Review and Recipe

Review: A Toast to Bargain Wines
In this holiday season, many will be giving (and receiving) bottles of wine. They are the perfect hostess gift when you're attending parties. Buying wine can also be an expensive proposition, and for those of us who are not sommeliers, finding an inexpensive but tasty wine can be a chore. According to author George Taber, though, even the Queen of England serves inexpensive Sauvignon Blanc and basic Bordeaux to the majority of her guests.
Taber gives a fascinating history of the wine business in this book, including some Embarrassing Moments in Wine History (the title of the first chapter), and a look at the ups and downs of the global wine business. The wine business has shifted dramatically in recent years, refocusing away from the its traditional home in France and moving into new territories across the U.S. and in Chile, New Zealand, and Argentina, with a lot of booms and busts along the way.
He also describes the movers and shakers who have changed the wine industry, including Tim Hanni, one of the first two Americans to be recognized as a Master of Wine. Included in this book is Hanni's Taste Sensitivity Assessment that helps determine the types of wine that you may like. According to the test, I am "Sensitive," and therefore more adventurous with my choices. True.
A Toast also describes how historic and traditional vineyards are faring today, and examines the newer upstart companies like Australia's Yellow Tail. Rumor has it that owner John Casella based the taste of his wine on Coke so the American drinker would take to it. He says he actually just wanted to create a "friendly wine."
Now that's just the first half of the book. The second half gets to the heart of the matter, with Taber's guide to the very best buys in wine. He offers the advice to experiment and find the wine that best suits your tastes, rather than fretting over whether you're drinking the "right" wine.
His easy-to-use lists are classified by varietal, and then are separated into his favorite bargains and his splurges. Even the splurges come in under $25, though, so there's nothing here that should break the bank. Taber also offers suggestions of food pairings to help even the most novice wine drinker.
When I finish reading most books, they go onto my shelves in the living room. This book, however, is now stored with my cookbooks, ready to be referenced at a moment's notice. I've already used its handy guide to stock up for the holidays. Salut! (2011 - Scribner)

Recipe: Red Wine Cake
Years ago, the office where I worked had spectacular pot-lucks for the holidays, and a friend brought this cake. Within seconds, every crumb was gone and she was passing around the recipe. It's incredibly moist, with just a hint of the taste of wine. I love the taste of chocolate with a glass of red wine, so this recipe makes a perfect pairing.
2 sticks of softened butter
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups red wine
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and then butter and flour a bundt pan. In a large bowl, use a mixer to beat the butter and sugar together until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing in between. Add the vanilla and beat for another minute or two. Add the cocoa, baking soda and salt, mixing them well into the batter. Then alternate the red wine and the flour, adding half of each at a time and mixing well in between additions. Spoon into the bundt pan, being sure to distribute the batter evenly. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until a knife comes out of the cake cleanly. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes and then turn out onto a plate. You can serve it warm with ice cream, or allow it to cool and serve it with whipped cream.

Good Spirits

If a long weekend puts you in good spirits (sorry), or if you've found some other reason to raise a glass, you might find it interesting to discover how champagne gets its bubbles. Or why coffee was seen as a revolutionary drink in its early history. Or when the first real marketing of liquor began. These books serve up a helping of history with an entertaining look at the drinks that are beloved around the world.

The King of Vodka
by Linda Himelstein
In the early 1800s, it was almost unheard of that a Russian peasant would be able to leave his indentured life in the countryside, let alone to build a business empire. But Pyotr Smirnov was one of the lucky ones ― and one of the smart ones. Never shy of hard work, Smirnov labored at multiple side jobs to enable him to purchase his freedom, and then found work in Moscow pubs where he learned all he could about the production and sale of the king of Russian drinks ― vodka. After earning enough to open his own distillery, Smirnov spearheaded the movement to bottle the liquor (previously sold only in casks), and then showed his true genius in marketing. He was the first to recognize that word-of-mouth advertising was the cheapest, and quickest, way to successfully sell a product. (2010 - Harper Collins)

The Widow Clicquot
by Tilar Mazzeo
Just as the business of vodka was refined during the early 1800s in Russia, the commerce and industry involved in creating champagne was developing at the same time in France.
Champagne itself had been in existence since the 1600s, but the creation of the bubbly wine was haphazard and the vintners never knew what they would get when they opened the bottles. Enter a complex woman for the complex task ― Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin, an unlikely entrepreneur for her time.
After her husband's death, Barbe-Nicole took his small winery and transformed it into an unbelievably successful enterprise, spearheading many changes that we take for granted today ― the shape of the bottle, trademarks, cork shapes, how the bottles are stored, and more. In doing so, she also paved the way for other women in the wine business (Pommery, Bollinger, Perrier), while transforming champagne into a symbol of celebration and luxury. (2009 - Harper Collins)

A History of the World in 6 Glasses
by Tom Standage
Six drinks have literally changed the course of history ― beer, wine, tea, coffee, spirits, and soda. From the Stone Age to the modern age, these drinks have nourished workers, started revolutions, pushed exploration, and raised empires. 
Standage examines each of the drinks individually, offering a unique and engrossing history lesson in each chapter.
Some of the fun facts: The earliest imbibers of beer had to use long straws to avoid choking on all of the chaff floating around in the drink. Wine has probably been in existence as long as beer, but has suffered from an elitist reputation all the way back to its earliest recordings in history.
Coffee fueled subversive meetings and revolutionary talk across Europe in the 1600s, while tea was seen as a civilized drink...if you forget about all the aggressive actions taken to ensure England cornered the market. Meanwhile, grog (made with rum) stopped scurvy in its tracks. And Coca-Cola started out as a coca-infused wine. (2006 - Walker & Company)