To coordinate with the April 29 Virtual Wine Tasting With Michigan By The Bottle, we’ve gathered titles to help you learn more about wine and entertaining, as well as some fun movies about wine.
Wine Folly: Magnum Edition
Madeline Puckette, Justin Hammack
The expanded wine guide from the creators of Wine Folly, packed with new information for devotees and newbies alike. Wine Folly became a sensation for its inventive, easy-to-digest approach to learning about wine. Now in a new, expanded hardcover edition, Wine Folly: Magnum Edition is the perfect guide for anyone looking to take his or her wine knowledge to the next level. Wine Folly: Magnum Edition includes: • more than 100 grapes and wines color-coded by style so you can easily find new wines you'll love; • a wine region explorer with detailed maps of the top wine regions, as well as up-and-coming areas such as Greece and Hungary; • wine labeling and classification 101 for wine countries such as France, Italy, Spain, Germany, and Austria; • an expanded food and wine pairing section; • a primer on acidity and tannin--so you can taste wine like a pro; • more essential tips to help you cut through the complexity of the wine world and become an expert. Wine Folly: Magnum Edition is the must-have book for the millions of fans of Wine Folly and for any budding oenophile who wants to boost his or her wine knowledge in a practical and fun way.
Read More View in CatalogCork Dork
Bianca Bosker
Bianca Bosker didn’t know much about wine—until she discovered an alternate universe where taste reigns supreme, a world of elite sommeliers who dedicate their lives to the pursuit of flavor. Astounded by their fervor and seemingly superhuman sensory powers, she set out to uncover what drove their obsession, and whether she, too, could become a “cork dork.” With boundless curiosity, humor, and a healthy dose of skepticism, Bosker takes the reader inside underground tasting groups, exclusive New York City restaurants, California mass-market wine factories, and even a neuroscientist’s fMRI machine as she attempts to answer the most nagging question of all: what’s the big deal about wine? What she learns will change the way you drink wine—and, perhaps, the way you live—forever.
Read More View in CatalogWine. All the Time
Marissa A. Ross
Does the thought of having to buy wine for a dinner party stress you out? Is your go-to strategy to pick the bottle with the coolest label? Are you tired of choosing pairings based on your wallet, instead of your palate? Fear not! Marissa A. Ross is here to help. In this utterly accessible yet comprehensive guide to wine, Ross will walk you through the ins and outs of wine culture. Told in her signature comedic voice, with personal anecdotes woven in among its lessons, Wine. All the Time. will teach you to sip confidently, and make you laugh as you're doing it. In Wine. All The Time., you'll learn how to: - Describe what you're drinking, and recognize your preferences - Find the best bottle for you budget and occasion - Read and understand what's written on a wine label - Make the perfect pairings between what you're drinking and what you're eating - Throw the best damn dinner party your guests will ever attend - And much more
Read More View in CatalogThe Periodic Table of Wine
Sarah Rowlands
The Periodic Table of Wine is a fun, concise, and appealingly geeky new concept to wine appreciation. The foundation of the book is a periodic table designed to give a visual overview of how different styles of the world’s wines relate to one another. Beginning with white wines in columns on the left, the table then highlights rosé in the middle, and then reds in the columns on the right. The rows, running from top to bottom, are organized by quality of flavor—fruit and spice, green and mineral, sweet, etc. If you like one “element” or wine type in the table, you can discover other examples situated around it you might also enjoy. The book also offers substantial descriptions of the 127 “elements,” or wines, each of which includes a full background and, frequently, food pairings.
Read More View in CatalogBig Macs & Burgundy
Vanessa Price
Essential wine pairings for everything from popcorn to veggie burgers to General Tso’s Chicken, based on the wildly popular Grub Street column Sancerre and Cheetos go together like milk and cookies. The science behind this unholy alliance is as elemental as acid, fat, salt, and minerals. Wine pro Vanessa Price explains how to create your own pairings while proving you don’t necessarily need fancy foods to unlock the joys of wine. Building upon the outsize success of her weekly column in Grub Street, Price offers delightfully bold wine and food pairings alongside hilarious tales from her own unlikely journey as a Kentucky girl making it in the Big Apple and in the wine business. Using language everyone can understand, she reveals why each dynamic duo is a match made in heaven, serving up memorable takeaways that will help you navigate any wine list or local bottle shop. Charmingly illustrated and bubbling with personality, Big Macs & Burgundy will open your mind to the entirely fun and entirely accessible wine pairings out there waiting to be discovered—and make you do a few spit-takes along the way.
