Vinfolio.com

The New Yorker Book of Wine Cartoons is one of my favorite Christmas presents received yesterday. Collecting wine should be fun and the 90 pages of wine-related cartoons in this book will bring a smile to any wine lover's face.

The book, published in 2004, appears to be out of print now but you can still buy it used on Amazon (which is where mine came from). Or, just pay a visit to the New Yorker's site, Cartoonbank.com, search for "wine" and view all 219 wine cartoons.

P.S. The eRobertParker.com site also has a wine cartoon of the week (site subscribers only though).

No wine collector can ignore the market impact of Robert Parker’s reviews and scores. My last post was about a recent Bloomberg article written by Elin McCoy but she is better known to me for authoring the best-selling The Emperor of Wine: The Rise of Robert Parker, Jr., and the Reign of American Taste.

While her book was first published in mid-2005 and in paperback in mid-2006, it will remain a classic as it delivers rare personal insights into Robert Parker and his abilities. Personally, even though I’ve never met him, I felt like I had a personal connection after reading the book and a greater admiration for what he’s achieved.

Bottom line: It’s an entertaining “must read” for any wine collector or enthusiast if you’re looking for a good last minute holiday gift item.

Over lunch today with the charming, down-to-earth Karen MacNeil in St. Helena, she mentioned that her book, The Wine Bible, has sold over 380,000 copies compared to the average for a wine book of only 6,000 copies. Released in 2001, sales are still going strong (still ranked #957 on Amazon amongst all books). While this is a great book for a wine novice, it’s equally appealing to the experienced wine collector, especially in its succinct coverage of wine regions often neglected by collectors like Germany. Selling for less than $14 on Amazon, this 904-pager (which took Karen 10 years to write) is a steal and another great holiday gift idea.

Karen just released a new book on food and wine pairing in September 2006 titled Wine, Food & Friends. It apparently sold out of its 100,000 copy pre-release production run so Karen may soon have the top two best-selling wine books of all time.