Families of the Vine: Seasons Among the Winemakers of Southwest France

Paperback - 04 April, 2006 - Harper Perennial
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By: Michael S Sanders
ISBN: 0060559659

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Reviews by readers

An affectionate, informative book about France and wine

Michael Sanders obviously loves Cahors and the people who live there, and this affection suffuses Families of the Vine and makes it special. The book follows the making of the local wine appellation from planting to harvesting to bottling to marketing, with a few side trips along the way. Sanders is rueful and humorous about what he doesn't know, and the local citizens patiently explain their cultures and behaviors to him (not to mention their dreams). And he brings us along with him while he learns. The sections when he sits at a lunch table, sipping a Cahors and listening to Yves and Martine Jouffreau talk about their work and lives, are just blissful. And there is more good sense about buying wine in a chapter featuring a local sommelier than there is in a stack of Wine Spectators. If you are a Francophile (like me), or a wine lover (like me), or simply want a gentle, informative read, you'll enjoy the book.

Beautiful prose, warm gracious narrative, fascinating and delicious!

Being the type of person that loves travel essays on France in particular, but on Europe in general, I've read alot of books in this genre, and also having shared with the author the same deep passionate love of place in foreign lands, primarily because of the people and their way of life, so different from our own, I am of the opinion that this book should, in my mind, be a National Best Seller! This is one of only a few books that I have ever read that takes us into the life of a French region and reveals to us why we are so drawn in by the French way of life. Michael Sanders has created the book that I've always dreamt of but have had so little occasion to find, offering the reader that rare vicarious experience of living through several seasons in a wine growing region of France that is fighting for a way of life that preserves all that makes rural France that special place that we long for. If you love wine, France, travel, and especially travel essays created by those with the gift of story telling, and who have the same joie de vivre as the French winemakers themselves, you'll love this book. In the same vein as Mort Rosenblum's Goose in Touloose and Adam Gopnik's Paris to the Moon, all three writers share in common the rare and unusual gift of beautiful, elegant prosaic writing, a deep passion and love of the French people and way of life, and a deep concern for the cultural traditions of France and the price that is born by those that give their life's work to preserving. (In response to the first reviewer, I also wanted to mention that if you would love to tour the region described in the book, there are many useful information resources for travelers from abroad on the author's website, www.michaelssanders.com.)

A Missed Opportunity

The information in the text of this book is excellent. It could have been a wonderful guide and reference book. But, it has no index, no glossary, no maps, and no pictures. For whatever reason, the author and editor passed on the opportunity to make this book really useful. If you read it, get out your own map of the region, then use a highliter, post-its, and anything else that will help you go back to find names, concepts, translations of French vinification words, etc. By doing what should have been done for you, the book will become a valuable resource.

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