The Five Minute Wine Book by Tony Aspler – The fact that the first story in this collection of writings describes a fishing trip in Northern Saskatchewan will explain to everyone why I got hooked on the book immediately (in case you didn’t know I am originally from Regina, and I have been known to take the odd fishing trip with a case or two of very good wine). This e-book will make a great addition to anyone’s Kindle, Kobo or Tablet of choice with easy to digest commentary about cork taint and how Tony would prefer wine is sealed with a screw cap. I actually laughed out loud after reading The “Bluffer’s Guide to Dinner Parties” in which he includes the average speed at which a cork leaves a bottle of Champagne and the longest distance a Champagne cork has travelled. There are also little bits of history woven into a column about Marechal Foch and Baco Noir that make it hard for me to picture what the wine landscape would have been like in Toronto in the 70’s. I could summarize every individual snippet of this book and even though it is sold as an e-book it will make it hard to wrap and put under the tree this would make a great gift and bring a smile to the face of any hardened wine snob or budding wine noob. You can purchase the book by clicking the link in the title of the note.
The 500 Best-Value Wines in the LCBO 2015 by Rod Phillips – It can be hard to find the best wines in the LCBO. Even if you are a regular reader or listener of mine you will find maybe 150-200 wines on my website in any year. What exactly does “Best-Value” mean? This book is a guide of wines that out-perform their price point. There is a great mix of wines at many price points varying from the spectacular Osoyoos Larose at $44.95 to Yvon Mau Colombard-Chardonnay for $8.95. I have said before that price doesn’t always dictate quality and you will find some fantastic wines that will shock you at their quality for the price in this book. One thing that is fantastic about the book is the in-depth Ontario wine selections that have been selected. This book, like many of the wines it contains, out-performs its price point. This will make a great gift for the budding wine lover or will help a seasoned wine snob discover some new goodies (and at the prices in the book there is no excuse not to try something new). It is well organized both by region and divided into Red and White so it is very easy to navigate even if you know only that wine is Red, White and sometimes Pink.
