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Large publishing houses have a hard time with small wine-growing regions. No one buys them, the programme managers grumble, as soon as they are confronted with off-the-beaten-track topics. Then, to be on the safe side, a work on the great châteaux of the Bordelais, the great vineyards of Bourgogne or the great Cabernets of Tuscany is better. There are already so many of them that no librarian can keep track of them all, but you can't go wrong.

You could have done a lot wrong with a booklet on the best wines of the Three Lakes region if you had written or published it from afar. Reporting on a wine-growing region like this, which is not familiar to everyone even in Switzerland, only works under certain conditions. One is to be on the spot. Yves Beck is there, he has tasted his way through the Chasselas from Twann, the Pinot gris and Oeil de Perdrix from Neuchâtel, the Pinot noir and Traminer from Vully. He describes winemakers I've never read about (and I consider myself to know Swiss wine quite well by now), reports on funny creations (a Petite Arvine from Boudry) and makes no secret of his euphoria. For my taste, the notes are a touch too high, the enthusiasm for wood aromas is a shade too strong now and then. But reading the book makes you want to taste a sur lie bottled Chasselas, Ligerzer Eiswein and Fischknusperli from Lake Biel - and the effort to present more than 500(!) wines on 192 pages cannot be overestimated.

Browsing through Martin Kilchmann's compendium on the wines and winemakers of Graubünden also makes you want to pick up the phone and order a Sauvignon blanc from Irene Grünenfelder or one of the legendary Pinot noirs from Martha and Daniel Gantenbein. The fact that this endeavour is likely to be in vain - the best wines of the Bündner Herrschaft are always sold out quickly - does not diminish the pleasure of reading the palatable texts and looking at the top-class pictures by Jörg Wilczek. But how is it that this time a renowned publisher has struck? Has Graubünden already left its status as a small wine-growing region and joined the big ones? Well, the few hundred hectares of vines in the canton cannot scratch the enormous vineyards of Bordeaux, but at least in Switzerland no discerning connoisseur can get past Fläsch, Jenins and Zizers. And apparently neither does a publishing house!

But Xenia Theodotou Schneider would not have the slightest chance of having her booklet on wines from Cyprus printed by one of the internationally active book groups. The sommelière lives in France, but she knows the wines of the Mediterranean islands very well and explains grape varieties and cultivation methods. The layout is not sensational, but one has to forgive a guidebook produced with limited means and a high level of personal commitment. In any case, anyone who has leafed through the work, which is written in English, knows exactly that the Cypriot wine world does not end with the legendary Commandaria. Xenia Schneider describes around 40 wineries and 200 bottlings and also gives the best (of the reader) what Yves Beck does not offer (and does not want to offer at all): tips on combining wine and food.

This is exactly what one would have hoped for from a wine-culinary film that is currently in the cinemas and is set in the Swiss metropolis of Zurich. Bon Appétit could have been a great film, because the main character (played by Nora Tschirner) is a sommelier and also in love with a chef (played by Unax Ugalde). But in the end, the lovely story with restaurant and Spanish creative cuisine only serves as a backdrop for a love story; those hoping for deeper wine insights will be disappointed. Of course, those who have enjoyed film platitudes such as Keinohrhasen and Zweiohrküken should get their money's worth here too and look forward to an indisputably pretty portrayal of Zurich's winter idyll. On the other hand: for the price of two cinema tickets, you could already get Yves Beck's Lakes book. And that will probably bring more in the long run.

Yves Beck: Beck's Best - The Best 3 Lakes Wines
Self-published, 2010
ISBN 978-3-906140-88-9
Price: 32 CHF
Author's website: www.burgweg-wein.ch.

Martin Kilchmann/Jörg Wilczek: The winegrowers of Graubünden and their wines
AT-Verlag, 2010
ISBN 978-3-03800-517-9
Price: 44 euros
in bookshops.

Xenia Theodotou Schneider: Cyprus Comprehensive Wine Guide
Wine2discover Ltd, 2009
Price: 19,90 £
at amazon.co.uk.

Bon appétit
Warner Bros. Pictures, 2010
In numerous cinemas.

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