Customer Reviews

Bacchus and Me: Adventures in the Wine Cellar

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As an employee in the wine business, and an everyday drinker, I personally know that I cannot afford purchasing 2nd or 3rd growths on a regular basis, never mind 1st growths and '55 and '28 vintage Chateau d' Yquem. This book, although some chapters were very entertaining, was nothing but a name dropping debacle. Rather than focusing on the everyday enjoyment of wine, the book strived more towards depicting the great parties Jay McInerney has attended and all snobbishness that comes with it, i.e.; a rich man turning down Cristal champagne because it was not Krug, McInerney's fear of getting wine stains on his prada clothes, and the infamous Millenium Party where he and other famous wine and food representatives had the pleasure of trying everything under the banner of luxury. I personally do not know Jancis Robinson or Sommelier Jean-Luc Le Du, and likewise I know at last 30 people who do not know them either; hence, speaking about their parties on almost every chapter (and this is not a long book, 250 pages) does not help me choose an everyday wine. Although I can imagine what an experience it must be to taste such wines, I do not need some name-dropping writer telling me that I can only enjoy wine by taking out my credit card and purchasing Petrus at $5,000 a bottle. I know I can have just as much fun, on an average day, with my girlfriend and a $20 bottle of Guigal's Crozes Hermitage.

After reading the criticisms detailed above in the official review, I have to say that I recognize some of those flaws (especially the repititions), but I don't think they take away from the fun quality of this book. At times, I felt kind of a Dave Barry meets Robert Parker quality of writing. Here's an example regarding correct pairings of reds/whites with food: "If someone else is buying Chateau Petrus or Chateau d'Yquem, by all means drink as much of it as you can, no matter what hell you're eating. Give the food to the dog."

For a good overview of just about every major grape and region, this book may be more helpful to a beginner than a more detailed Parker book which might give more than you need to know. I appreciate McInenery's taste for good wine and his lighthearted columns on his experiences. Every once in a while I'd have a jealousy attack (not all of us can quaff a Petrus or Yquem on a weekly basis), but at least I can afford to read about it. This is a great introduction to wine tasting with none of the technical stuff that should get in the way. I'll conclude with another one of my favorites "rants," this one on Robert Parker, "The self-proclaimed American Wine Advocate, who at the start of his career couldn't even speak the language, was recently awarded the Legion d'Honneur for telling the Frogs that a lot of their venerable Bordeaux and Burgundy isn't as great as it should be and some of it positively sucks." Nice to keep a sense of humor while discussing these wine topics.

Jay McInerney was one of the voices of the 1980s, the era known for its conspicuous consumption, self-absorption and decadence. With this book, he seems intent on singing the same song years after the curtain was drawn.

Ostensibly, this is a book about wines -- one of my passions -- and for the first few dozen pages it appears to be just that. There are some interesting and unusual observations about wine on the pages of Bacchus & Me, and Mr. McInerney deserves credit (hence the three stars) for breaking many of the crusty and useless conventions that limit most wine literature.

But the more one reads the book, the more one realizes that the chapters are less about wine than about Mr. McInerney himself. He reveals himself as a shameless name dropper, and someone most interested in repeating a half dozen humorous and entertaining observations in a variety of contexts while boasting about his fat expense account and privileged access to bottles of wine that most of us will never even see.

The problem is not that these lines are uninteresting or irrelevant -- as an occasional aside they would add to the intriguing take on one of the world's most written-about subjects. But in the frequency in which they appear here they can leave a throbbing in the head like an old bottle of jug wine does, when what we really wanted was one of those fine bottles of Bordeaux Mr. McInerney seems to be in love with.

Would it have been so much trouble to subject McInerney's collection of wine columns to some minor editorial work before publishing them as a book? There's much to like about the individual pieces here, but reading them sequentially becomes kind of annoying.

First off, the repetition is ridiculous. Helen Turley, "the wine goddess," should pay or possibly sue McInerney for mentioning her every third paragraph, and even some jokes get recycled. More frustrating is the lack of context: as this book is squarely pitched to the uneducated wine enthusiast, a little contextualizing would go a long way to making the columns actually useful(as would the occasional sop to those of us not regularly spending over $100 a bottle). And eventually we tire of hearing about the fabulous literary/oenophile dinner parties to which Jay is constantly invited.

