Africa Uncorked: Travels in Extreme Wine Territory (Hardcover)

by John Platter (Author), Erica Platter (Author), Hugh Johnson (Author) "It sounded promisingly exotic, but Casablanca to Meknes is not one of the worlds great train rides..." (more)
Key Phrases: wine territory, wine appellation, wine route, South Africa, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
A true adventure, wonderfully told…vivid and absorbing. The most original wine book in years. -- Hugh Johnson

A true adventure, wonderfully toldÂ…vivid and absorbing. The most original wine book in years. -- Hugh Johnson<br /><br />Wise and visionaryÂ…as broad as Africa itself. As a travel book itÂ’s unrivaled. --Jancis Robinson

Wise and visionary…as broad as Africa itself. As a travel book it’s unrivaled. -- Jancis Robinson

Product Description
John and Erica Platter, the couple who helped bring South African wine into the main-stream with the countryÂ’s first wine travel guide, have now fixed their trail-blazing tendencies on the rest of the continent with their remarkably original book, Africa Uncorked, Travels in Extreme Wine Territory. It doesnÂ’t meander through the manicured rows of the common wine locales-itÂ’s wine tasting with a machete and a typhoid shot. But that sort of thing has never dissuaded the PlatterÂ’s. For wine journalists living in a place like ShakaÂ’s Rock KwaZulu-Natal, the rough road is "Polo" to their "Marco".

Africa Uncorked hikes to the outer regions of wine: from, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, to the Indian Ocean Islands of Madagascar, Mauritius and Reunion; back onto the East African mainland to Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania; through Zimbabwe; and west to Namibia. They make interesting and unusual wine and food discoveries, bump into some extraordinary characters and pass through places that have been red-taped to tourists for decades. Unlike many wine travel narratives, the wine at the end of the road does not over shadow the road itself-the wine in the glass mixes with the collected impressions of the people and places along the way.

The Platters also take a long look at the forces that have made the modern state of African wine what it is-from poverty to politics and religion-and represent them with the delicacy and insight of immediate experience. This book is a genuine first!

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Wine Appreciation Guild (October 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1891267523
• ISBN-13: 978-1891267529
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,156,312 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A bold topic, a bold adventure, and a bold approach , May 11, 2005

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

John and Erica Platter helped bring south African wine to the knowledge of the rest of the world with the country's first wine travel guide, and their Africa Uncorked, Travels In Extreme Wine Territory follows the idea of unusual African wines through Africa in a travelogue which journeys from Algeria to Madagascar and beyond. Unusual wine and food discoveries, strange characters, and adventure permeates Africa Uncorked, which provides equal attention to cultural and culinary discoveries on the continent. A bold topic, a bold adventure, and a bold approach makes Africa Uncorked hard to put down.