December | 2017 | Sip Tripper

Former Time magazine editor George Taber is known for his “’76 Judgment of Paris” book about Chateau Montelena’s chardonnay besting French wines. His latest publication, however, is a preface to “The Winemakers of Paso Robles,” a coffee-table book with authentic photographs — down and dirty winemaking — of Paso Robles wine country along the Central Coast of California.

In his preface, Taber refers to Napa and Sonoma wine regions as Disneyland-esque, regardless of the fact that these two wine regions of Northern California produce some of the best cabernet sauvignons and chardonnays in California, if not the U.S.

Like the Napa Valley produces Bordeaux-style wines, Paso Robles produces Rhone-style wines. As someone who loves a good Chateauneuf de Pape, and after flipping through the images of this book, I want to visit this wine region and really taste my way through the grenache blends.

The author and the photographer of this ground-breaking, large format book, Julia Perez, spent a year profiling 53 winemakers who are transforming an up-and-coming wine region into to a world-class destination. Immersed in the vineyards, wineries, crush pads, and tasting rooms of this gorgeous and burgeoning wine region, they document and uncovered the struggles and successes of being a winemaker.

Throw in a few bottles of Paso Robles wines and a copy of this oversized book ($119) to gift to that someone special who really wants to learn more about the winemakers behind the scenes.

If you need more inspiration before you buy a copy, watch the video below. It shows the process of becoming a published book.

Move over Manischewitz! I’ve discovered a wine that pairs best with your Hanukkah latkes, especially if you make them with lots of veggies and cheese. What goes best with these Judaic delights is Psagot’s 2014 Merlot. This wine label with the image of a Second Temple-era coin adhered to the label is produced in Israel and made from 100% Merlot grapes, aged for 13 months in French wood barrels. The bottle itself is a nice decoration for the table, with a label written in both Hebrew and English.

Flavors of dark berries and aromas of plum, cherries and leather offer a hint to what’s next… that long and lingering blackberry finish. This mellow merlot’s distinctly Israeli flavor profile also pairs well with meat dishes and will make it a unique addition to any meal. (SRP $26)

With only two nights left before Hanukkah concludes, be sure to serve a bottle of Psagot with those latkes! Happy Hanukkah to all…please enjoy this shared message of the meaning of Hanukka:

When the rabbis of Talmudic times asked, “What is Hanukkah?” their answer focused on the purification of the Temple and the miracle of the oil that burned for eight days, despite the fact that there seemed to be oil enough for only a single day. As a new spiritual leadership dealing with the religious challenge of Jewry’s survival after the loss of Jewish sovereignty and power, the rabbis stressed the divine miracle to the exclusion of military and diplomatic acts and the sovereignty exercised by the Maccabees after their victory.

Similarly, medieval Jews focused on the divine miraculous activity in Hanukkah, projecting their own sense of helplessness and their longing for the messianic redeemer to do it all for them.

By contrast, modern Zionists saw in Hanukkah a reflection of their agenda: They celebrated Maccabee military prowess and political achievement. An early secular Zionist song proclaimed that “a miracle did not happen to us, we found no cruse of oil.” To these Zionists, the Maccabees’ state-building was the eternal message of the holiday.

For modern liberal Jews, Hanukkah became the holiday of religious freedom. The Maccabee fight was presented as the uprising of a religious community against suppression. The Festival of Lights was a victory for, and a living model of, the religious tolerance that Jews sought in the modern world. To uphold this view, liberals had to filter out the fact that while the Maccabees fought for the right to practice their own religion, they were hardly pluralist. In fact, the Maccabees fought Hellenizing Jews–those who were assimilating into Greek culture–to the death and suppressed them as they achieved power.

Read more, courtesy of BeliefNet.com