Back Story Of Living With Wine

--- Being included in Eric Asimov's Wednesday's column on winebooks was a treat. However hearing that my writing was besides the point was a big Ouch! ( I'm sure he didn't mean to be mean to me. I'll try not to take it that way.) The book, lovingly produced by Samantha Nestor, is a beaut, and expensive and a great gift. It might be the last of the great coffee books. But I must beg to differ. I think the words do indeed matter. When Sam and Clarkson Potter called to ask me to help out with the book and profile the collectors I was thrilled for the opportunity. My job was to bring life to the collectors and give shape to the practical information. Sam wrote the introduction, the captions, sidebars, titles...etc: really everything else. She collected the projects and photo edited Andrew French's photography. Working with them was, I admit it, a love fest. Once on the job I dug down to find out what these folk collect. Why they collect. How they started out and what were their particular storage needs. Tips are top heavy. The book is packed with practical information that just doesn't exist out there in book form; from the cellar designers on choosing materials, handling lighting, organization and high-tech flash. While my own prejudice is for a passive cellar, undergound, with no bells and whistles, others have different needs. And guess what? Those people out number me. Most of the cellar owners (obviously not freelance writers) had unlimited financial resources to get their desired effect. Some in the book are more accessible. But still lovely. For example: there's an LA cellar snuck under a stairwell. There's the functional closet transformation n the upper east side. Some reclaimed loft space for a young woman collector exists in the FlatIron. There is a green cellar as well. And yes, there are also cellars there for entertaining purposes only; who knew that people who only drink cocktails want a cellar as a courtesy for their guests, or build the cellar first and know the wine knowledge will come later? Life is strange, and all of these quirks are part of the wine world and how fun for me to discover the nuances and hopefully passed it on in the prose. Such as the man who used to purchase by points and then geek wine struck! And what do you do when the maid uses your 1982 Cheval Blanc for the meatloaf and how do you deal with your adult children raiding the wine cellar. This book pulled me out of my little natural wine nook and brought me into a different world, and back into the world of design, where I cut my journalist chops back in 1990. And while the book is piling up credits on blogs and in gift giving guides, in answer to one blogger who asked what my name was doing on a book like this, the answer is, having a great time!