The Wines of Faugères - my new book

Will you allow me to blow my own trumpet?  Yesterday, 29^th August, was the official publication date of my latest book. The Wines of Faugères. My publishers, Infinite Ideas in Oxford have happily realised that since the demise of the Faber series of wine books, to which I contributed three titles, there is a big gap in the market, and they want to fill it. To encourage you to buy a copy, either from Amazon or direct from my publishers, via their website www.infideas.com may I quote from my introduction?  In addition, my good friend Gary MacDonald has taken some stunning photographs of the  Faugères scenery as well as perceptive portraits of several of the wine growers.   

'And why write a book on Faugères?  Because it is there. Because it is the nearest vineyard to my Languedoc home. Because I love the wines and the variety of the wines within this small area. I tasted and drank my first Faugères on an early visit to the Languedoc in 1987, when Gérard Alquier gave me a perfumed 1985, as well as his experimental cuvée of an oak-aged wine and I immediately loved the spicy flavours of fruits rouges and garrigues.  And I have never been able to resist them ever since. 

      Faugères is a compact vineyard, compared to many of the other appellations of the Languedoc, with for red wine, the same five grape varieties, grown on similar soil, but none the less the variety is infinite, prompted by the human hand and the perceptible differences between the different villages.   And the white wine, which accounts for a meagre 2% of the appellation, amply demonstrates how the white wines of the Languedoc are developing and improving with every vintage, their wonderful herbal flavours conjuring up the scents of the herbs of the garrigues, fennel and bay and thyme.  And pink Faugères, which accounts of just 18% of the appellation, provides delicious refreshing drinking with acidity and delicate fruit.  The wines of Faugères should always have a distinctive freshness, which places them amongst the finest of the Languedoc.' 

No prizes for guessing what I shall be drinking this evening to celebrate!