Charles Frankel Bücher

This book offers a captivating exploration of French winemaking regions, highlighting how soil, bedrock, relief, and microclimate influence a wine's character. France, renowned as the world's premier wine-producing country, boasts diverse tasting experiences, from Bordeaux's spice to the Loire Valley's berry notes. While grape variety, climate, and winemaker skill are crucial, the essence of a wine lies in the soil where its grapes thrive. Geologist Charles Frankel serves as the ideal guide, delving into the intricate relationship between land and wine. Through twelve chapters, Frankel examines regions like the Loire Valley, Alsace, Burgundy, Champagne, Provence, the Rhône Valley, and Bordeaux, revealing the concept of terroir. He illustrates how Cabernet Franc's character shifts based on whether it grows in gravel or limestone, how Sauvignon produces distinct flavors in Sancerre's limestone, marl, or flint, and how Pinot Noir varies on a single hill in Burgundy. The book also explores the geological history of France, featuring volcanic eruptions and evolutionary milestones that have shaped its vineyards. Both novice and seasoned wine enthusiasts will enjoy this engaging guide, enriched with anecdotes about winemakers and historical figures, alongside practical travel tips for winery visits.

"A distinguished geologist and a popular science writer Charles Frankel turns his attention in his latest book to the mass extinctions on our planet, considering what the past can tell us about the future. Explaining Earth's past mass extinctions, Frankel suggests that, each time, a decrease in biodiversity created fragile conditions that eventuated into widespread and cataclysmic disappearances. The rise of mammals led to the rise of humans, who, over the past 200,000 years, have become their own geological force, forever affecting the bio-environment, from the massacre of megafauna in the Ice Age to the impoverishment of soils and pollution of waterways and air, to the unwitting transfer of invasive species from one part of the globe to another. After a compelling account of the latest research, Frankel ends with speculations on planetary peril and whether the widespread extinctions, climate change, and loss of biodiversity that we are currently experiencing can be slowed or even reversed. His answer inspires hope and urgency. If humans can redirect and curb some of our basic behaviors (like the obsession to kill and consume other species), we might stand a chance. Still, he eloquently explains that, even if we succeed in this, our way of life and even some of our ways of being human will be transformed forever. As extinction repeatedly shows those who survive, life is not eternal"--