PositiveThe New York Times Book Review...an illuminating and nuanced case study in connoisseurship that probes the dazzling hedonism and gnawing anxieties that fuel an obsession with fermented grape juice ... Fadiman, a gifted writer with an instinct for brilliant detail, conveys the blissful suspense of uncorking a new bottle when she writes, with characteristic feeling, that when her father first tasted a wine, 'one could feel the entire world aligning with his aspirations.' She also teases out the darker desires behind oenophiles’ thirst, and investigates their psychology with an honesty that can be rare among wine lovers themselves ... Yet The Wine Lover’s Daughter occasionally feels short on another quality that drew Clifton to his prized French reds: acid, the sourness that adds complexity to both wine and life.
