The Wine Bible
by Workman Publishing Company
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (September, 2001)
list price: $19.95 -- our price: $13.57
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Editorial Review

Though it drinks deep of its subject, Karen MacNeil's Wine Bible deftly avoids two traps many wine books fall into: talking down to wine novices or talking up to more experienced enophiles. The book avoids these traps through MacNeil's obvious, and infectious, love of her subject, which comes out in almost every sentence of the book, and which lets her talk about wine in a way that combines the good teacher, the trusted friend, and the expert sommelier. As director of the wine program at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley, California, MacNeil is one of the world's true experts on wine. After reading a chapter on the Burgenland, for example, you've learned about the region's sweet wines while feeling like you're actually there, toasting a glass of Cuvee Suss with the author. It is this passion that leads to describing an Italian riservas as "mesmerizing" and a Cabernet Sauvignon as having "texture like cashmere."

The Wine Bible is broken into countries, hitting all of the major wine producers and most of the minor ones. Each section gives detailed descriptions of the country's wines (with chapters on individual regions when necessary), highlighting specific wine producers and individual wines, as well as talking about local foods, customs, and other tidbits that add to the reading experience. MacNeil begins her journey through the world's wine with an invaluable section on "Mastering Wine," which lets a reader get ready before uncorking separate sections. --A.J. Rathbun ... Read more

Reviews (23)

Very comprehensive
In my quest to better understand all of the concepts that account for differences in wines of the same varietal and/or location, I stumbled upon this book.Enbedded in the book were the answers to my questions.Although the Wine Bible can often get too much into somwhat boring and trivial details, it is the ultimate reference.Not only do I better understand wines but it also provides a history of the wine regions of the world, the culture and cuisine.

Very Comprehensive and Well-Written
This is a very comprehensive book.Excellent as a reference with sound advice throughout as well.I live in Europe and have had the opportunity to use the information in the book to purchase wine in Germany, France, Italy and Spain.My only complaint would be that many of the

Wow!
I ordered 2 of Karen's bibles--one for me and one for friends.As for me, I simply love and appreciate good wine and champagne. My friends on the other hand are restaurant owners.

I've been reading my wine bible almost every day...carrying it in the car to read while I wait for the kids in carpool.I stayed up late last night reading the entire section on champagne-what an education.I retained so much of the information I read which made me realize how well written the power-packed book is.

Love IT!

I'm waiting for the grand opening of my friends bar next door to Local on Elm Street in Dallas (hopefully May 2005) to give The Wine Bible to the proprietors as a congratulatory/celebratory gift. These owners, two brilliant, discerning women, have exquisitely executed their plans for an inimitable restaurant and bar.The Wine Bible is the perfect gift for perfect friends with perfect taste!

I have recommended The Wine Bible to several other girlfriends of mine and teased them with stories about Karen's terrific descriptions that allow readers to "click" with each topic.

This is a fabulous find that will be my "go to" book.It truly is a bible in that you can pick it up, open to any page and begin reading something that will be interesting, exciting, educational and allow you to "witness" to others!!

Well done!

... Read more

Isbn: 1563054345
Subjects:  1. Beverages - Wine & Spirits    2. Cooking    3. Cooking / Wine    4. Reference    5. Wine and wine making    6. Cooking / Wine & Spirits   

The Wall Street Journal Guide to Wine: New and Improved: How to Buy, Drink, and Enjoy Wine
by Broadway
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (10 September, 2002)
list price: $26.95 -- our price: $16.98
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Reviews (6)

For anyone who loves wine or wants to learn smth about it
This book was not only informative and easy to follow but it was fun as well. Gaiter's and Brecher's ability to cut through the fuss and confusion of the many issues in wine (age, vintage, wineries, red vs. white, storage, to name a few) without getting stuffy or long-winded was a welcome change (from the many other wine enthusiasts, experts and writers I've come across). I found the writing witty, the information useful and the layout accessible. It was a quick read too. I found myself taking notes, and then using them while visiting some local wine shops. Their anecdotes make you want to plunge in and have your own wine tasting, cross-country train experience or winery tour. I especially loved the advice about celebrating with wine: not to wait for an occasion to open a (special bottle) but to open the bottle and create the occasion. This book is good for the novice (or anyone who doesn't think he knows very much) or the connossieur.

Informative but extremely pretentious
This book contains a good amount of information about many different styles of wines, from red burgundy to rose to vintage champagne. Each chapter is devoted to a different style, and contains a description of the idiosyncracies of each style, along with a short list of recommendations. Less usefully, it contains personal anecdotes about the authors' experiences with the wines.

