My friend Eric Arnold has just released his first book entitled First Big Crush, which is his irreverent and often comical account of his year in New Zealand learning about wine. You should all go out and buy this book. Seriously. Especially if you like wine. If you look at his Amazon review you’ll see he got rave critiques from the likes of Sammy Hagar and Ted Allen. Although as a Queer Eye, maybe Ted Allen just really liked the chapter where Eric explains why you should literally blow him if you do not think screw caps are the shit. Suggesting fellatio as an educational exercise on the topic of wine…yep, that’s something Eric would come up with. 🙂

Eric knew next to nothing about wine or the winemaking process before setting out on his journey, expecting that it would just be a fun little adventure working at Allan Scott Winery for a year. Too bad he didn’t know how cold, wet and grueling that kind of work actually is. We get to laugh at his misery and his mistakes along the way as he gives us a juicy inside look at what really goes into making great wine and the motley characters involved in making them. All I can say is that I will never be able to look at a glass of wine the same way again.

Tuesday night was the book launch party held at Nelson Blue. I never even knew that NYC had a “Kiwi bar”. I got to sample Allan Scott’s 2006 sauvignon blanc and pinot noir. Best of all, I got to drink them with the man, Allan Scott himself! I started with the sauvignon blanc and it was deliciously balanced in fruit and acidity. I had about 5 glasses of it and probably would have kept going except I really wanted to dip into the pinot noir as well. So when they began serving food and I snarfed down a few lamb chops, I decided to shift gears and moved on to the red. The pinot’s nose was huge with both floral and earthier notes, but upon tasting it, I was pleasantly surprised by the restraint and again the balance of the wine. Mild tannins with ripe fruit and hints of spice. The light body betrayed the expectations that the big bouquet set up, but that’s not a bad thing. This wine was a perfect match with the lamb chops. I have no idea how much of the pinot I drank, but it was a lot. And I’m still not sick of it. In fact, I will be buying some this weekend…

So if any of you are in the NY area this Saturday, you should all come down to a book signing/wine tasting being held at Union Sq. Wines (4th Ave at 13th St.) from 2p-5p. Eric will be there to sign books and Allan Scott will be there to promote his wine. I will be there too, unless the wine shop kicks me out for loitering. A book signing with a really cool author where you can sample wine from a legendary New Zealand proprietor too. How can you beat that? (btw, if you go, be sure you get Allan Scott’s autograph too. After reading the book, you will kick yourself if you didn’t. Or maybe I will kick you. Either way.)