriarch had begun to establish his sons. There was no room for a daughter in this plan: Maria would remain in the village to fly the family flag, condemned to wither away beside the infected vines. As the price of her sacrifice, she will inherit the entire estate - her sumptuous building, the Principal, its outbuildings and countless acres of vines - which, with unparalleled intelligence and tenacity, she will manage, against all odds, to make prosper. As will her daughter, and then her granddaughter, after her.
About the author : Lluís Llach, poet, outstanding melodist, icon of the Nova Cançó, author of Estaca and today a pro-independence MP, is one of the best-known and most emblematic Catalans. Lluís Llach was born in 1948 in Girona. A Catalan singer, lyricist and composer of Catalan culture and expression, he composed his first melodies at the age of six or seven, but for his first real song, it was not until 1965, Que feliç era, mare, for which he wrote the music based on lyrics by his brother. In 1967, he joined the group Els Setze Jutges, of which he would be the last recruit. A leading figure in the fight for Catalan culture during Franco's regime, he went into exile in Paris and began his French career at the Olympia in 1973. This immense artist left the stage in 2007 to devote himself to a foundation he created in Senegal and to wine growing. He was elected to the Catalan parliament between 2015 and 2017 and continues to ardently support the independence cause.
Between two readings
And because back-to-school evenings can also be a concentration of convivial collective moments, with family or friends, the game will easily invite itself to your table: test your knowledge of the world of wine by answering questions on the geography of wines, terroirs, grape varieties or even more broadly the history of wine with the Trivial Pursuit Wine Edition which will put your general knowledge to the test with its 1800 or so questions!
Enjoy your reading !