It is in these anecdotes that the authors' pretentiousness comes out. They meanly point out and make fun of the mistakes their acquaintances make while ordering wine at fancy restaurants. They halfheartedly reassure the reader that is OK to hunt for affordable wines, while at the same time subtly poking fun at people who prefer wines they consider inferior. Reading the book, I get the impression that the only people they respect are CEOs of large financial corporations and accounting firms, because every other one of their "wine anecdotes" involves a corporate male with a lot of money.

In short: the authors know a lot about wine, but they fail in their attempts at hiding just how much they look down on what they consider to be bad wine.

Fabulous introduction to the world of wine
This is one of those wine books that is fun-to-read. It helps making the intimidating subject of wine appreciation much less scary. Gaiter and Brecher bring a few decades of wine tasting experience and the perspective of years of happy partnership to the book.

This book is not a reference book like many others in this genre. Rather, it is more of a user's guide to different wines that brings the joy of tasting and exploring wines to the reader. The book offers lots of good, common-sense advice on "simple" tasting procedures, on how to buy wine, on how to taste and enjoy wine, and other topics. It also offers a healthy perspective on wine rituals, skewering some of the more pretentious in the process.

One of the things that we enjoyed about this book is that it offers a broad perspective on what to expect with different wine varietals. It covers everything from Barbera (from the Piedmont region of Italy) to Zinfandel, the "native" grape of California. These varietal sections have been improved in the second edition (we've read both versions) and now includes one on sauvignon blanc which has always been one of our favorite white wines.

Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys wine or would like to enjoy wine. ... Read more

Isbn: 0767908147
Sales Rank: 41743
Subjects:  1. Beverages - Wine & Spirits    2. Cooking    3. Cooking / Wine    4. Wine and wine making    5. Cooking / Wine & Spirits   

Wine Spectator
by M Shanken Communications Inc
Average Customer Review:
Magazine
list price: $84.15 -- our price: $45.00
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Reviews (13)

The Magazine That Created The Modern Wine Snob
Used to be on the most pretentious types walked around talking about vintages and vinyards and things like nose and legs and such. Thanks to Robert Parker and The Wine Spectator, now every pretentious yuppie with a few bucks can be heard to go on and on about "roasted plum scent" and "tobacco undertones" and other such pretentious rot. Stores have contributed to this mess, too; go into any wine shop or grocery and you'll see bottles with tags saying "Wine Spectator 87! Rasberries and Citrus!" and other nonsense.

Truth of the matter is 90% of the wines found in The Wine Spectator will never be found in your local wine shop, so all these reviews are just fodder for pretentious yuppies. And in any case, wine is a personal and subjective matter that cannot be reduced to a simple number. Save the money you'd spend on this, and instead make friends with your loal wine merchant. He or seh will give you far better advice. Unless, that it, he or she is a fan of Parker....

Review of the Decade, 100 points!Oh please...
Wine Spectator is the most prominent and widely available wine criticism magazine and as such it has been endlessly pilloried.Well, they deserve it - one recent issue's cover story was "Danny DeVito and Rhea Pearlman, Hollywood Power Couple!"How ridiculous can you get?The pages are littered with articles devoted to wealthy Californians and their extensive cellars; one recently spent an entire article on a rich man who helps his rich friends by cataloguing their cellars on, gasp, a spreadsheet!Yeah, it's like that.

Wine Spectator has also been criticized for the way it uses hyperbole to the extent that no one believes them when they're right anymore.Oenophiles now wait for Robert Parker (Wine Advocate) to back them up before believing it."Best Vintage since 1961" and "Vintage of the Century" and "Vintage of the Decade" are far too common copy, coming once a year or so.

The vintner profiles hold some interest, but don't fool yourself, you read this magazine for the scoring.Wine Spectator has the resources to taste more wines than any other English language publication (that I know of) and despite some strange results, are generally good at evaluating the bottles in question.As I've noted elsewhere, in spite of the hyperbolic headlines, the Spectator is stingier than Robert Parker for rating wines "Outstanding."The caveat is that a lot of wines get bunched up in the 84-86 point range, although I suppose that matches my experience.

By comparison to the Wine Advocate, I find Wine Spectator scores much more inconsistent.This makes sense because the Spectator has a larger staff and it's difficult to establish a common benchmark across all of the offices and tasting panels.In their favor, they do review a fair number of lower priced wines, more than their aforementioned colleague, and their reactions are more or less in the ballpark as to where I'd put them if I were doing the reviews.But know when using the Spectator to allow some give on either side, a confidence interval, if you will.

