Hoke wrote:I figure he just took all that research he already had and shifted it into a book format. Sounds to me like he did more cut and paste of lists though, and left it at that, rather than going into the stories and the people in rich detail. Hey, a list is a list is a list, and any list gets old fast.
Well, it's a little worse than that, because it's not a matter of not going into "rich" detail, it's a matter of not going into "any" detail.
I guess one of the questions I'd ask is: If Kevin Zraly's name wasn't attached to it, would the book have been worth printing in the first place?
I'd say so, for the reasons previously expressed: With the combination of shipping opening up (at least to some extend) with a growing excitement about small-farm wineries, people are starting to take Eastern wines (east of the Rockies, I mean) a little more seriously. Hell, Kentucky has something like 50 bonded wineries now, not all operational and mostly not memorable, but still. For the first time in my lifetime, Louisville wine shops in general - and some restaurant lists - are starting to include Kentucky and Indiana wines, and not laughing about it.
book length treatises.
You have to look at this volume, Hoke. It's not book-length. It really could almost have been incorporated in a magazine story, fleshed out to pocket-book size with label pictures and white space.
In short, he's a good---a very good---performer live.
I have heard nothing but good about Kevin. He's a great educator, and he's supposed to be a great guy. That's why I found this thing so profoundly disappointing.