The cooler temps and shortening days here in the Pacific Northwest signal the harvest season is upon us and with it comes crush. While reading the updates on this year's harvest, I am reminded of Brian Doyle's excellent book, "The Grail: A Year Ambling & Shambling Through an Oregon Vinyard in Pursuit of the Best Pinot Noir Wine in the Whole Wild World". If you have ever been curious about what it's like to work in a vineyard and/or winery during crush, then this is the book to read.

In this wonderful account, Doyle shares the year he spent following Don Lange and his son, Jesse, of Lange Estate Winery and Vineyards located in Dundee, Oregon. He begins his story in late fall after crush, when the vineyards become dormant, but much work remains in the winery. Doyle then traces the trials and tribulations of the Lange father-son duo as they work through the winter, spring and summer, culminating in the fall harvest when crush is in full swing again.

Doyle's writing style lends well to the subject of wine, for he does an excellent job providing readers with useful metaphors and insightful thoughts on the larger context of grape growing and wine making. I liked his emphasis on how wine should be celebrated as part of a meal, which is in keeping with the Lange's approach to winemaking. The book is an entertaining read and very enlightening. I came away with a much deeper appreciation for estate wineries in general, as these folks are as much farmers as they are winemakers.

"The Grail" is one of my favorite wine books because of its primary focus on the "who", while still delivering on the "what" and "where". It's a book that will take you beyond the bottle and connect you to people and places producing wine in Oregon. So, as the weather starts to encourage curling up with a book, consider picking up "The Grail" along with a good bottle of Oregon pinot noir. In fact, I recommend trying a Lange pinot noir while you're at it.

I am a big Pinot Noir fan, especially from Oregon. So I had high hopes for this book, but after reading the first 4 or 5 chapters, I really lost interest. I felt like the writing was disconnected and didn't flow. I couldn't stay in the story, if you could call it a story. Glad I checked it out from the library.

Doyle's writing is unique and makes the reader guess if you are having a conversation with him or are in his head and catching his rambling thoughts. Very enjoyable, easy to read and entertaining. If you really pay attention instead of getting lost in the fantasy, there is great information on the life of a vintner family and the joys of wine. The Langes should keep him in wine for life as I can't wait to go buy one of my old favorites that I no longer have in my cellar. Great book!

I am one of those wine drinkers who has found American Pinot Noirs so thin that I've stopped exploring them. How could the great Burgundy grape descend to such an insipid level in American soil and American hands? This summer, the owner of a fine wineshop in Hatteras, NC, (there is such a thing) tried to educate me that Oregon Pinot Noirs are Burgundian, as he tried to sell me one of his Lange Winery Pinot Noirs. I demurred, so he said, "Let me let you borrow this book. It's a great read." I found the book so, bought it, and one of the aforementioned Lange Pinot Noirs to lay down for a while. Doyle is an engaging writer, a teller of stories (the book is a series of 1-3 page stories), a great describer of people and activities and environments. He is fond of long series of phrases that move poetically. Indeed his first chapter is a single sentence with many commas and one period, running almost two pages--and you don't get lost as you do with a similar Kantian sentence! My only complaint is that Doyle tells you everything about the "farming" of the grapes, and all of the work and sociology and geography and climate and geology that entails, but not much about what is done TO the wine once crushed and how it goes through its various changes in barrel and bottle. I'd have liked more of that. But, nonetheless, it is a fine, enjoyable read, hard to put down; and I recommend it highly. Ask me in a couple of years about the wine! (Though maybe I'll find one in a restaurant somewhere to try before I open my own--or taste one or more when we visit the Lange Winery this fall on a planned West Coast trip. If they're not picking, that is. The book makes clear not to visit then.)

As a friend of the author, having read many of his tomes, most of his essays and all of speeches, I have to say this is the one that tugged at my taste buds. Reading this book is a heady little journey through the Oregon Hills that I love so much. As the story meanders on and the work gets harder you cannot help but want to be a part of the Lange family (or is that just me?) Yes, I know owning a great vineyard is hard damn work, but look at the harvest. Each bottle contains so much potential for great memories, great hopes, great conversations. Makes me wish I could go back in time 20 years and buy a pinot block in the Red Hills myself.

First let me tell you that I am a friend with the author, however, I found this book to be one of his best. Doyle must have inherited the Irish tradition of story telling from his parents. I enjoy his writing style and the ability for him to celebrate the miniscule is wonderful. The undercurrent of Christian spirituality is evident in the stories that he tells. Did he really find the best wine in the world? I would recommend this book as a great late summer read for those that are tired of the usual summer dregs.

For an insider's look of a year in the life of a boutique Oregon winery, this is the book. We follow the Lange family, especially son Jesse, from the end of one harvest to the next. We learn that winemaking is not necessarily the romantic adventure we may think, but rather a labor-intensive farming operation with lots of machines that can break, everyday kinds of problems to be addressed. It isn't sitting back on a veranda sipping your latest creation - though there is some of that, to be sure - but lots of long days of often back-breaking work.

Doyle is a competent and often entertaining writer, with occasional flashes of brilliance. He is informative and insightful, taking the role of aggressive reporter on the scene, being our eyes and ears, asking the kinds of questions that we, ordinary wine drinkers, would ask. I found, however, that his writing can slide into stiltedness, with an occasionally annoying affinity for alliteration. Sometimes, he's too self-consciously, awkwardly humorous. And at other times, he digresses off topic so far that you wonder why he included it in the book. Yet, he is also capable of mocking himself for having done so - which doesn't excuse it. It comes off as self-indulgence.

One insight that I found particularly interesting was the aversion of the winemaker to pass judgment on any of his competitors' pinot noirs. Doyle tries several times to get Jesse Lange to compare his pinot noir to those of his neighbors - in vain. Jesse doesn't rise to the bait because, as he says, he has live here (here being Dundee, Oregon).

On balance, "The Grail" is a worthwhile, entertaining read. It was a gift to me, and I turned around and bought three more copies to give to wine enthusiast friends.