It might be terrible that a magazine wastes its first three quarters of every issue on mindless fodder for social climbers.It might be tasteless that they spend so much time promoting the notion that wine is an investment, instead of an immensely enjoyable consumable commodity.But those of us with big brains and modest credit ratings know that there is much to be salvaged from the back of each issue.We also know that Parker is the first point of reference.

Attractive magazine focusing on upmarket wines
Wine Spectator is an enjoyable magazine that's well-laid out and often interesting to read.However, it mainly focuses on pricey wines (as it should, being a pricey magazine), and the articles about wine-related subjects like matching cheese with wine are sometimes lacking in depth.Still, it's a pleasant magazine which immerses its readers in the culture of wine, and each issue does highlight a few modestly-priced wines. ... Read more

Asin: B00006GXD4
Sales Rank: 76
Subjects:  1. Cooking Food & Wine    2. General    3. Home Economics    4. Food & Gourmet    5. Wine   

Windows on the World Wine Course: 2002 Edition: A Lively Guide
by Sterling
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (31 December, 2001)
list price: $24.95
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Editorial Review

Quick, what's the correct way to open a wine bottle? Bonus round: what are the 13 grape types permitted in Chateauneuf-du-Pape?

Whatever your score on the above, you're bound to enjoy the Windows on the World Complete Wine Course. Subtitled Millennium Edition, this 14th annual update is again authored by Kevin Zraly, founder and teacher of the Wine School, begun in 1976 as an offshoot of New York's Windows on the World restaurant. On 200 colorful and clutter-free pages full of maps, wine labels, and sidebars full of facts and anecdotes, Zraly acts as your Sherpa through eight classes. Chapters 1 through 3 circumnavigate the white wines of France, the New World, and Germany; 4 through 8 explore the reds of France, California, Iberia, Australia, and South America, concluding with a section on champagne, port, and sherry.

As wine guru, Kevin Zraly is opinionated, knowledgeable, and patient.His skill at talking novice wine devotees off the ledge is especially evident in the chapters on Burgundy and Germany, with their notoriously confusing wine labels. Study Zraly's careful parsing and annotation of a German label and you'll be able to tell the region from the town from the vineyard the next time someone hands you a Mosel-Saar-Ruwer Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Spätlese.

But any book that calls itself a "Complete Wine Course" sets the Barbera pretty high--sometimes too high. Oregon and Washington States share one page while New York State rates two and a half. Certainly a millennium edition could scare up another paragraph for the red-hot Pacific Northwest. And two chapters following the classes--"Creating an Exemplary Restaurant Wine List" and "Award-Winning Wine Lists"--seem little more than padding.

But these are small quibbles about a handsome and approachable volume that will take you from Amarone to Zind-Humbrecht with confidence. Whether you're a true cork dork or someone who doesn't know their Alsace from their elbow, you could certainly do worse than pressing your nose up against these windows on the world. --Tony Mason ... Read more

Reviews (14)

Well-written beginner's primer
If you are just starting out in the wine world, let Kevin Zraly tag along via "The Windows on the World Wine Course" and you won't go wrong. His light approach and expert analysis of all aspects of the wine world are a reassuring voice amid the din of conflicting advice out there in the wine racks.

Zraly, well-known for his superior knowledge in matching wine with food, keeps his book informative, but not overwhelming. The book is written in a breezy and easily read format, with plenty of white space on each page to keep the text, sidebars, margin info, and graphics from overwhelming the reader. And for those who like to know interesting facts about wine, each page has tidbits written in the margins that when dropped correctly during your next wine tasting will bring out the "Oohs" and "Aahs" in the guests.

The only negative to the book is that it can't have it all ways. It is clearly a beginner to intermediate book, and while it is derived from the class in wine that Zraly actually teaches around the country, it lacks the ability to serve as a comprehensive reference. For this reason, I would team this book with Karen MacNeil's "The Wine Bible" - a very comprehensive, yet still easy to understand resource.

Great Book for Wine Novice
This book is essential for a budding wine connoisseur.It keeps things simple and introduces you to the wine regions of the world, grape varieties etc.

It Is What It Is
This is one of the best introductory wine books on the market.I give it to anyone that I know that is interested in learning more about wine.I hope that they can use the information that they find here to graduate to Parker, or Clarke. ... Read more

Isbn: 0806976497
Subjects:  1. Beverages - Wine & Spirits    2. Cooking    3. Cooking / Wine    4. Windows on the World (New York, N.Y.)    5. Wine and wine making   

New Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia: A Comprehensive Reference Guide to the Wines of the World (revised and updated)
by DK ADULT
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (01 September, 2001)
list price: $50.00 -- our price: $31.50
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Editorial Review

If you want to learn about wines of the world and advance your comprehension of wine production, grape varieties, appellations, and individual wineries, understand the factors (such as location, soil, climate, and methods of viticulture) that affect the taste and nose, and visit your wine shop with a list of quality wines to explore, Tom Stevenson is the man to read. Author of 12 books (includingChampagne andThe Millennium Champagne & Sparkling Wine Guide), three-time winner of the Wine Writer of the Year award, and columnist for Wine magazine, Stevenson has the gift of taking vast quantities of knowledge and experience and translating them into lucid, sparkling prose, easily graspable by the novice, yet still interesting and instructive to the connoisseur.

