This is a wine book, but not as you know it. Jane Lopes, wine director for acclaimed Melbourne restaurant Attica, has written an incredible ode to wine with Vignette, which shares her personal wine journey and its many twists and turns, as well as 100 great drinks that represent each style she explains, and an insightful graphic guide to understanding each one. Expect wine to be likened to celebrities, botrytis wines explained through illustrations of Jane's cat (who bears the same name), and even wine-themed word puzzles.
It’s been drawing high praise from wine professionals around the world. Here are just a few extracts of recent reviews.
Tamlyn Currin, JancisRobinson.com
“One of the most spellbinding wine books I have ever read… This is a love story. A real love story, with all the mess and misunderstanding, stalling and slip-ups and tears and glory that entails. It’s a love story between two people (yes, dear reader, she married him), it’s a love story to wine, it’s a love story to life, to triumph in adversity, and a love story to the small, meaningful things.”
Max Allen, Australian Financial Review
“Lopes’ impressive debut work is as much candid and compelling memoir as wine guide, and deserves to be read cover to cover. She has come up with wonderfully novel ways to present information that make even already knowledgeable readers see the subject anew.”
Eric Asimov, The New York Times
“Vignette, by Jane Lopes’ is a different sort of sommelier story, this one centred on a determination to compete for the coveted title Master Sommelier. While the book is ostensibly concerned with how one studies and absorbs the skills of service, knowledge and tasting, wine fades as other matters become paramount.”
Jessica Dupuy, Forbes
“Vignette is part memoir and part wine book, and an all-out joy for anyone who has found a passion for something and struggled, willingly, to make it his or her life.”
Vignette by Jane Lopes is published by Hardie Grant, $40, and available from all good books stores. Illustrations by Robin Cowcher.