Writer: Tadashi Agi
Artist: Shu Okimoto
Image via Amazon
As advertised, the latest English language edition of the wine scavenger hunt manga skips ahead quite a bit from the last book. Book 4 finished with the revealing of the second Apostle wine whereas the new book tells the story of the seventh. As the title implies, this installment focuses on wines outside of Europe - especially Australia and California.
No idea what I'm talking about with this scavenger hunt/apostle stuff? My friend, you have catching up to do and, believe me, this series is well worth your time. Here are my previous posts:
The Drops of God
The First Apostle
The Second Apostle
Apart from the revealing of four wines, we've missed a few other details in the interval. At least one regular character was introduced while we were away. The Taiyo Beer wine division has a new member: Kido. I can't say much has been revealed about him except it would appear the others find him annoying.
In one panel, just at the beginning of a tasting, Kido has blood shooting out of one nostril. According to Scott McLoud, this signifies sexual arousal in Japanese manga. I'm not sure what it has to do with a wine tasting, though I guess he's pretty excited about it.
My Wife and I recently went to a wine tasting hosted by Healthy Living, a large independent supermarket in South Burlington. In all, we got to try about 30. My favorite, at least among the ones for which we could reasonably afford a bottle, was a Spanish rioja: 2010 Cortijo.
For the moment, I can find no news about future English-language releases, though one certainly hopes the stories we missed will be published before long. My Wife picked up some of the French-language editions during our last Montreal trip. They offer a lot more details about the wine in the back of the books - not that I can read it, mind you.
Don't worry all the detail basically says, "these wines are too expensive and rare for you to ever find and drinnk, heh, heh, heh, heh."
ReplyDeleteInteresting, though, that the publishers assume (no doubt, correctly) that the Francophones are more informed about wine in general than the Anglophones - not unlike watching soccer in Spanish.
DeleteHow do you taste thirty wines without getting falling-down drunk? (I've never been to a wine-tasting.)
ReplyDeleteSmall sips, dump the rest, water in between.
DeleteThirty wines. Those have gotta be some reeeally small sips. I had a friend who described wine tastings as well-dressed, upscale drunkfests. He was kind of a superior snot, though.
DeleteI'll admit to being a bit merry afterwards but a good dinner sorted me. In general, I'd say folks were pretty well-behaved.
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