Chardonnay and Friends

Susan Cleyle is a systems librarian in the QEII Library at Memorial
University of Newfoundland.

Intended for anyone venturing to this bountiful wine region of Canada,
(B.C.), Chardonnay and Friends is broken down into three sections.

“The Winery Tour Guide” offers advice on how to get the most out of
a wine tour to the region. The author suggests that the tour be divided
into clusters. Among other things, he talks about respecting the
winery’s privacy, tasting, seating in the tasting room, and charges.
The best tip of all: “Don’t be afraid to spit!”

“Cluster” helps break the province down into different regions.
Each winery listed within a given cluster is discussed in detail, and
there are brief descriptions of the vintners and their specialties. An
unfortunate omission is a map showing the location of each cluster. The
author’s brief discussion of location does little to assist the
potential taster in determining where to start first.

“Varietal Descriptions” comprises detailed descriptions of varietal
wines as well as entries on fruits and blends. Each of the
alphabetically arranged descriptions includes such information as the
origins of the grape and characteristics to note when tasting. Schreiner
also discusses the grape in terms of where it is grown in British
Columbia, and offers numerous quotes from the various wineries.

The photographs are neither plentiful nor very helpful to the potential
wine tourist. Maps and pages for note-taking would have been useful
additions. But these are minor complaints about a book that is both a
delight to read and essential to any tour of British Columbia’s
wineries.