Books - Wine, Food, Lifestyle
Wine Diva books

Welcome to Wine Diva's online bookshop, with thousands of wine, food and lifestyle books.

This month's great read - Wine

Pemberton Wine Region Western Australia  by Alex Bond
Pemberton’s essence as revealed through the eyes of photographer Alex Bond. Bond has captured the beauty of these forests and the waterways snaking through them. Pemberton is also a community of people, a place established by timber mills supplying sleepers for the great trans Australia railway, dairy farms and vineyards. With photo essays on twelve of the region’s vineyards, he reveals the richness of farmed landscape, the activities of the working wineries, and the experience of life lived in outdoors. The photographs are supported by text detailing the history of the region and Pemberton township and the uniqueness of each vineyard. This book would make a lovely gift for lovers of Western Australia, its nature and wine culture.

Hardback,  144 pp,  $59.95. Buy now

This month's great read - Food

Tree to Table  by Patrice Newell
Tree to Table: Cooking with Australian Olive Oil is a beautifully produced book from Hunter Valley olive farmer and producer Patrice Newell. She takes us around the farm with insights into harvesting techniques and inside the kitchen revealing how to purchase and store olive oil, the different flavours of oils and tips on tasting oils. Her many recipes are joined by those of some famous names in Australian cooking – Kylie Kwong, Janni Kyritsis, Tobie Puttock, Holly Davis, Serge Dansereau, Greg Malouf, Stephanie Alexander, Stefano Manfredi, Tony Bilson and others. The photographs by Simon Griffiths bring to light the beauty of the Valley, the splendour of the trees and pleasures of the table. A great gift for the cook in your life.

Hardback,  224 pp,  $59.95. Buy now

The Diva's Choice

Outback Cooking: Recipes and Stories from the Campfire  by Andrew Dwyer
Sitting around a campfire under the wash of a million stars listening to the sizzle of spicy satay skewers on the camp grill is the quintessential outback experience. Andrew Dwyer, Outback chef and adventurer, takes you on that trip.Illustrated with more than 200 stunning images by award-winning photographer John Hay, Outback is a celebration of the extraordinary beauty of the Australian outback with delicious recipes and campfire stories of explorers, rogues and pioneers.You can learn all about outdoor cooking techniques using camp and Bedourie ovens, what equipment you need, how to prepare for the trip, how to store and keep food fresh, and how to select wood and make the fires.From wild duck with juniper sauce, Cajun camp oven potatoes t

Paperback,  272 pp,  $34.95. Buy now

For Beer Lovers

The Complete Guide to Beer and Brewing  by Laurie Strachan
In a world where restaurants boast extensive beer lists and hotel counters are bristling with taps offering beers from all over the world, the choice of what beer to drink can be very confusing. Luckily, Australia's doyen of home brewing, Laurie Strachan, has assembled a wealth of information about the beers of the world. This is the most comprehensive book about beer and brewing ever to be published in Australia. Between its covers you will find all you need to know about telling beers apart, how to taste them, how to enjoy them, brew them?and even how to cook with them. From starting with beer kits, progressing to using malt extracts and then brewing all?grain beers to world standard, this is a book for anyone who loves beer

Paperback,   $29.95. Buy now

Getting started

Pasta Passion  by Ursula Ferrigno
Pasta is the ultimate storecupboard staple and the original '5-minute meal'. With the addition of just a few simple ingredients it's possible to make a stunning dish to suit all occasions and palate. Bestselling author Ursula Ferrigno's passion for pasta and her unique source of simple but authentic recipes, many from her own family, make this the essential book on pasta. Pasta Passion begins with an introduction on how to make and cook your own fresh pasta, basic pasta sauces and tips on how to match sauces to pasta shapes. With over 140 recipes and ideas, the chapters that follow feature dishes for every occasion from Instant Pasta, to Everyday Pasta Dishes, Light and Healthy, Cook Ahead and Pasta to Impress. There are traditional favouri

Paperback,  304 pp,  $19.95. Buy now

Wine science and viticulture

Handbook of Enology: Microbiology of Wine and Vinifications v. 1  by Pascal Ribereau-Gayon, Others, Bernard Doneche and others
The Microbiology volume of the new revised and updated Handbook of Enology focuses on the vinification process. It describes how yeasts work and how they can be influenced to achieve better results. The last chapters in the book deal with the use of sulfur-dioxide, the grape and its maturation process, harvest and pre-fermentation treatment, and the basis of red, white and speciality wine making. The result is the ultimate text and reference on the science and technology of the vinification process: understanding and dealing with yeasts and bacterias involved in the transformation from grape to wine. A must for all serious students and practitioners involved in winemaking.

