Comments: The Vineyard Cookbook includes more than 60 recipes in 12 multi-course, seasonal menus, all meant to showcase the wines they are designed to accompany, and at three different price points (less than $25 per bottle, $25 to $35, and over $35).

In general, these are easy recipes that produce fairly showy results. We would not say there is a depth of flavor in many cases, but easy and showy can go a long way these days. Using particularly good ingredients is the key to success with simple recipes.

We are flummoxed by the recipe for Roasted Potato Salad with Arugula and Goat Cheese that has you roast cloves of garlic in their skins – and them serve them in the salad in their skins (confirmed by the lovely nearby photo). Perhaps it is like serving mussels in their shells, but we know of at least some people who would be confused seeing unpeeled roasted garlic cloves on their plates (and a few who might try to eat them that way). It is the sort of thing that makes us wonder slightly about other recipes.

The book also features brief descriptions of 32 prominent wineries across the country, with highlights of each location's best-selling wines. Filled with wonderful photos, this is a coffee-table book – whether or not it means to be – just on a smaller scale.