Dan Keeling – one half of the duo behind wildly successful magazine and restaurant group Noble Rot – has struck out on his own to explore why some wines matter and others do not. The ingeniously titled Who’s Afraid of Romanée Conti? is pitched as a guide to sourcing the right stuff, from “good cheap vino” through to the titular fabled Burgundy.
As with Noble Rot’s first book Wine From Another Galaxy – which Keeling co-wrote with pal and business partner Mark Andrew – the tome is a collection of mini essays. Unlike most wine books, the structure of Who’s Afraid of Romanée Conti? is free form, with Keeling alternating between talking about single producers, wine styles, grapes and regions while also throwing in the odd article on more general topics including blind tasting, the addition (or not) of sulphur and what to pour for people who couldn’t care less.
Keeling’s piece on how to choose a great house wine is worth the price of admission alone. As he points out, “sourcing a bottle that’s cheap and not so disgusting that it’d be better used to remove the congealed Béarnaise from the chef’s station is the hospitality game holiest of grails”. He outlines what Noble Rot looks for in a house wine – something that tastes of what it is that they’d be happy to drink with pals and costs as little as possible – and reveals how his restaurant group’s own house white – a collaboration between Noble Rot and northern Portuguese producer Quinta Do Ermizio entitled Chin Chin – came to be.
Recommendations for producers are peppered throughout Who’s Afraid of Romanée Conti? These range from cult producers whose wine come at a considerable price to far more accessible ones. But what of Romanée Conti itself? Sadly the book contains no tips on how to obtain this most rarefied of liquids for a sensible price, other than – perhaps – to become an eminent wine writer and restaurateur and get invited along to a once-in-a-lifetime tasting.
Who’s Afraid of Romanée Conti: A shortcut to drinking great wines
Dan Keeling
Number of pages: 288
Publisher and price: Quadrille, £30