University of Nebraska Press

Ex-mafia land and Italian wine

This week in Bloomberg Business Week, Colleen Barry shows how ex-mafia land is producing prize-winning wine.

Wine from the Centopassi vineyard which is on display at the Vinitaly wine fair through tomorrow in Verona are “the result of a (EURO) 1.2 billion ($1.6 billion) European Union-Italian project to integrate ex-Mafiosi property in the southern regions of Sicily, Calabria, Puglia and Campagna back into the legal economy.”

In Robert Camuto’s book, Palemento, he chronicles his journey through Sicily where he explores the emerging wine scene while also discovering the anti-Mafia movement growing in the former mob vineyards around infamous Corleone.

Read the full article here: “Ex-mafia land produces prize-winning Italian wines”

Zester Daily contest winners

The winners of the Zester Daily food contest have been chosen!

Congrats to our winners, Joanna, Sue, Christy, Bret and Barbara. Your prize -- a copy of Jewish American Food Culture by Jonathan Deutsch and Rachel D. Saks, which takes an in-depth look at both well-known and unfamiliar Jewish dishes, is en route!

Thanks to all who participated!

Win food from Negev Nectars

Get hungry because Zester Daily is having a “Nosh like a Pro” contest!

Enter to win a box of Israeli foods from the company Negev Nectars. Five readers will also be picked to receive a copy of Jewish American Food Culture.

Click here to enter now.

Zester Daily is an award-winning online publication produced by an international collection of experienced journalists, food writers and wine experts who want to engage food and drink enthusiasts.

A tastey book sale

Take advantage of this cold rainy weather to stay inside and do some extra reading! Especially reading that may inspire your taste buds to help cope with the chilled temperatures.

Right now you can save 25 percent of wine and food books, like Corkscrewed and Masters of American Cookery.

Corkscrewed by Robert V. Camuto recounts his journey through France’s myriad regions—and how the journey profoundly changed everything he believed about wine.

 

 

 

Masters of American Cookery: M. F. K. Fisher, James Beard, Craig Claiborne, Julia Child by Betty Fussell demonstrates vividly how each of these chefs has made a unique and invaluable contribution to the American way of cooking and eating.

Click here for the list of all sale books and the discount code.

Sale ends Nov. 30, 2011.

Chow.com Interview with Sicilian Wine author Robert Camuto

Chow.com contributor Jordan Mackay recently sat down with Robert Camuto at A16 Restaurant in San Francisco to discuss his newest book, Palmento: A Sicilian Wine Odyssey. Read the interview.

Off the Shelf: Palmento by Robert V. Camuto

Read the beginning of Chapter 1, "Benvenuti in Sicilia" from one of our featured holiday gift books, Palmento: A Sicilian Wine Odyssey by Robert V. Camuto:

"I had arrived in Sicily only a few hours earlier, and on the drive to dinner I would break more laws than I had violated during any prior twenty minutes of my life. Indeed, I could always say that I was an innocent straniero merely following a lawless guide in Valeria, the waif with the brick-sized monogrammed Dolce & Gabbana belt buckle and the ever-singing telefonino, who greeted me at Azienda Agricola COS, which I’d chosen as my first stop in Sicily for all noble reasons. I was here because—more than two and a half decades after its founding by a group of university friends—COS had become a thriving symbol of the new Sicily. Its wines were fashionably sipped in cosmopolitan capitals the world over, and COS was considered on the cutting edge of the growing and wholesome natural wine movement. Indigenous grape varietals were farmed biodynamically (using herbal tea treatments and a few practices that resembled alchemy tied to the phases of the moon) and wines were produced with naturally occurring yeasts found in grapes and with minimal added sulfur (sulfites). More than that—burnishing COS’s authenticity credentials—the winery had been fermenting some of its wines not in wood barrels or steel or cement vats but in clay amphorae, a process reminiscent of the Greeks who had first settled Sicily; and therefore it elevated my role here to something like an epicurean archaeologist.

UNP authors in the NYT and on NPR

Palmento, by Robert V. Camuto, made the New York Times yesterday, in wine critic Eric Asimov's roundup of his favorite new wine books. Palmento, which chronicles a year the author spent researching (and drinking) wine in Sicily, received high marks from Asimov, who wrote, among other things:

 
" ... Mr. Camuto extracts fascinating and illuminating details about Sicily, bringing to life the characters, conflicts and family dynamics that define a culture and its wines. It’s a beautiful, enthralling work, eternally wistful and hopeful, much like Sicily itself."

