Untrodden Grapes.

First Edition of Untrodden Grapes; Signed by Ralph Steadman

Untrodden Grapes.

STEADMAN, Ralph.

Item Number: 17008

New York: Harcourt, 2005.

First edition of this work in which Steadman visits notable vineyards in California, Chile, Spain, France, Italy and South Africa for a look at their grapes and wine-making techniques. Quarto, original boards, illustrated throughout. Signed by Ralph Steadman opposite the title page. Fine in a fine dust jacket.

Steadman, illustrator of several of Hunter S. Thompson's gonzo narratives, also has a reputation in the world of wine—which is no contradiction, as he thinks of himself as "a romantic and a lifetime supporter of the maverick tradition in all fields of human activity." In this volume, which follows his well-received Grapes of Ralph, he wanders to notable vineyards in California, Chile, Spain, France, Italy and South Africa for a look at their grapes and wine-making techniques. Steadman chats with the owners, eyes their dogs, tastes their wines and takes notes, which frequently meander into fond digressions on unusual oenophilic practices. Still, it's Steadman's sketches that make the book: vertiginous mountain vineyards; splotchy caricatures of idiosyncratic vintners; lumpy, mustachioed villagers (male and female); even a brief album of wine dogs, "grand cru mutts." Although he's designed many wine labels himself, Steadman's no label snob; indeed, he rails against "the rigid aristocracy of fine appellation" and misses the "good, bad old days" when you could decant a nice Roussillon into your own jug straight from a pump at the wine cooperative.

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