Wines of Alsace

[Innkeeper]

Tom Stevenson may not be happy to hear it, but his fine book, The Wines of Alsace, is on sale for $9.98 (paper) from Jessica's Biscuit, 1-800-878-4264 or www.ecookbooks.com . It regularly goes for $22.95. An even better buy from the same source is Oz Clark's Wine Atlas, for $19.98 (hard with slightly scuffed jackets). It's regular price is $60.00.

[tomstevenson]

Actually I'm rather proud that anyone would want to pay quite so much for a book that is out of date and out of print. Faber & Faber have asked me to update it and I have said that I would be happy to do so, but only on the proviso that they go to the expense of publishing it in a nicely illustrated format. I believe it is essential for readers to get a visual sense of a region, its producers and wines, and if any region deserves to leap off the page, it's the fairy-tale land of Alsace. I've been waiting four months for a reply and whilst revenue-wise even a best-selling Alsace book would not be that important to me, I love the wines and would dearly like to schedule in the research and writing time necessary for a full revision.

If anyone has any thoughts on whether it is necessary to illustrate wine books (colour on page rather than old fashioned plates between pages) and whether anyone who did not purchase THE WINES OF ALSACE would buy such a book if it were illustrated, I would point Toby Faber to this particular topic should it build to a sufficiently impressive level.

[mrdutton]

Color illustrations by all means. The cliche is true, really. A picture is worth a thousand words. A well illustrated tome is well worth its price!!

[Thomas]

And when you are ready to make the research trip, I know just the photographer to go along....

My publisher likes photos and illustrations, and I agree.