Extremely Pale Rosé: A Very French Adventure [Hardcover]

Jamie Ivey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 16, 2006

On a sunny day in the South of France, over a typically langorous French lunch, Jamie Ivey, his wife, Tanya, and their friend, Peter, discover the distinct pleasures of drinking a bottle of cool, pale rosé in the Mediterranean sun. Far from the plonk he's used to in England, Jamie is entranced by a blushing wine that is seen as no more than an aperitif by the French, but one that is rising in popularity all over the world. Owing to a translation mishap, Jamie finds himself challenged to the task of finding the palest bottle of rosé in France. Rising to the occasion, Jamie sets off with Tanya and Peter in tow through the vineyards of France to find the elusive bottle. They visit the main rosé producing areas, trawl through every tiny bar and sample the local bistros. Peter noses out the local specialties, as well as the best purveyors for threateningly odoriferous cheeses. "Extremely Pale Rosé" is food and travel writing in the best tradition as Jamie and his fellow travelers eat, sip, and taste with the colorful vintners, chefs, bakers and townspeople who live in and among the vineyards. Readers will be delighted. It's the perfect book to read on a summer day while sipping a glass of icy Bandol, nibbling on a bit of baguette and dreaming of the south of France.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

First-time author Ivey, his wife and friends were enjoying a languid afternoon in France, sipping their favorite rosé and conversing in stilted French with a woman at a neighboring table, a vintner who claimed to have the palest rosé in all of France. Due to a misinterpretation on Ivey's part, he offers to find an even paler bottle within a year and submit it for her review. Soon, Ivey and Co. are off to Paris to meet with the first of many experts who will guide their journey. The trio winds their way through Champagne and other regions with varying degrees of success. A turning point comes when they taste a darker rosé that eclipses the best varieties of pale rosé, causing them to wonder whether or not pale rosé is the be-all of rosés. Ivey does an admirable job of setting the scenes, but the people he encounters never become more than his descriptions, and they pop in and out so quickly that it's difficult to keep them straight. Ivey never makes his journey the reader's journey, and the story leaves the reader in the dust without so much as a sip of wine for solace.
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Review

"As with rosé, the ultimate fun wine...what counts is atmosphere, wit and of course amusing French people. It's great fun to read, especially if you enjoy sticking you nose into all sorts of little-known corners of France. The Iveys...can't help but enjoy themselves, and so will readers."--Eric Asimov, The New York Times' blog, "The Pour"

"A light, entertaining tale."--Wine Enthusiast

"Witty escapism for those who enjoy, or enjoy reading about, good wine, good food, and good travel."--Library Journal

"Delightfully quirky debut….Full-bodied."--Kirkus

"In this carefree, breezy romp through the vineyards of Southern France, Jamie Ivey infuses a simple wine with the beauty of the countryside. Ivey will change the way you think of--and drink--rosé forever."--Natalie McLean, James Beard Award-winning publisher of Nat Decants at www.nataliemaclean.com

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition edition (May 16, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312349564
• ISBN-13: 978-0312349561
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #610,042 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely marvelous, October 2, 2006

By 

Marie Leppard (Halifax, NS Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Extremely Pale Rosé: A Very French Adventure (Hardcover)

Extremely Pale Rosé is a wonderful book for anyone who loves Provence or for anyone who wants to learn more about this special part of France. I'm one of the former and reading this book made me wish I was back there right now. Jamie's writing style is easy to read and the story holds your interest. There's lots of good, accurate information and you really feel you get to know Jamie, Tanya and Peter as you go along for the ride on their quest. Once you open this book and start reading, it's easy to forget the world around you. So, pour yourself a nice chilled glass of Provencal rosé and lose yourself in this fabulous book.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great read, September 5, 2006

By 

JHSP Dunn - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Extremely Pale Rosé: A Very French Adventure (Hardcover)

i tell you, this book was the surprise hit of the summer for me. i picked it up as i like travel and drink and liked the premise of the challenge in the story. i thought it'd be a gentle read that i'd dip in and out of, but i found i couldn't put it down. you get really involved in the characters as they search through france on their quest. before you know it you've found out a great deal about wine, france, how comic/kind/annoying/helpful the french can be. i didn't expect it to be as amusing as it is - from beginning to end, it kept me chukling to myself. it was beautifully written and i think anyone who's ever dreamt of searching for a better and more uplifting alternative to their daily drudge should give it a go. uplifting! more please, mr ivey!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating quest in France, December 20, 2007

By 

Robert C. Ross (New Jersey) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Extremely Pale Rosé: A Very French Adventure (Paperback)

While in Provence one summer, a French lady mistook a conversation about Jamie Ivey's niece Rosie for a conversation about rosé. In a quirky way, this conversation leads James Ivey, his wife Tanya and their friend Peter to a journey to find the palest rosé in France. This is a marvelous road book with three distinctive characters visiting the main rosé-producng areas in France: Champagne, the Loire, the Jura, Bordeaux, Dordogne, the Rhône, Provence, Languedoc and Corsica.

Ivey is a lapsed attorney and his first book is written in an offbeat way. The three wander through tiny bars, local bistros, wine fairs, many chateux and vineyards, and wine shops. There's an important sideline: Peter's attempts to find particularly smelly cheeses. This is charming British style travel writing from someone who clearly loves France, wine, food and people.

Ivey claims that according to French lore, rosé should be the pink of a baby's skin. These two extracts will demonstrate the extremes you will encounter in these pages:

"Why is pale rosé so popular", asked Tanya?
"Because people like you don't know a good wine from a bad one."

Tim: "Historically, rosé was a dreadful wine. It used to be made from re-wine leftovers. It would be put in a forgotten vat in the corner of the cave and sold for next to nothing to anyone foolish enough to buy it.

"But that's not true any more. There's not a great winemaker in France who hasn't learnt his trade by producing a good rosé. It's the hardest wine to make, much more complex than red or white. France is making some fantastic rosé now, and it's real wine that can accompany food. Anyone who is still snobbish about it is wrong."

____

The authors have now created an excellent blog describing their further adventures in the wine world; Google extremelypalerose . The subtitle of the blog tells the tale: "From London lawyer to Provencal wine merchant,author and now travelling salesman - the continuing story of pale pink wine and life in the south of France."

The introduction to the blog carries on the appeal of the book:

"Just to update those who have read Extremely Pale Rose: A Very French Adventure, Tanya and I are now running our own wine business in the south of France. We live near the village of Lourmarin and our shop front is the local markets. When we started trading in October last year one of the locals observed that we would be "living on love and cold water." They were right. We survived a long cold winter and sold practically no wine. But we made friends with the other market traders and secured our pitches in three local villages for the summer and now at last the tourists and the sun have arrived."

Robert C. Ross 2007 2008