The New York Times book of wine: more than 30 years of vintage writing

For openers. The $400 corkscrew / Eric Asimov

Wine writing and writers. Words, words, words / Frank J. Prial ; Wine in two words / Eric Asimov ; Affairs to remember / Frank J. Prial ; A reporter's reporter / Frank J. Prial ; A beguiling master of food, wine and words / Frank J. Prial ; Man of the left who put wines to right / Frank J. Prial ; Pop goes the critic / Eric Asimov ; Bronx cheer of a wine guide / William Grimes

The jungle of winespeak. Talk dirt to me / Harold McGee and Daniel Patterson ; A short course in wine tactics ; Frank J. Prial ; Rolling out those chewy behemoths / Frank J. Prial ; Guessing games / Frank J. Prial

What you drink with what you eat. Big and beautiful : Lafite for 12 / Eric Asimov ; A rule just waiting to be broken / Eric Asimov ; Oysters with miso glaze / Florence Fabricant ; Three meals point the way to fish in red wine sauce / Florence Fabricant ; How I spent my summer of Riesling, by Terroir / Frank Bruni ; Not so cold...doctor's orders / Eric Asimov ; Chill out / Frank J. Prial ; A sturdy red for winter / Eric Asimov ; 12 reasons to look beyond the usual wine selections / Eric Asimov ; Wine enough to please them all / R. W. Apple Jr. ; In a season of memory, a toast to what endures / Alex Witchel ; Pairing wine with Chinese food / Jen Lin-Liu ; Enlisting radicchio's bitterness to balance the fruitiness / Florence Fabricant ; A rustic European treat of prunes poached in wine / Florence Fabricant ; A piquant appetizer that brings out the best in a wine / Florence Fabricant ; America's love of sherry smolders / Eric Asimov ; Why red wine and cheese have stopped going steady / Florence Fabricant ; Serendipity in the cellar / Frank J. Prial ; Excellent box, sir / Frank J. Prial ; Scratch an American, find an immigrant / Frank J. Prial ; Ancient messages, hidden in a dusty bottle from long ago / Eric Asimov ; Memories are made of this / Terry Robards ; Wine flavored by the wind / Terry Robards ; A wine critic's feast / Terry Robards ; The tastes of Walla Walla, secret no more / R.W. Apple Jr.

After the meals, treats that are sweet, semisweet

and powerful. From the thinnest of wines, the richest spirit : Cognac / R.W. Apple Jr. ; In a glass, a swashbuckler called Armagnac / R.W. Apple Jr. ; Grappa, fiery friend of peasants, now glows with a quieter flame / R.W. Apple Jr. ; A fine roughness : on the trail of a spirit called Marc / R.W. Apple Jr. ; Port is a welcome guest at cocktail parties / Eric Asimov ; Vintage Madeira's enduring charms / Eric Asimov ; Hidden in Hungary, treasures on the vine / Evan Rail ; A dessert wine that's a public secret / Florence Fabricant ; Frozen vines (and fingers) yield a sweet reward / Julia Lawlor

A magnum of miscellany. Natural winemaking stirs debate / Eric Asimov ; New wine in really old bottles / Eric Asimov ; A thinking man's wines / Eric Asimov ; The truth about "suitcase clones" / Eric Asimov ; Lack of sex among grapes tangles a family vine / Nicholas Wade ; The earliest wine : vintage 3500 B.C. and robust / John Noble Wilford ; Cave drops hints to earliest glass of red / Pam Belluck ; In wine country, pruning isn't just part of the job / Jesse McKinley ; When velvety red is only skin deep / Eric Asimov ; A zin oasis in Mexico's dusty hills / Eric Asimov ; Illegal sale of rice wine thrives in Chinese enclaves / Kirk Semple and Jeffrey E. Singer ; Japanese wineries betting on a reviled grape / Corie Brown ; Wines have feelings, too / Eric Asimov ; Too broad a stroke for labeling wines / Eric Asimov ; The rites of vintage assembly / Frank J. Prial

Made in the U.S. of A. Pickers to vintners : a Mexican-American saga / Eric Asimov ; Gratification, but not the instant kind / Eric Asimov ; A cult winemaker tinkers with success / Eric Asimov ; Garages for chardonnays, no Camrys / Patricia Leigh Brown ; Growing in Napa : club, and camp, for wine lovers / Patricia Leigh Brown ; Too sweet to be invited to dinner / Eric Asimov ; Finessed and alight : California pinot noirs with a manifest / Eric Asimov ; Letting a grape be a grape / Eric Asimov ; Is there still hope for syrah? / Eric Asimov ; The hard stuff now includes wine / Eric Asimov ; The day California shook the world / Frank J. Prial ; A dissenter's view of California wine / Frank J. Prial ; An actress's presence is still felt / Terry Robards ; A farewell to the Baron of Bully Hill / Frank J. Prial

