BTN: The Making of a Great Wine

Just finished reading The Making of a Great Wine: Gaja and Sori San Lorenzo by Edward Steinberg, 1992. The first half is interesting but unremarkable but the second half is indispensable for anyone interested in the myriad decisions that go into vinification, racking, fining and filtration. The descriptions of bacteria and yeasts and everything that can go wrong manage to be fascinating and are highly enlightening. Guido Rivella, the winemaker at Gaja, comes across quite convincingly as driven to perfection but judicious and non-dogmatic. Towards the end, there are excellent sections on seeking out the right staves for barriques and their correct seasoning, as well as seeking out the best corks. The former completely changed the way I think of barrels; the quixotic search for the latter only served to increase my prejudice against bark. This is such a treasure trove of information that I intend to re-read the second half with a magic marker. It is a succint course in wine-making that reads like a novel. Would love it if everyone on the board could read this (out of print, but easy to find on Amazon)!

Oswaldo, I read this book already when it was new. One reason for buying it was in fact that I met the author in Rome in 1988 when he worked at an excellent enoteca Fratelli Roffi Isabelli, IIRC. He gave me and a couple of wine loving friends some memorable wines to taste there. The most memorable being Giacomo Conterno's 1970 Monfortino, which is one of those wines that still shines the most in my memory. I don't remember too many details from the book, though, so I guess I need to make a search through my bookshelves and reread it.

Cheers, Anders

Oswaldo, I read this book already when it was new. One reason for buying it was in fact that I met the author in Rome in 1988 when he worked at an excellent enoteca Fratelli Roffi Isabelli, IIRC. He gave me and a couple of wine loving friends some memorable wines to taste there.

The writer is obviously a character. Perhaps the book was less memorable when published because some of the discussions, like those about oak, sulfites and corks, were probably ahead of their time. But now they resonate as very much contemporary concerns.

I read the book years ago and just loved it.

A couple of weeks ago I opened a bottle of 1989 Gaja Sperss, and I have to say it all came back to me.

F