Extremely Pale Rosé
A Very French Adventure
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
First-time author Ivey, his wife and friends were enjoying a languid afternoon in France, sipping their favorite ros and conversing in stilted French with a woman at a neighboring table, a vintner who claimed to have the palest ros 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 ros that eclipses the best varieties of pale ros, causing them to wonder whether or not pale ros is the be-all of ross. 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.
