Definitive Book Review: WHAT to DRINK with WHAT you EAT I was approached by the authors of this book, Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page, to write a book review. I had no idea when I accepted, but the book's cover proudly proclaims that it is The Definitive Guide to Pairing Food with Wine. I'm always cautious when reading, eating, drinking, watching ,smoking, medicating, physically interacting with, brushing, scratching or assessing anything which self-proclaims that it is the Definitive something or other. Unfortunately, I didn't know before I accepted this assignment that this book was just such a project. Why did they approach me? Ask any savvy marketeer: its the bloggers who create the buzz leading to mass sales and commercial success. So, Mr. Dornenburg and Ms. Page, two people I had never heard of, offered to put links of this blog on their blog and send e-mail to their 20,000 loyal readers mentioning this blog if I reviewed their definitive book. They approached a series of bloggers with the same proposition and each one gets a day of links and mentions on the Dornenburg/Page web site along with being named and linked in the 20,000 person e-mail blasts that Dornenberg/Page regularly send out to their readers. I have always been a great admirer of Michiko Kakutani and jumped at the opportunity of having my own book review, to be read by the over 50,000 people who read this site and the 20,000 people who read the Dornenburg/Page site and their e-mail blasts. Today is my day, October 18th, and here's my review! I'm also reading the Philip Roth Zuckerman novels and watching François Truffaut's Antoine Doinel movies when I'm not reading the Dornenburg/Page book. I'm hoping to negotiate a deal with Tom Wark over at Fermentations, America's leading and definitive wine blog, for us to cross highlight each other's blogs using photos of Jean-Pierre Léaud playing Antoine Doinel. For instance, you'll click on Doinel's picture on my site and you'll speed over to Tom Wark's site. Mr. Wark would make a similar accomodation to promote this blog. Doinel and Zuckerman seem like such kindred spirits and I’m sure Mr. Wark will be in agreement with me on the obvious similarities and the possibilities of mutual self-promotion. Not surprisingly, Tom Wark is also part of the Dornenburg/Page promotion of the definitive book. In fact, he loves the book. His day was October 6th. Mr. Wark writes that the book is: the most comprehensive, illuminating and useful book of its type I've yet to come across. While that leaves open the possibility that there might be another book more definitive than the Dornenburg/Page book that has yet to catch Mr. Wark's attention, Mr. Wark does seem truly enthusiastic and just stops short of hailing the book as being definitive. About 20 or so bloggers have enthusiastically reviewed the book since this coordinated blog promotion started and they all love the book. Even Peter Boyle, the star of Mel Brook's recent Young Frankenstein movie, seemed to love the book. Mr. Boyle wrote: You can't do better than to follow Karen and Andrew's advice! All these people get a free book and they immediately become great fans. I hope it isn’t that easy to get a good review out of Michiko Kakutani! In fact, I found the book overwhelming in general detail and without useful concrete advise. In the guise of making things simpler for neophytes, the authors talk about the wine world in such broad strokes that their advise becomes unhelpful, if not downright confusing. The real problem in the wine world is not that newbies are intimidated, but that wine is no longer being made to enhance food. Wine has become a beverage to wow reviewers and wine buyers, a spoofulated concoction based on fermented grapes. A more appropriate project would be an exposé of why today's wines don't go with foods then to pretend we're all living in a nifty world of food and wine matches we can all enjoy. The authors organize wines by region of production or AOC as if there was a uniformity of style, quality and ambition for every wine coming out of that area. This simply is not the case and Dornenburg/Page, speaking in the name of newbie, have written a public relations tome for themselves and people in the wine and food trade that finally does more harm than good for the lover of fine wine, or even the newbie trying to find something interesting to drink with their evening meal. They are writing about a fantasy construct of groovy wines and groovy food which simply does not exist! I've always been wary of people who speak in the name of the great unwashed masses. Surely, Dorenburg and Page have a point of view. They seem talented, capable marketers and capable of writing something of greater interest and use. I hope they do so in the future. I'll even pay for that book. I've never met either of the authors but did speak with Karen Page recently. I was shocked to find out that she has never viewed Jean Renoir's film La Grand Illusion. |
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