You're feeling continental? This is for you. In a world of fine wine, there'll always be a France / Eric Asimov ; The paler shade of Bordeaux / Eric Asimov ; The soulful side of Bordeaux ; Eric Asimov ; The 1855 ratings, etched in stone (almost) ; Frank J. Prial ; Bordeaux family values / Frank J. Prial ; Stealing from thieves / Frank J. Prial ; Bordeaux loses prestige among younger wine lovers / Eric Asimov ; Burgundy learns to bottle consistency / Eric Asimov ; An American hears the call of Burgundy / Eric Asimov ; For Chablis fanatics, Ah, 2007 / Eric Asimov ; What's new in Beaujolais is not nouveau / Eric Asimov ; A potion from a town named for love / Frank J. Prial ; Surprises from the Jura, jagged in a velvet-smooth universe / Eric Asimov ; The rewards of the pampered grape / Eric Asimov ; Modern love for ancient vines in southern Italy / Eric Asimov ; A rare tasting of Conterno Barolos / Eric Asimov ; An Italian prince and his magic cellar / Eric Asimov ; Some see a wine loved not wisely, but too well / Eric Asimov ; In Apulia, emancipation for the grapes / R.W. Apple Jr. ; In Spain, these hills are alive (again!) / Eric Asimov ; Rooted in Rioja, traditions gain new respect / Eric Asimov ; Txakolina, a tongue-twisting name for simple pleasure / Eric Asimov ; German Rieslings, light and dry / Eric Asimov ; Austrian wines have a voice, and it's excited / R.W. Apple Jr. ; An honest day's work from Vienna / Eric Asimov ; Meanwhile, back in Alsace / Frank J. Prial ; Hungarian dry wines? Forge ahead / Eric Asimov

South of the equator. New heights for Andean wine / R.W. Apple Jr. ; South African goes from never a sip to vineyard fame / Barry Bearak ; A winemaker, transplanted / R.W. Apple Jr. ; Meals in the bush, now with fine wines / R.W. Apple Jr. ; An Australian sibling comes into its own / Eric Asimov

The night (and day) they invented Champagne (and sparkling wine). Taking Champagne back to its roots / Eric Asimov ; In small houses, Champagne finds its soul / Eric Asimov ; Champagne's servants join the masters / Eric Asimov ; Buried treasure in Baltic has vintage taste / John Tagliabue ; A greener Champagne bottle / Liz Alderman ; Spring comes for a prince of Champagne / Frank J. Prial ; They make the Champagne of Champagnes / Frank J. P)rial ; A drink with drama / Frank J. Prial ; Royal wedding wine may be bubbly and English / Eric Asimov ; In Albuquerque, French-style wines that sparkle / Sarah Kershaw ; Produced in Champagne, but what do you call it? / John Tagliabue ; A second life in Champagne / Roger Cohen

Wherein contrarianism bursts forth. Taking a closer look at wine's conventional wisdom / Eric Asimov ; Berkeley's wine radical, 35 years later / Eric Asimov ; A rosé can bloom in winter, too / Eric Asimov ; So who needs vintage charts? / Frank J. Prial ; Three cheers for the also-rans / Eric Asimov ; Screw tops gain acceptance worldwide / Frank J. Prial ; A musty myth / Frank J. Prial ; A sommelier's little secret : the microwave / William Grimes ; For a tastier wine, the next trick involves... / Harold McGee

They don't make 'em like that anymore. His big idea is to get small / Eric Asimov ; The tastes of a century / Frank J. Prial ; A twilight nightcap with Alistair Cooke / Frank J. Prial ; A wine man who vowed to drain the cup / Frank J. Prial ; Remembrances of a champion of the Champagne world / Frank J. Prial ; The greatest vintage of Alfred Knopf, 90 / Terry Robards ; By wine besotted : a fantasy fulfilled / Eric Asimov ; A wine spree worth savoring / Frank J. Prial ; A restaurateur who bought for himself / Frank J. Prial ; Naked came the vintner / Warren St. John ; He can bring the wine and the music / Eric Asimov ; Alois Kracher, Austrian winemaker and advocate, is dead at 48 / Eric Asimov ; Nelson Saulis, 86, is dead; toiled to improve vineyards / Howard G. Goldberg ; Joe Dressner, an importer with no use for pretense, dies at 60 / Eric Asimov

So, there you are in a restaurant. Postcard from Paris : we drank! we ate! / Frank J. Prial ; If the wine is off... / Frank J. Prial ; Just pour, he said, and put a cork in it / Frank J. Prial ; Americans prefer it by the glass / Frank J. Prial ; On tap? How about chardonnay or pinot noir? / Eric Asimov ; Sometimes, half a bottle is better than one / William Grimes ; Of wine, haste and religion / Roger Cohen ; A stroll through the "21" list, circa 1945 / Frank J. Prial

With your kids at the table. Can sips at home prevent binges? / Eric Asimov

The last drops. The driest wines (and the drollest) are in the museum / Howard G. Goldberg ; The big grape : Nouveau York City / Howard G. Goldberg ; Jefferson on wine : "The only antidote to the bane of whiskey" / Howard G. Goldberg ; The spirit of giving / Frank J. Prial.