To read the whole NYT review, click here.

 
In other national news, on Oct. 2 The John Lardner Reader: A Press Box Legend’s Classic Sportswriting, was discussed on NPR's “Only A Game." They talked with the editor, John Schulian, about the book. The John Lardner Reader is a collection of 49 pieces from Lardner’s sportswriting career. John Lardner (1913–60), the son of legendary humorist Ring Lardner, applied his singular touch not only to his era’s icons—Joe Louis, Ted Williams, Satchel Paige—but to the scamps, eccentrics, hustlers, and con men in the shadow of sports. He was one of America’s press box giants, a classic stylist whose wry humor and tireless reporting made sportswriting an art. To take a listen to the show, click here.

Author John E. Ikerd is a featured speaker at the Aronia Festival

Nebraska is known for corn, the Cornhuskers and of course, farming. With the decline of family farms and rural communities and the rise of corporate farming and the resulting environmental degradation, American agriculture is in crisis. But this crisis offers the opportunity to rethink agriculture in sustainable terms. John E. Ikerd’s Crisis and Opportunity describes what sustainable agriculture is, why it began and how it can succeed. He talks about the consequences of agriculture industrialization and offers methods that can restore social responsibility to our agriculture system.

Ikerd will be at the Annual North American Aronia Berry Festival in Missouri Valley, IA where all things are aronia, like herbals, food, craft beer and recipes. For those of you that don’t know (because I sure didn’t) aronia berries are packed with antioxidants and are extremely good for you! So besides featuring a superb berry, they have vendors from the Omaha Farmers Market, children’s activities, wine tasting, farming demonstrations and a series of speakers discussing sustainable agriculture and food systems.  The festival takes place Sept. 18-19, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Sawmill Hollow Organic Farm. He will be speaking on Sept. 18 and signing books. Click here for a complete description, schedule and directions.

Robert Camuto kicks off Palmento book tour tomorrow

The Univeristy of Nebraska Press is proud to share that one of its authors, Robert Camuto, is kicking off his national book tour tomorrow for Palmento: A Sicilian Wine Odyssey. The book is about his journey through the Etna region of Sicilily where he discovers more than just great wine. He also meets the winemakers of Italy’s largest and oldest wine region.  During his visits, he gets to know winemakers whose families have been in the business for generations; ex-pats drawn to Sicily by its remoteness, beauty and heritage of great wines; young Sicilians blending new technology and ancient production methods, often with very good results. Throughout the tour, he will be featuring winemakers that he profiles in Palmento. His first stop is at McNally Jackson Bookstore in New York City. There will be a reading and a wine tasting… a fine way to start off a book tour we say! 

Meanwhile, first time author, Matthew Gavin Frank has been doing some touring of his own with his book, Barolo. Matt decided to spend six months living out of a tent, picking wine grapes for a farmer in Barolo, Italy. He tells the reader about his explorations of the local flavors and culture that Barolo had to offer. He also begins tomorrow but in Grand Rapids, Michigan with a reading, signing and Q&A session. We have a few pictures of his tour on our Facebook page. 

For a complete list of tour dates to see if either author is coming to a city near you, please click here.

Praise for Robert Camuto's Palmento (and Corkscrewed, too!)

Eric Asimov writes about wine for the New York Times – wine trends, wine regions, individual wines, wine culture, etc.  Wine blog The Daily Sip posted this Q&A with Asimov yesterday, in which Asimov writes about his wine writing philosophy (I especially liked this quote: I don't think it's so important that people know a lot about wine as it is they drink wine if they like it. I don't think anyone is under any obligation to know about wine. I don't think of myself as an educator, but more as an inspirer.)

Asimov also discussed some wine writers he admires, including UNP’s own Robert Camuto. Of Robert’s forthcoming book, Palmento, he says … it's brilliant, it puts wine in perspective and it captures or epitomizes the way I would like to think of wine: as part of a cultural spectrum rather than something to be analyzed and scored.

High praise from a great writer.  Full column is at the link above, which may make you want to celebrate the arrival of the weekend with a nice bottle of wine.