By Jae-Ha Kim
Tribune Content Agency
October 13, 2015
With his debut novel “Vintage” (Touchstone, $25), author David Baker takes readers on a culinary expedition to find the perfect, lost vintage of wine that will make him a wealthy man. Himself a wine connoisseur, Baker has traveled worldwide, sampling the best bubbly in France and getting a taste of contraband wine in Saudi Arabia. He cites Beaune, France, as his ideal vacation spot.
“Many of the winemakers crush the grapes in the streets in front of their houses,” says the 44-year-old Oregonian. “They make the wine in their basements.” To learn more about Baker, check out his Facebook fan page and Twitter feed.
Q. If time and money were no issue, where would you return to immediately for another great meal?
A. I’d travel back in time and go to the French Laundry back when I could afford it. I think I missed that boat. I’d also love to try Alinea in Chicago. Someday. But as for a place that I’ve already been, there’s a little roadhouse outside of Gambassi Terme in Tuscany called the L’Antica Posta Effemme. It’s a ramshackle stone affair and it’s been in continuous operation as a restaurant since the 1200s. That sort of history in a humble eatery is unimaginable in the States. The portions are large, the wine is cheap and good. It feels sort of amazing to dine where the archbishop of Canterbury once stopped on his way to visit the pope.
Q. To someone who was going there for the first time, what would you recommend that they do during their visit?
A. Walking. The vineyards surrounding Beaune and the constellation of little hamlets in the Burgundian countryside are spellbinding early in the morning or in the evening. Take a chance and taste some wines or try some out of the way restaurants. If you have a skinny car, drive up into the narrow lanes between vineyards. The catacombs of the Marche Aux Vins in Beaune are also fun…its a subterranean wine market where you can taste as much wine as you want for a nominal entry fee. Caution: the more you drink, the more you tend to buy at the end of the tasting. No matter if you’re a wine beginner or an oenophile, you can find a range of wines to try. Tours abound where you can learn about the winemaking process and drive through the greatest vineyards known to mankind. The landscape and atmosphere is subtly spectacular, like the wines the region produces.
Q. What is your favorite vacation destination?
A. Beaune, France, in Burgundy wine country, is definitely my favorite destination. If you arrive by train, it feels like a sleepy little village. Once inside the medieval walls, it’s starting to get a little touristy these days, but the magic really begins when you head outside of town to the surrounding villages. Sleepy little towns like Pommard and Volnay are home to some of the greatest, most legendary wines on the planet. And they’re not produced in giant, imposing chateaus, but rather on family farms.
Q. What untapped destination should people know about?
A. Saudi Arabia. It likely feels that way because you can’t get a tourist visa there. If you’re not a Muslim visiting for the Haj, it’s difficult to even travel there. I was fortunate and received an invite from a university to work on a documentary about the coral reefs off of the Red Sea coast. Because of the lack of Western tourists, it felt strikingly different. The cultural differences are startling at times. The souqs and evening markets are vibrant and fascinating. The spices are surreal, and the calls to prayer echoing through the old town at night are haunting. But you do find, as you meet people and share coffee, meals and stories with them that you have more in common than you might guess. Straying off the beaten path and the westernized compounds led to some fascinating sights and surreal experiences. I hope to go back and explore it some more as it evolves and changes, as, for good or bad, I expect it will rapidly do.
Q. Where is the most romantic destination?
A. There’s no place like Paris. It may be a cliche, but I’ll be d—-d if I let tens of millions of tourists take that away from me. It’s the first city my wife and I visited together in Europe. There are thousands of restaurants and cafes off the beaten path. A walk through the City of Light at night is still tough to beat. And if you think romance is dead, check out the Champs du Mars before the glittering Eiffel Tower at night and you’ll see there’s still romance in the world. In many ways it’s heartening to see that the place is more and more accessible to more people from around the world.
Q. If you’ve ever gone away for the holidays, which was the best trip?
A. Not yet, but this year’s going to be a first! We’ve been putting it off a long time. But I have aging relatives to visit in Berlin, and this year we’re heading to see them. We’re going to do a tour of the biggest Christmas markets, including Prague and Dresden. We’re connoisseurs of gluwein, the German version of mulled wine, so that will factor heavily into our plans. I’m excited to try the festival and street food in sub-zero temperatures. Germans are undaunted by weather. There are outdoor cafes in Berlin that offer blankets so you can dine outdoors in winter.
Q. When you go away, what are some of your must-have items?
A. A Moleskine notebook, a camera with a zoom and portrait lens, a good digital recorder to capture local music or calls to prayer and ambient sounds, an e-reader with six novels by writers from the places I’m visiting and a corkscrew.
