This review is part of the Green Books campaign. Today 200 bloggers take a stand to support books printed in an eco-friendly manner by simultaneously publishing reviews of 200 books printed on recycled or FSC-certified paper. By turning a spotlight on books printed using eco- friendly paper, we hope to raise the awareness of book buyers and encourage everyone to take the environment into consideration when purchasing books.
The campaign is organized for the second time by Eco-Libris, a green company working to make reading more sustainable. We invite you to join the discussion on "green" books and support books printed in an eco-friendly manner! A full list of participating blogs and links to their reviews is available on Eco-Libris website.
I was quite excited to be asked to participate in the Green Books campaign. After all, I love books AND the colour green :) And I was even more excited when I saw the list of books I could choose from. I'm a total card deck nerd - flash cards, reference cards, inspiration decks - if it comes in card form, I have it. And on the list of available green books was Vinifera, The World's Great Wine Grapes (boxed reference deck) from Ghigo Press. Oh, aside from being a card deck nerd, I'm also a wine geek. I used to have a fairly substantial collection of wine and I love learning about wine, particularly the different types of grapes.
The Vinifera deck consists of 45 different cards - covering both the more popular grapes (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, etc) as well as more local and less well known varietals (at least to me) like Albarino from Spain or Nero d'Avola from Italy. The front of the card is a close-up of a cluster of grapes - the photography is good and rich, you definitely get a sense of the colour and texture of the grapes in each particular variety.
The back of the card contains a collection of information about the grape variety: usually starting with its parentage/origin story as well as its growing history - for example, I learned that one of my favourite white varietals, Viognier (a varietal from the Rhone region), has its origins in grapes originally imported from Dalmatia (a part of Croatia) in the 3rd century CE. My family is from Croatia - perhaps I have an affinity for this grape in my DNA?
There will then also be some interesting historical context about the varietal on the back. For example, I learned that the Mission grape is a popular varietal for use in sacramental wine. And I also discovered that the Refosco grape is a parent grape of Marzemino which happened to be a favourite wine of Mozart!
And finally each card makes a recommendation about what food pairings would go with each varietal. I love this information because some wines take big gamey roasts and stews and others really only can handle a nice slice of cheese. The pairings are nicely directional and modern - no old-fashioned red=beef/white=chicken nonsense.
I'm really enjoying these cards and I look forward to sitting around with my wine geek friends, grokking out over the parentage. history and lore of grape varietals. Oh, and of course appreciating Ghigo Press' commitment to environmental publishing choices. Their card decks are printed on at least 30% recycled and managed stock and use environmentally-friendly inks.
Now, some good news for you!
The super-nice folks at Ghigo Press also sent me a couple of their calendars that I'd like to give away to you. They sent a COFFEE wall calendar and a SPICE wall calendar - these calendars contain the same photography and content that are on their reference decks, plus they are also green - Ghigo Press' calendars are made with 100% recycled stock and printed with soy ink. If you'd like to be entered in the random draw to win one of these calendars, just leave a comment letting me know what your favourite type of coffee and/or favourite spice is (depending on which calendar you're keen on - and yes, if you leave a comment about both, you'll be entered in the draws for both). I'll close the comments on Wed, Nov 17 at noon Pacific time and do the draw before the end of the day on Friday, Nov 19.
Thanks again to the Green Books campaign and Ghigo Press! Make sure you check out the full list of publishers and bloggers over on Green Books site. And thanks to Indigo Books & Music (yay, Canada!) for supporting Eco-Libris' Green Books campaign and for their commitment to forest conservation.
Follow everyone on Twitter - today they are all talking green books today: Eco-Libris, Ghigo Press and Indigo!