Read More View in CatalogI Heart Cheese: A Cookbook
Mihaela Metaxa-Albu
It’s an undeniable fact: Cheese makes life better. With this special collection of recipes, you and all the cheese fanatics in your life can indulge in exciting new dishes that bring the world’s favorite culinary ingredient front and center—right where it belongs. Mihaela Metaxa-Albu, former chef at Zuma London and founder of the food blog Blondelish.com, presents 60 inspired dishes that are sure to satisfy every one of your cravings for savory, salty, ooey-gooey cheesy goodness. From luscious mozzarella and Brie, to aromatically sharp Gouda and Cheddar, to the wonderfully stinky Gorgonzola and other blues—Mihaela draws out the best flavors of each type of cheese in simple weeknight-friendly meals. These unique dishes are perfect for entertaining. With Mihaela’s beautiful, vibrant photography accompanying every recipe, not only does each one come alive on the page, but you’ll also see how best to plate it. Indulge in rich affairs like Burrata and Roasted Tomato Pasta or Creamy Roquefort Chicken Gnocchi. Enjoy reimagined classics like a Pancetta-Wrapped Grilled Cheese Sandwich, Blue Mac & Cheese with Stilton and Brie Rosemary Potato Bake. Take fruitand-cheese pairings up a notch with dishes like Pear and Pecorino Salad. You’ll even learn how to make homemade batches of fresh cheese, ricotta and cream cheese. With Mihaela’s luscious recipes and stunning photography, you’ll be transported to cheese heaven with every bite.
Read More View in CatalogCharcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing
Michael Ruhlman, Brian Polcyn, Yevgenity Solovyev
An introduction to the creation of pork salami, sausages, and prosciutto outlines key techniques in the areas of preserving, cooking, and smoking, in a volume complemented by 125 recipes including Maryland crab, scallop, and saffron terrine; Da Bomb breakfast sausage; and spicy smoked almonds.
Read More View in CatalogThat Cheese Plate Will Change Your Life
Marissa Mullen
Marissa Mullen takes cheese to a whole new level with her gorgeous, show-stopping cheese plates. With her simple step-by-step Cheese by Numbers method, she breaks down the cheese plate into its basic components--cheese, meat (aka the Salami River), produce, crunch, dips, garnish--and shows you how to recreate these beautiful spreads for any occasion, whether it's a dinner party, a book club gathering, wine nights with friends, or your classy Netflix binge. But cheese plates aren't just the greatest snack ever created. They're also an important form of self-care. (Think of the zen art of making sand mandalas, or flower arranging--but you can eat the results.) This Cheese Plate Will Change Your Life celebrates the ways in which cheese brings people together, and how just crafting a cheese plate can be a meditative act that lets us tap into our creativity. With over 50 easy-to-make yet showstopping cheese plates, this book will teach you how to relax, enjoy, and indulge--and let cheese spark joy.
Read More View in CatalogWine Girl
Victoria James
An affecting memoir from the country’s youngest sommelier, tracing her path through the glamorous but famously toxic restaurant world At just twenty-one, the age when most people are starting to drink (well, legally at least), Victoria James became the country’s youngest sommelier at a Michelin-starred restaurant. Even as Victoria was selling bottles worth hundreds and thousands of dollars during the day, passing sommelier certification exams with flying colors, and receiving distinction from all kinds of press, there were still groping patrons, bosses who abused their role and status, and a trip to the hospital emergency room. It would take hitting bottom at a new restaurant and restorative trips to the vineyards where she could feel closest to the wine she loved for Victoria to re-emerge, clear-eyed and passionate, and a proud leader of her own Michelin-starred restaurant. Exhilarating and inspiring, Wine Girl is the memoir of a young woman breaking free from an abusive and traumatic childhood on her own terms; an ethnography of the glittering, high-octane, but notoriously corrosive restaurant industry; and above all, a love letter to the restorative and life-changing effects of good wine and good hospitality.
Read More View in CatalogBackroads & Byways of Michigan: Drives, Day Trips & Weekend Excursions
Matt Forster
Whether it’s the Chicago and Territorial Roads, home of a historic and scenic railroad, or the Lower Peninsula’s Chain of Lakes area, Backroads & Byways of Michigan is the shortest route a visitor can take to explore like a local. Whether it’s the Chicago and Territorial Roads, home of a historic and scenic railroad, or the Lower Peninsula’s Chain of Lakes area, Backroads & Byways of Michigan is the shortest route a visitor can take to explore like a local. Now with color maps and photographs, this second edition offers itineraries to scenic and intriguing places, like Michigan’s Wine Country—where you can sample local wines, chocolate truffles, and orchard fruits—and Western Michigan, once a mining area, now a winter-recreation wonderland and home of many spectacular waterfalls.
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Sideways
Two middle-aged men embark on a spiritual journey through Californian wine country. One is an unpublished novelist suffering from depression, and the other is only days away from walking down the aisle.
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Bottle Shock
Paris-based wine expert Steven Spurrier heads to California in search of cheap wine that he can use for a blind taste test in the French capital. Stumbling upon the Napa Valley, the stuck-up Englishman is shocked to discover a winery turning out top-notch chardonnay. Determined to make a name for himself, he sets about getting the booze back to Paris.
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