Drinking with the Valkyries

Andrew Jefford is the wine writer’s wine writer. To read his words is to be drawn far away from the everyday world of professional wine-tasting: the tasting tables, the points-out-of-100, the search for the just-right descriptor, the head-scratching about pH and acidity levels…

Jefford’s writing takes you to somewhere – to the terraced vineyards of the Cinque Terre, to the clay soils of the Jura where, he writes, from a hill one can “see the violet mist puddling in the cold valley”. He reminds you why you have been seduced by this mysterious liquid, why it perhaps crept up on you and unexpectedly changed the course of your life.

The book is a collection of essays written between 2007 and 2022 (mostly for Decanter and The World of Fine Wine), edited, revised, collated in a single volume by Académie du Vin Library and recently released as a hard-cover book. “It isn’t wine writing. It’s writing,” quips Jay McInerney in the foreword. Writing of the sort that makes you sit and ponder, then read some more.
£25, Académie du Vin Library

Cooking Simply and Well, for One or Many

It’s hard to believe that this is Jeremy Lee’s first cookbook. Lee has been chef-proprietor of Quo Vadis restaurant in London’s Soho since 2012, has worked such with greats as Simon Hopkinson and the late Alastair Little, has been instrumental in shaping so-called Modern British cooking – and he wrote a food column for The Guardian for many years. Perhaps it took a pandemic for Lee to at last put pen to paper. The book was written during lockdown and, Lee writes, “those warm, comforting, nourishing dishes that I made during lockdown form the heart of the book”.

Woven among them are memories of Lee’s childhood in Scotland and his 30 years at the stoves in London. His recipes are timeless: soups, stews and things on toast; tarts, pies and fish cooked just-so; seared chops and crisp salads; top-quality ingredients treated with quiet respect. Lee’s writing soothes and entices ­– reading his words is the equivalent of a long, slow braise (and, yes, there is a recipe for the iconic smoked eel sandwich served at Quo Vadis). Nigella Lawson has called Lee’s book “an instant classic,” and she’s not wrong. Let’s hope Lee will dish up seconds (and thirds). Soon.
£30, 4th Estate

Moro Easy

Sam and Sam Clark are the chefs behind London’s longstanding Moro restaurant, a husband-and-wife team who travelled across southern Spain and Morocco on their honeymoon, then transformed London’s dining scene on their return. The pair have trained a generation of chefs (Jacob Kenedy and Oliver Rowe among them) and the pair remain true to their roots. They’re still at Moro restaurant, which they founded in 1997, and now have two Morito restaurants as well.

Moro Easy, their fifth cookbook, is a product of lockdown, when the kitchen skill of ‘making do’ was elevated to an art form. Moro Easy is about “not too many ingredients, and uncomplicated methods”. The recipes are quintessential Moro – based on top-quality ingredients put together in a way that will bring the taste of Moorish Spain to British dinner plates. Instructions are mostly kept to one page, and the chapters on ‘Easy Toasts’, ‘Easy Dairy’ and ‘Easy One-Pots’ are most rewarding for the time-poor.

Covid notwithstanding, the book has an essential sunniness to it; the photos were shot at the Clarks’ house in southern Spain, and the cooking is a million miles away from the grey doom of those dark days.
£30, Ebury Press; out 8 Sept

The Italian Pantry

Theo Randall is one of Britain’s pre-eminent purveyors of Italian cuisine. He worked with chef Alice Waters at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, and was head chef at the River Cafe in London before opening his own restaurant, Theo Randall at the InterContinental.

This book is aimed firmly at the home cook. The 100 recipes are based on ten key ingredients – breadcrumbs, lemons, parmesan, polenta, honey, tomatoes and the like ­– that are the backbone of Italian home cooking. Recipes for pasta, risotto, warming baked dishes and classic desserts come from right across Italy. Among the less-usual is a sweet green tomato tart, which subs in sliced green tomatoes in place of apples, and deep-fried polenta cubes bathed in ’nduja butter. Genius.
£26, Quadrille

Bordeaux 1855: A Guide to the Grands Crus Classés – Médoc and Sauternes

It took a while to sink in but even the most illustrious estates in one of the most famous of appellations realise that wine tourism is now vital to survival. This paperback guide is a handy, practical and fact-filled guide to the region. Published by the Conseil des Grands Crus Classés with a foreword by Stéphane Bern, it restricts itself to the estates included in the 1855 classification of Bordeaux and is an ideal resource for planning a wine-soaked trip. And yes, there are plenty of châteaux that welcome visitors. Restaurants and hotels are listed, too. (AK)
£22, Flammarion

Wine Talk: An Enthusiast’s Take on the People, the Places, the Grapes, and the Styles

In his chatty and wide-ranging book, Irish writer Raymond Blake often dips a little into autobiography, a trait that allows us much insight into his enduring love affair with wine. The tone is informal, but the information imparted is sharp. Small vignettes characterising grape varieties or illuminating some of wine’s most common talking points are personal and well-observed. Reading this is like spending a few evenings with a well-informed and witty drinker. Uncork a bottle and enjoy. (AK)
£16.37, Skyhorse Publishing

Rosés of Southern France

This specialist paperback is Elizabeth Gabay MW’s second book on rosé wine and a sequel of sorts. In her seminal tome Rosé, published in 2017 as part of Infinite Ideas’ Classic Wine Library, she traced the history and rise of pink wines globally. Now, co-authoring with her son Ben Bernheim, she homes in on southern France and together they make the case for this “hotbed of diversity” of rosé wines – of all hues, from Provence, Rhône and Languedoc. Brim-full with facts, this is as much a book for the wine student as for the wine lover – and for travellers in search of detail and depth. (AK)
£22, Zalabim Conseil