Q. What would be your dream/fantasy trip?
A. A three-month backpack through Asia and then Africa, two continents I haven’t explored yet. I’ve also never been to Russia, despite taking Russian language courses and minoring in Russian history in college. I’m a huge fan of Russian novels and bread, though I’m a bit intimidated by Vladimir Putin’s shirtless, bear-hunting prowess and his contempt for journalists, and I’m also a lightweight when it comes to Vodka.
Q. What was the first trip you took as a child?
A. I remember visiting relatives in Berlin and Munich when I was five. We stayed in a farmhouse in the countryside with some German relatives and my parents bought me some of those lederhosen, the leather shorts with the tassels and a hat with a feather in it. I remember that everything felt different … the food, the colors, the smells. I was allowed to drink coffee for the first time and I felt so grown up. I’ve loved traveling anywhere and everywhere since that experience.
Q. What’s the most important thing you’ve learned from your travels?
A. I’ve learned through traveling that food is a sign of generosity, culture and humanity. It’s the fastest way to learn about a place and the people who live there. I love eating in people’s homes, even if they fix something simple or humble. Each family still puts their own spin on things, a smaller cuisine within a larger one. Looking for farmers markets and out of the way restaurants are great ways to explore a place at a deeper level. It’s getting harder and harder to find something that feels truly undiscovered, with our Internet culture seemingly scouring the Earth and cataloging all of it. Even Dora’s Deli and Worm Ranch has rave reviews on Yelp. I used to be quite a shy person, but I’ve gotten much better at imposing. I’ll look up a distant relative or a friend of a friend of a friend. I’ll meet someone and ask him or her to show me around. And more often than not I’ll find that it’s no imposition at all. People are often thrilled to share their hometowns and that’s the best way to dig into the authenticity of a place. And so, as a result, I think I try to reciprocate by playing host to people when they look me up in Oregon.
Q. Where are your favorite weekend getaways?
A. Well, I don’t want to gloat, or stimulate mass migration to Oregon, but this is a pretty special state. We have rich farmland, vineyards, deserts, mountains, old growth forests and rugged coastline all within a couple hours of where we live. The volcanic landscape in the Cascade Range in west-central Oregon is striking to me. There are rivers, lakes, waterfalls, cinder cones, lava tunnels and lots of rugged wilderness to explore. Bend is in the heart of that country, and it’s a fantastic beer town with some of the best brewpubs anywhere. And then there’s the Oregon Coast. Renting a house near the beach, especially during a winter storm, can be a cozy experience. You can cook a seafood feast with fish you bought right off of the boat while you listen to the waves crash and the wind howls and do old fashioned activities like puzzles and games. And it’s the perfect setting for reading a book.
Q. What are your favorite hotels?
A. The little ones with creaky stairs and bathrooms down the hall. They wind up providing you with the best stories.
Q. What are your five favorite cities?
A. Berlin, Chicago, Paris, Victoria (Canada) and New Orleans.
Q. Where have you traveled to that most reminded you of home?
A. I grew up in Chicago and Berlin has always been a sort of mirror image for me. They both have great transit systems and amazing food, and since the collapse of the Wall, they’ve both had a sort of headlong, dynamic vibrancy to them. They’re two towns that are going places.
Q. Where would you like to go that you have never been to before?
A. After visiting Saudi Arabia, I’m hankering to explore the Middle East. I’d start with Oman.
Q. What are your favorite restaurants?
Here are two. Local Ocean, on the Oregon Coast is an amazing seafood restaurant. It opens onto the Yaquina Bay right across from the port docks of the local fishing fleet in the town of Newport. They buy their fish literally across the street. Chef Enrique Sanchez-Rodriguez has a creative approach, but a light touch that lets all that freshness shine through. Owner Laura Anderson is so concerned about sustainable fishing practices that she sits on the state fisheries board. Everything about the place feels right, even the barking of the local sea lions. Then my second option would be Dora’s Deli and Worm Ranch in Walla Walla, Washington. Not only is it on the outskirts of one of the most dynamic little wine towns in the country, but the tacos are unbelievable. Don’t let the name fool you. It is a bait shop, but on one side there’s a kitchen and you will usually see a couple of women that you want to adopt to be your grandmothers making fresh tortillas that are the best I’ve ever had.
Q. What is your guilty pleasure when you’re on the road?
A. Food and wine. Same as at home.
Q. What kind of research do you do before you go away on a trip?
A. I try to read the best historical survey I can find of the country I’m traveling to, and then I pair it with a couple of novels: a classic of their literature, and then a more recent potboiler or beach read set there or written by a local author.
Q. What is your best and/or worst vacation memory?
A. Gosh, there are so many. And all of them are good…even the bad ones!
Q. Have you traveled to a place that stood out so much that you felt compelled to incorporate it into your work?
A. Burgundian villages were featured heavily in my novel “Vintage.” Every place I visit has story potential, and a lot of it winds up working its way into a plot. Part of the exhilaration of travel for a writer is the sheer richness of ideas and stimulation it provides.
© 2015 JAE-HA KIM
DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.
