September 4, 2008

Required Reading

I don't really have a sense of the audience for the Lab's research. I know my mom doesn't read the Lab Reports. She doesn't have a computer. Beyond that, I'm in the dark. As such, I apologize in advance to the more cultured members of our community who won't find today's report particularly newsworthy.

But for the rest of you, my delightful, unlettered masses...

I've never bought into the bollocks that the best things in life are free, but Terry Theise's catalogs are the exception. Theise finds wines by profession, mostly German and Austrian Rieslings and grower Champagnes. His catalogs of these discoveries offer some of the best, most entertaining and accessible wine writing on the planet. With Theise, you'll learn to decode German labels, to tell the difference between Cramant and Mesnil, and most importantly, you'll gain deep insights into why you should stop drinking industrial champagne. Of course, Theise has an ulterior motive. He wants you to drink his wines.

But, in my experience, that's a good thing.

You can download the catalogs here.

2 comments:

Brooklynguy said...

i love his catalogs, full of interesting information and very personal. and there are gems of great writing hidden in there too. In describing one of Chiquet's (i think) wines:

"Not like the waves hitting the rocks, more like the moon rising over the fields."

thanks for the new champs catalog alert.

KJ said...

I couldn't agree more. Theise is a guy whose passion and prose seem to know no bounds. His catalogs are a must read every year for me, and It certainly doesn't hurt that his wines are fabulous.