A Moveable Thirst: Tales and Tastes from a Season in Napa Wine Country

A Moveable Thirst: Tales and Tastes from a Season in Napa Wine Country A rollicking wine country travelogue paired with the only comprehensive guide to Napa’s public tasting rooms

Hank Beal is a wine pro–the executive wine buyer at an upscale supermarket chain. Rick Kushman is an ordinary joe–a guy who enjoys wine but doesn’t know a lot about it. Together, Hank and Rick set out to visit all 141 public tasting rooms in Napa during the course of a year. The result is A Moveable Thirst–an engaging, often hilarious book that’s one part Sideways, one part Frommer’s. The first part recounts their uproarious adventures on the road as Rick learns to sniff and spit like a true oenophile (but never stops asking stupid questions). The second part offers the most complete and detailed guide ever published to Napa’s wine rooms. For wine lovers and the more than 5 million people who visit Napa every year, A Moveable Thirst is a great read and an indispensable guide.
Customer Review: A veritable Cornucipia of Wine Infromation Centered on Napa Valley Wineries
While this is the 93rd book on wines that I’ve read since October of 2006, it also ranks as one of the most informative and enjoyable. It’s a virtual cornucopia of wine information, providing the reader with a pretty good overview of how great wines are made and the challenges of growing grapes, all under the guise of covering the wineries and tasting rooms of Napa Valley and its associated AVAs (American Viticultural Areas).

For anyone planning a visit to Napa, this book is a must read. The first 190 pages cover the authors’ experiences touring Napa wineries for a summer, while the last part of the book provides comprehensive touring information on the tasting rooms, including such topics as wines, hours, directions, cost, ambiance, etc. In addition to picking up many invaluable insights on where to go for tours and tastings, you’ll also learn a wealth about wine and the wine people of Napa….all done in a highly amusing and entertaining style. This book packs more insight into the world of wine than many books written by knowledgeable authorities on wine. That makes this book a must read for anyone who just wants to learn about wine in an entertaining read.

You’ll be hard pressed to find a more informative and more enjoyable book on Napa Valley wineries. It’s much more than a great touring guide. Enjoy!

Mark Vincent
Customer Review: A Bit Light but Otherwise Delightful
It’s hard not to like an amicable story of two friends on a quest to tour every tasting room in the Napa Valley in a single year. A comfortable self-deprecation by the narrator, amusing insights into the behavior of other visitors to the Valley, snippets of interesting conversations with vintners and servers, all overlaid with continued uncertainty about whether the year’s grapes will survive the unusual weather and provide the basis for more good wines. Only the most hard-hearted of readers wouldn’t want to join Rick and Hank on one of their tasting adventures.

But there is a sense that a bigger book was waiting to be written. The thesis of the book seems to have been “It’s fun to wander around the Napa Valley”. Well, duh. Perhaps a bit more attention could have been given to how the vintners adjust to changing climatic conditions, or how the Valley accommodates the newcomers who change their life to be nearer to Napa, or how local government tries to reconcile the rural character of the Valley with the increasing tourist stream.

I won’t discourage anyone from reading this book. If you have a rainy Sunday afternoon, a nice bottle of pinot noir, and are looking for a light, fun read, you can do little better. But if you’re looking for something with a bit more oak and tannin, you should look elsewhere.