For the oenophile with a sense of humor: In The Grapes Of Ralph ($35.00; Oct. 1996; 224 pages; ISBN 0-15-100245-2) the wicked cartoonist and illustrator offers a tour of the wine countries of the world and their leading denizens. Accompanying the narrative is Steadman's warped, witty art: Top-hatted Frenchmen inserting their sniffers into wineglasses; German grapes exploding in a heatwave--a perfect subject for Steadman's blotchy inkblot style; and in Australia, a portrait of of a woman known as Long Flat Red, who dyed her wardrobe in her husband's vintage of 1894. Effervescent and not too dry.
