Extremely Pale Rose: A Very French Adventure

What a delightful read for a Francophile. One gets a marvelous sense of the country, its ordinary (and extraordinary) people and how they live their lives. Really didn't want it to end and the good news is there's a sequel: La Vie en Rose and a delightful website. So it really doesn't have to end.

While in Provence one summer, a French lady mistook a conversation about Jamie Ivey's niece Rosie for a conversation about rosé. In a quirky way, this conversation leads James Ivey, his wife Tanya and their friend Peter to a journey to find the palest rosé in France. This is a marvelous road book with three distinctive characters visiting the main rosé-producng areas in France: Champagne, the Loire, the Jura, Bordeaux, Dordogne, the Rhône, Provence, Languedoc and Corsica. Ivey is a lapsed attorney and his first book is written in an offbeat way. The three wander through tiny bars, local bistros, wine fairs, many chateux and vineyards, and wine shops. There's an important sideline: Peter's attempts to find particularly smelly cheeses. This is charming British style travel writing from someone who clearly loves France, wine, food and people. Ivey claims that according to French lore, rosé should be the pink of a baby's skin. These two extracts will demonstrate the extremes you will encounter in these pages: "Why is pale rosé so popular", asked Tanya? "Because people like you don't know a good wine from a bad one." Tim: "Historically, rosé was a dreadful wine. It used to be made from re-wine leftovers. It would be put in a forgotten vat in the corner of the cave and sold for next to nothing to anyone foolish enough to buy it. "But that's not true any more. There's not a great winemaker in France who hasn't learnt his trade by producing a good rosé. It's the hardest wine to make, much more complex than red or white. France is making some fantastic rosé now, and it's real wine that can accompany food. Anyone who is still snobbish about it is wrong." ____ The authors have now created an excellent blog describing their further adventures in the wine world; Google extremelypalerose . The subtitle of the blog tells the tale: "From London lawyer to Provencal wine merchant,author and now travelling salesman - the continuing story of pale pink wine and life in the south of France." The introduction to the blog carries on the appeal of the book: "Just to update those who have read Extremely Pale Rose: A Very French Adventure, Tanya and I are now running our own wine business in the south of France. We live near the village of Lourmarin and our shop front is the local markets. When we started trading in October last year one of the locals observed that we would be "living on love and cold water." They were right. We survived a long cold winter and sold practically no wine. But we made friends with the other market traders and secured our pitches in three local villages for the summer and now at last the tourists and the sun have arrived." Robert C. Ross 2007 2008

As I read this book on the search for the Palest Rosè in France, I couldn't help but be brought into a state of endless summer. The sun was beating on my face, my bermuda shorts and sandles were comfortable and the chilled glass in my hand was the lightest shade of pink. If you're looking for a wine geeky book that talks about all sorts of stuff that only the most highly-educated wine enthusiasts could possibly ever understand, this is not it. If you're looking for a great book that uses wine as the journey for discovery about the people, places and traditions of FRance, then this is the book for you. Don't know the difference between a Tavel and Grenach? No big deal. You know the difference between fun and boring right? This book is fun.

EXTREMELY PALE ROSE: A VERY FRENCH ADVENTURE will appeal to any who love France and French food and travel. It recounts the author's journey as he and his family travel the south of France in quest of rose wines. Rose is commonly viewed as a poor man's wine, but the paler it gets the more the Brits relish it and the more the French scoff. A translation problem sends Jamie on a quest for the palest rose in France, and their visits to wineries, rose-producing regions and local byways provide a lively, fun story of a hilarious quest. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch

i tell you, this book was the surprise hit of the summer for me. i picked it up as i like travel and drink and liked the premise of the challenge in the story. i thought it'd be a gentle read that i'd dip in and out of, but i found i couldn't put it down. you get really involved in the characters as they search through france on their quest. before you know it you've found out a great deal about wine, france, how comic/kind/annoying/helpful the french can be. i didn't expect it to be as amusing as it is - from beginning to end, it kept me chukling to myself. it was beautifully written and i think anyone who's ever dreamt of searching for a better and more uplifting alternative to their daily drudge should give it a go. uplifting! more please, mr ivey!