,  512 pp,  $305.00. Buy now

Wine Guide 2009

James Halliday Australian Wine Companion 2009  by James Halliday
This is the numer one bestselling guide to wineries and wine in Australia. Keenly anticipated by winemakers, faithful collectors and wine lovers like, the 2009 edition has been completely revised and updated to bring you up-to-the-minute information

Paperback,  768 pp,  $34.95. Buy now

Gift Ideas

The Perfect Glass of Wine  by Ben Canaider
'I've never heard anyone say: This wine is perfect. Admittedly I once gave a wine 20 out of 20 at a wine show, but it was the very first wine of the very first day of the show, and I only did it to signal to the other judges that I'm essentially a pretty facetious person. Every other judge had given it a 14.' As wine writer Ben Canaider admits, wine is an inexact science. But that doesn't stop him carrying out his own search to find his, and THE perfect glass of wine. This book is the result: a rollicking account of Canaider's sober trials and drunken tribulations as he attempts to find perfection in wine. From drinking his first bottle of Grange aged 21 to a mixed case of the world's greatest champagnes in 33 hours from romantic wine nirva

Paperback,   $24.95. Buy now

Gift Ideas

James Halliday's Wine Atlas of Australia  by James Halliday
From deep, supple and mouth-filling Shiraz to golden botrytised Riesling from delicious gooseberry and grass-driven Sauvignon Blanc to the generosity of sun-kissed Chardonnay, Australia produces wines that are among the best in the world. The diversity of Australian landscapes and soils ensures an optimal environment for every variety of wine grape, whether the cool climate of Tasmania for Pinot Noir or the Mediterranean summers of the Margaret River in Western Australia for Cabernet Sauvignon. James Halliday analyses every wine region in Australia – and there are over seventy – in this definitive book.

Hardback,  320 pp,  $79.95. Buy now

Yum!

Italian Local  by Tobie Puttock
Italian Local celebrates the joys of Italian cooking and local produce. Tobie Puttock gathers together 100 of his favourite Italian-inspired recipes, and shows us how to achieve authentic Italian flavours wherever we live.Convinced that 'cooking and eating should be about nurturing the soul as well as the body', Tobie argues for the purchase and use of the best available produce. He shows us why organic is nearly always better and why eating seasonally is the way to go. He introduces us to growers whose respect for the cycles of nature is inspirational, and to suppliers whose enthusiasm for that particular brand of cheese or type of mushroom will have you rushing to your local market.Because Tobie's approach is so produce-driven, his recipe

,  208 pp,  $49.95. Buy now

Wine guide 2009

Quaff 2009  by Peter Forrestal
Quaff 2009, the essential guide for the savvy wine drinker, provides tasting notes for more than 400 good-value local and imported wines, listing them by variety in an easy-to-follow format

Paperback,  256 pp,  $19.95. Buy now

Wine region

Wine Hunter  by Campbell Mattinson
Presents a lyrical portrait of one of the pioneers of Australian winemaking - Maurice O'Shea. Discover the Hunter Valley of the 1920s, the first days of an emerging industry, and a man's amazing struggles to keep Mount Pleasant alive during decades of economic adversity and general indifference to the wines he was making

Paperback,  304 pp,  $35.00. Buy now

Cocktails

Martini  by Frank Moorhouse
At once a celebration of the most elegant, arcane and mysterious cocktail of them all - the martini - and a lyrical memoir of friendship and love won and lost, MARTINI: A MEMOIR is Frank Moorhouse at his melancholy and hilarious best. As he muses on the aesthetics of martini lore - olive or twist, shaken or stirred, Dorothy Parker or James Bond? - and the nature of drinking, Moorhouse reflects on the role of the martini in his own life in prose as dry and intoxicating as the martini itself. Now with revisions and a new afterword.

Paperback,   $24.95. Buy now

Gift Ideas

The Cocktail 2  by Jane Rocca
Captures the spirit of every spirit. Learn about the warm companionship of vodka, the old school primmness of gin and the tropical abandon of rum.

Hardback,  126 pp,  $29.95. Buy now