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Cellar master

Sometimes a book can sell tens of thousands of copies, year after year, and not make a dent in one of The New York Times' best-seller lists. Such a book is the annual issuing of Kevin Zraly's Windows on the World Complete Wine Course.

According to Zraly, these volumes have sold some 2.5 million copies since the first edition appeared in 1985. Zraly became the cellar master at Windows on the World the year the restaurant opened in 1976. He was 25 at the time. The books grew out of the wine courses he's taught ever since.

"Windows on the World is a hard place for me to talk about," Zraly said recently. "I was there for 25 years, from the day it opened until Sept. 11, 2001." He would have been in the World Trade Center on the day it fell, he said, had he not stayed home because of his oldest son's birthday.

"After 9/11, I had no desire to do anything, or to teach anymore," he said. "But many people wanted me to carry on the legacy. Really, the only things now left of Windows on the World are the wine courses and my books."

Zraly got into the wine business thanks in part to Craig Claiborne, the former New York Times restaurant critic who died in 2000. "In the winter of 1970, Claiborne was coming back from skiing with Jacques Pepin and Pierre Franey, and they stopped at a restaurant where I was working - the Depuy Canal House in High Falls, New York," Zraly said.

"Claiborne ended up giving the restaurant four stars - it was, I think, the first time he'd given four stars to a restaurant outside New York City. I was 19 at the time, and a college student. I had no idea who Craig Claiborne was; I was a steak and potato guy. But after the review came out, I was put in charge of the bar. I had to learn about wine as part of the job, and I quickly discovered it was something I wanted to study for the rest of my life."

A few years later, Zraly was hired at Windows on the World. According to Zraly, the restaurant's owner, Joseph Baum, said to him at the time: "I want you to create the biggest and best wine list New York has ever seen - I don't care how much it costs."

Zraly was, he said, "like a kid in a candy store, one that happened to be atop the World Trade Center. I miss that place all the time."

Windows on the World Complete Wine Course 2008 was published in October.

The New York Times Syndicate

Compendious work

The Four Great Archives of Chinese Civilization, an anthology covering the history and culture of the pre-Qin Dynasty period (221-206 BC) to the Sui (AD 580-618) and Tang (AD 618-907) dynasties, was finished this month after 20 years. It is compiled by the famous sinologist, Wen Huaisha (pictured), and the Institute of Han and Tang Studies.

The series contains 200 volumes, and covers 1,560 ancient books with more than 140 million Chinese characters. It is divided into four parts, namely The Civilization of Shang and Zhou, The Civilization of Qin and Han, The Civilization of the Six Dynasties and The Civilization of Sui and Tang.

Xi'an Qujiang Cultural Industry Investment Co Ltd, the sponsor of the project, plans to publish 1,000 copies around the world. Copies of the books have been donated to Harvard University Library, the US Congress Library, the National Library of Australia, and the National Library of China. Xie Yuan

(China Daily 01/10/2008 page20)