Arranged geographically, with nearly 100 maps, profiles on top producers, and valuable Author's Choice charts for each region, the Wine Encyclopedia covers the wines of Europe (from Great Britain and Switzerland to Southeast Europe, Greece, and the Levant), as well as wines from North and South Africa, North and South America, Australia, New Zealand, and Asia. In addition, there's a guide to wine and food (pairing fois gras with a Champagne or Sauterne, for example, and claret or Cabernet Sauvignon with beef), a guide to wine flavors (making sense of descriptors such as fig, gooseberry, violet, and hay), a list of good vintages, and a glossary of tasting and technical terms, distinguishing "cheesy" and "chewy" from "creamy" and "corked." Enhanced by beautiful pictures of vineyards, wine labels, and Stevenson himself demonstrating the art of wine tasting, from examining and nosing the wine to spitting it out, this a visually beautiful as well as an informative volume. As sumptuous as an elegant Tuscan Barolo, as rewarding as a Sarget de Gruaud-Larose from Bordeaux, as pleasing as a Ferreira port, the Sotheby Wine Encyclopedia is a remarkable tome of oenological erudition. --Stephanie Gold ... Read more

Reviews (11)

wide but superficial
I'm a professional of wine working in Shanghai. I purchased this book in Amazon after the advise of a friend. I found the book to be interesting and a complete work, but I think his view sometimes lacks actuality. Although the author's mastery in wine tasting is out of discussion, his presentation of tasting is outdated: nowadays nobody can asses the origin of a wine just by tasting: the examples the author proposes are valid just in a ideal world without Australian Shiraz-Mourvedre, South African Cabernet-Merlot or Californian Zinfandel (otherwise rightly commented in his book).
I can't help but bring here the review of "Toro" wine growing area. The author dispatches this area with few words, the last of them to tell us "among the many dirty cellars I have seen in my life, this one in Toro is the filthiest". This is the only comment he makes about wine cellars on that area. I bought also "The Oxford Companion to Wine" and Robert Parker's sixth edition of Wine buyer's guide. In "The Oxford Companion to Wine", edited by Jancis Robinson, in this region "a small number of producers have fostered a move away from the heavy, bulk reds of recent times, notably Manuel Farina, Vega Sauco and Frutos Villar". Concise and accurate, like all the rest in this excellent book.
Mr. Parker has tasted the wines more carefully: this region" has adopted modern technology, and the results have been some rich, full-bodied, deeply flavoured, southern Rhone-like wine from wineries like Farina. They taste similar to the big, lush, peppery wines of France's Chateauneuf-du-Pape and Gigondas, and they represent astonishing values..." He found one of the wines produced there to be outstanding, and several others to be good.
Nobody would expect from a wine taster to have the last news from every piece of vineyard on the world, but the word from such a well-known, reputable professional is too heavy to be delivered so lightly.

New Guide is Not So New
I bought the 1997 (or brown covered) encyclopedia a few years back (which I love by the way) and decided to purchase the updated version to find new and updated information such as new wineries or ones that were upcoming and warranted coverage in the new book. I am so dissapointed. The only change I could find is a box containing information on wine quality from 1997 to 2000. Tom Stevenson didn't even change one word in his cover letter! Even the page numbers in each book have the same information! The winery ratings didn't change - or not from what I could tell. Unless I can actually see what's inside the next version, I will never purchase anversion again.If you own an earlier version, do not purchase this book - it's a waste of money.

I rated it 2 stars, not because of the content, but because it is not updated as the cover indicates (see red circle). I do however question just how much Tom Stevenson puts into research with each book edition if nothing c

A great reference and coffee table book
This book is of general interest to the wine enthusiast.It is well presented and interesting to read.At the same time it functions as a reference guide.An excellent buy. ... Read more

Isbn: 0789480395
Subjects:  1. Beverages - Wine & Spirits    2. Cooking    3. Cooking / Wine    4. Encyclopedias    5. Reference    6. Wine    7. Wine and wine making    8. Cooking / Wine & Spirits    9. Cooking, Food & Wine