Fear and Loathing in the Languedoc might be the appropriate title here. Ralph Steadman's most notorious success as an illustrator was his collaboration with Hunter S. Thompson on his Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Much has happened since then, but nothing more consistently amusing than Steadman's complete immersion in wine. This is a good gig for anyone: to chronicle one's travels across the globe in search of truth and vineyards.
Steadman's unhinged drawings which combine painterly skill and cartoonlike humor are here in abundance: the varied grapes of Germany are described well but drawn better -- the sad bunches of spatlese ("late picking"), the truly glum Trockenbeerenauslese.
He begins with the sublime, France, and ends with, well, America: the hazards of winemaking at Biosphere 2, the use of windmills as temperature controls, and the perils of gopher damage. Along the way he visits all the major winemaking centers, filling his book with dozens of evocative Steadmanish paintings and sketches.
Steadman isn't a bad writer, either. He is as practical as an explanation of wine cellar fungus and as whimsical as the Ten Commandments of Wine. ("9. Thou shalt not steal a Gold Medal. Thy wine will give thee away sooner or later.")
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