Wine related gifts for sick friend

A friend was recently admitted to the hospital and will be there for the next 3-4 weeks undergoing treatment. I am putting together a gift basket and want to include some wine related items. I was going to pick up some magazines. Does anyone have any favorite books that they can recommend? Any other suggestions? He’s not a hardcore collector, but enjoys drinking good wine.

Jason Wilson’s “Godforsaken Grapes” is a funny, easy read. And even if he isn’t much into obscure varieties, the “obscure” ones in the book include riesling, grüner veltliner and petite sirah, so obscure is very relative here.

Thanks! I think this will be perfect. I want to read it, too!

“Wine and War” by Donald Kladstrup.
I loved reading this book and I’m not even a massive French wine drinker. Very compelling read about the Nazi occupation of France during WW2 and how Wineries hid their treasured wines from Hitler, stayed true to their ideals and wines during the adversity.

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If he/she likes food and cooking along with wine, this is a great, light read. Big glossy scrumptious photos, but enough geekiness on food and the wines recommended. My wife and I are attempting to do these once a month this year, so far three excellent meals with some fudging on a few of the wines.

I didn’t see a link, but now I can see the title in the above quotes. He does love cooking, so I’ll check it out. Thanks!
(36 Bottles of Wine)

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BTW, the author of this book is Paul Zittarelli, who owns Full Pull wines in Seattle. If you don’t know Full Pull, worth checking out as another on-line wine source. He sold this book on release through his store, but I’d guess Amazon is best place now to buy it. https://fullpullwines.com/

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Captain Obvious here, but if he hasn’t read The Judgement of Paris by George Taber, it’s a fantastic read, plus a pretty light and breezy one.

The other Captain Obvious choice would be The Billionaire’s Vinegar, also a great page turner in more of a crime mystery variety.

Both would be perfectly suited to someone interested in wine but not geeky about grinding through the minutia of wine.

“Wine and War” fits that category as well, though I didn’t really care for that book, myself. It felt rather manipulated and overcooked in its effort to paint the French vignerons as saints and heroes. Hell, I wasn’t there, so maybe that’s how they really were, but it kind of set off my BS detector a lot of times.

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+1 on The Billionaire’s Vinegar. Also, The History of Wine in 100 Bottles by Oz Clarke is an easy, quick read. It is essentially 100 stories about wine, with a lot of photographs, going from ancient times through present day.

Best wishes to a speedy recovery for your friend, Abbie!
Ed

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Would also recommend Bursting Bubbles in the book category. Also, you can usually buy back issues of Noble Rot’s Periodical online, which I generally enjoy reading for its mixture of wine/food/pop culture.

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Agree on Billionaire’s Vinegar, very entertaining.

Also, my wife got me Shadows in the Vineyard: The True Story of the Plot to Poison the World’s Greatest Wine. I didn’t think it was as good as BV, but still a fun read with some interesting background on DRC.

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