“1001 Wines” ... and counting

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Let me see. If you drank a bottle a night, it doesn’t sound so bad. A thousand and one wines? A mere three years’ drinking, no problem. Assembling them all would be a piece of work, though.

When I first came across the new book ‘1001 Wines You Must Taste Before You Die,’ my gimmick detector went into high alert. But when I actually opened this seriously heavy tome, which weighs in at 4.6 pounds on my bathroom scale, making it ideal as a book press, I found a thoughtful compilation of classic and out-of-the-way wines.

Sure, famous bottles such as 100-point wines on the Parker scale or any other scale are larded throughout the text, but not as many as you’d suspect. It doesn’t take brains or perseverence to discover those bottles. More intriguing are the little known and obscure offerings, bonafide geek choices that open the reader’s palate to the wondrous spectrum available in this golden wine age.

You want examples? How about the 2002 Gerovassiliou Avaton from Macedonia in Greece, made from a blend of Limnio, Mavroudi and Mavrotragano grapes. Or the 2002 Domaine Zind-Humbrecht Clos Jebsal Pinot Gris from a famed vineyard in Alsace. Only one wine is listed for each estate, so you don’t get multiple vintages of Château Pétrus, say.

The book is edited by Neil Beckett, editor of the British quarterly review the World of Fine Wine, who enlisted an all-star team of experts, including a few MWs (Masters of Wine) to come up with the selections. At 960 pages, this is not simply a listing. By reading the text, you can learn much about wine in short, easy doses.

‘1001 Wines You Must Taste Before You Die’ (Universe Publishing [a division of Rizzoli International Publications]: $36.95)

— S. Irene Virbila