All that said, the columns are funny and opinionated, and give a nice overview of a wide range of grapes and manufacturers. I'm sure reading one a month would be perfectly satisfying. It's just a shame the publisher was so lazy in assembling this package.

McInerney does not try to pretend to be writing a Wine Encyclopoedia. What he does deliver, in many respects, is far superior. His approach is wonderfully effective (and to toip things off, witty and entertaining) when it comes to translating the whole sensory and intellectual experience into a liverly written format. He goes way beyond the mere dry, descriptive and factual approach of the usual wine guides, and allows the reader to truly immerse himself in the experience. And have fun, and also learn stuff.

Thoroughly entertaining.

listen: irreverence is one thing, but just blundering around with a few dangerous pieces of knowledge, blurting out the same tritenesses about wine is a(whole)nother. mcinerney tries to accomplish with numerous disclaimers the same thing that anthony bourdain so fails to in kitchen confidential; that is, he wants to say "hey, this is just me talking. i don't know much, but i'm irreverent and handy with prose" and so on. it's a losing gambit. the actual nuggets of knowledge in bacchus & me can be summed up as follows: helen turley good, la grande dame good, california chardonnay flabby and overpowering. other than that, i now know that mcinerney has garden parties, wears prada loafers, and has been given a job--writing about wine while learing about it--that many others would gladly kill him for. i was left feeling one thing after reading this book: why not me? good christ, i'd have done a better job.

My wife and I found the book so entertaining that we could hardly put it down. We alternately read every chapter to eachother out loud for fear of the other getting to laugh first.
We particularly enjoyed the authors wit and amusing parallels.
Hopefully the book will also be published in German so we can give it to all our non English speaking friends.

Reading over fellow Amazon book critics, the observation came up that Jay McInerney is far too involved in this book for his own good. I suggest readers take it for what it is. This guy, like Brett Easton Ellis has made his cool cash depicting the decadent world of America in the 1980s and early 90s.

So what does a man do with his cool cash and his passion for wine? He spends it, he hob-nobs with the rich and famous. This book has its fun and comical points ("Anyone who starts analyzing the taste of a rose in public should be thrown in the pool immediately" or "...the more expensive California Chardonnay tended to resemble the women of Playboy and Beverly Hills") and he enjoys meeting wine makers, describing Angelo Gaja's driving as "Jackie Steward on crystal Meth" - which made me laugh.

The book is at best an irreverent, almost comedian-like take on wine. It is serious only for a moment. He has a few pointers but again, unless you have thousands in your bank account, you most likely won't follow his advice. He isn't a sommelier or someone in the industry. He's honest, he explains where he's coming form. He's a writer that has a passion for wine. And like most American wine writers, he misuses the word 'varietal' instead of using 'variety' ('varietal' is an adjective, describing a type of wine, not the grape variety itself - how come the British always get it right?). When it comes to tasting notes, he is more pop culture which after a hundred pages, began to tire.

But look at the title 'Bacchus and Me'. That says it all. You can hate this book, find it pompous and elitist (which it can be) or you can take it for what it is - Jay McInerney and wine. How else would he write? What else would he write about? Himself, his money, his wine. There is no real depth here. It's a beach read at best but if you can pick up a pointer and giggle along the way, it's not that bad.

excellent treatment of many topics in wine.
If only one could have joined Jay in his wine adventures!

I read "A hedonist in the cellar" first and the reading was so enjoyable that I was looking forward to this one. It turned out that "Bacchus & Me" is not as good...
Not to mention some repetitions between the two books, I think "Bacchus & Me" are more for the novice wheras "A hedonist in the cellar" would be more for already advised hedonists.
I was sometimes bored with Bacchus and Me, despite the good writing and the humor sprinkled now and then, and I found the topics not so original (again as opposed and compared to "A hedonist in the cellar".

In a Nutshell, I recommend much more McInerney's second book about wine.