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A review by pattydsf
The Grail: A Year Ambling & Shambling Through an Oregon Vineyard in Pursuit of the Best Pinot Noir Wine in the Whole Wild World by Mary Miller Doyle, Brian Doyle
4.0
“For all that so many of us drink wine and buy wine and read about wine and make gifts of wine to each other and visit wineries and vineyards and see movies about wine and talk pseudoknowledgeable about wine, very few of us, it seems to me, have the faintest notion of how grapes get to be glee in the glass.”
I picked up this book because it is by Brian Doyle. Although you can’t tell by my list of books here, I really like Doyle’s writing. I have encountered his poetry and essays before in a number of publications. Most of what I have read by him is about faith, so I was intrigued by this book. I wasn’t sure that writing about the best pinot noir in the world was the same as writing about religion and spirituality.
I should not have been surprised that some of this book resembles Doyle’s other writings. His way of writing is obviously a big part of him and so the style of this book and other things I have read are similar. And that is a big part of why I liked this treatise on wine.
By the time I was halfway through these short, pithy stories/essays, I was in love with the Lange vineyard, Oregon, and the world of viticulture. I felt like I was with Doyle when he took his monthly visit to Dundee, Oregon. I started to read the book more slowly so that I could spend more time in this delightful place. A place I would have never found on my own or seen quite so clearly without Doyle’s writing.
If you enjoy wine, if you enjoy good writing or if you like to travel to places outside of your neck of the woods, give this book a try. I hope you are as pleased with your visit to the Lange winery as I am.
I picked up this book because it is by Brian Doyle. Although you can’t tell by my list of books here, I really like Doyle’s writing. I have encountered his poetry and essays before in a number of publications. Most of what I have read by him is about faith, so I was intrigued by this book. I wasn’t sure that writing about the best pinot noir in the world was the same as writing about religion and spirituality.
I should not have been surprised that some of this book resembles Doyle’s other writings. His way of writing is obviously a big part of him and so the style of this book and other things I have read are similar. And that is a big part of why I liked this treatise on wine.
By the time I was halfway through these short, pithy stories/essays, I was in love with the Lange vineyard, Oregon, and the world of viticulture. I felt like I was with Doyle when he took his monthly visit to Dundee, Oregon. I started to read the book more slowly so that I could spend more time in this delightful place. A place I would have never found on my own or seen quite so clearly without Doyle’s writing.
If you enjoy wine, if you enjoy good writing or if you like to travel to places outside of your neck of the woods, give this book a try. I hope you are as pleased with your visit to the Lange winery as I am.