The Juice, By Jay McInerney

"On my 55th birthday," the novelist muses, "I was astonished by the beauty and depth of wines fermented the year I was born."

If his tastes are top-end, his jokes are more democratic: "What's the difference between a case of Syrah and a case of the clap? You can get rid of the clap."

Starting with Hemingway's depiction of wine "as an appurtenance of the well-lived life" and supporting the view of New Yorker writer AJ Leibling that Tavel is "the only worthy rosé", this is a wine book that roams far beyond wine.