Read About Previous Shows...

February 26, 2007

The Wine Atlas of Canada by Tony Aspler

Canada's first-ever wine atlas – this is the complete reference guide to the country's vineyards and award-winning wines.

A Matter of Taste: Inspired Seasonal Menus with Wines and Spirits to Match by Lucy Waverman & James Chatto

A Matter of Taste highlights the seasons, with themed menus, time-saving fast-and-fresh dinners and fascinating sidebars about ingredients and cooking techniques. Suggested apeitifs, wines and cocktails complement each menu and its occasion with the whys and wherefores explored in irreverent prose.
Much more than a cookbook, A Matter of Taste is meant to be read and savoured, preferably with a cocktail or glass of wine in hand. Photographer Rob Fiocca, whose work is regularly featured in Gourmet magazine, beautifully interprets the authors' elegant, effortless style with his striking colour and black-and-white photography. The result is a gorgeous gourmet cookbook with a difference, the perfect marriage of superb menus and fine writing – the season's best offering.

Blackberry Wine by Joanne Harris

From the author of Chocolat, an intoxicating fairy tale of alchemy and love where wine is the magic elixir. Jay Mackintosh is a 37-year-old has-been writer from London. Fourteen years have passed since his first novel, Jackapple Joe, won the Prix Goncourt. His only happiness comes from dreaming about the golden summers of his boyhood that he spent in the company of an eccentric vintner who was the inspiration of Jay's debut novel, but who one day mysteriously vanished. Under the strange effects of a bottle of Joe's '75 Special, Jay decides to purchase a derelict yet promising château in Lansquenet-sous-Tannes. There, a ghost from his past waits to confront him, and his new neighbour, the reclusive Marise - haunted, lovely and dangerous - hides a terrible secret behind her closed shutters. Between them, there seems to be a mysterious chemistry. Or could it be magic?

Miranda's Vines by Kimberly Kafka

"Miranda has risen to the top of San Francisco's competitive culinary world, becoming chef de cuisine at a top hot spot and establishing such an impressive reputation that investors are willing to help her launch her own restaurant. She is also a successful single parent, building a special endearing relationship with her little boy, Ruben, against all odds. But her life suddenly takes a different turn when she learns that her father has died, leaving the family vineyard to Miranda. Returning to Oregon, she immerses herself in childhood memories and leaves city life behind her. An adventuresome lifelong friend, Bridie, soon joins Miranda in Oregon after sustaining a debilitating injury. By returning to their roots, both women find unforeseen healing and hope, while helping each other through the challenges of accepting fate."

Dying on the Vine: a Further Adventure of the Gourmet Detective by Peter King

And the main course is...murder. Animated by a passion for food, wine and justice, the Gourmet Detective travels to Provence to investigate a shadowy business deal between two vineyards. But before he can even sample the delights of Pate de Grives on triangles of hot, crisp toast, he encounters a corpse leaning against a cart in the vineyard. Was he really gored to death by sangliers, wild boars rumored to live in the abandoned caves surrounding the village? And why would a tiny vineyard want to buy out its enormous neighbor-- and competitor-- at any price? Has one of them developed a wine to die for? Trusting In Vino Veritas, the Gourmet Detective follows his palate through a host of Provencal delicacies and sanguinary divertissements while a brilliant killer with exquisite taste prepares to serve him his last meal...

A Good Year by Peter Mayle

"Max Skinner is a man at the heart of London's financial universe. He works for the notorious Lawton Brothers at the top end of Threadneedle Street, and his is a life of long hours and fierce competition with Amis, his nemesis and boss. It is a rivalry that continues until the day Max finds the Lawton Brothers doing a little asset-stripping of their own. Himself." "Amid the London drizzle, there is one potential ray of sunshine in Max's life. His Uncle Henry has left him his estate in his will - an eighteenth-century house and vineyard an hour's drive from Avignon, where Max used to go for his childhood holidays. Out of a job, and encouraged by his friend Charlie's talk of the money in modern wine, he heads for France to assess its potential." "What Max discovers is even better than he remembered: a beautiful house, wonderful weather and a bustling village in the shape of St. Pons. The only downside to his new life is the quality of the wine in the vineyard and the brooding presence of Roussel, a former employee of his uncle. When Max suggests getting in an expert to look at the vineyards, Roussel, for reasons that slowly unravel, is resistant. And then there's the arrival of a mysterious stranger from California."

Grape Expectations by Tamar Myers

"Alcohol is a no-no in the Mennonite community of Hernia, Pennsylvania, but the strange and unexpected events bubbling up in town are enough to make everyone feel a little tipsy. A couple of unprincipled outsiders have bought an old farm at the edge of town, claiming they want to rename the land Grape Expectations and use it to grow fruit. But their real plan is to start a vineyard and open a winery. No one likes the intruders, so everyone's a suspect when Felicia Bacchustelli, the vineyard's co-owner, is found entombed in cement. A new police chief can't solve the crime alone, and soon Magdalena Yoder finds herself on the case - risking her neck with her ear to the grapevine."