This book is for all those seeking to acquire a deep and systematic appreciation and understanding of wine, whether for exams, work, or pleasure. It outlines a simple yet robust framework for analyzing wine as objectively as possible, and provides all the background knowledge that you need to interpret your findings, covering everything from grape varieties and vineyard management to winemaking techniques and the world's most important wine styles. It seeks throughout to examine in what ways a particular wine is unique and different from other, similar wines. For example, why and in what ways is Pauillac, in Bordeaux, different from Pomerol, also in Bordeaux? Why and in what ways is Mosel Riesling different from Riesling from the Rheingau, or the Nahe, or Alsace, Austria, or Australia? This book is dedicated to all wine lovers, and should prove particularly useful to amateur and competitive blind tasters, students on higher-level wine courses, sommeliers, and anyone else who buys, sells, or recommends wine.

All the major wine styles and regions are covered in the new third edition of this clear and concise primer, together with notes on the history of wine, winemaking, and blind tasting.

What is terroir? How do grapes become wine? What are tannins? This delightful portable guide has the answers to these questions and much more. Bernard Klem has whipped up a fun, easily digestible handbook that explains everything the novice needs to know to speak intelligently about wine at the store, restaurant, or table. From bottles and labels to the oenophiles lingo, it describes wine essentials, including: smell, taste, color, and effervescence. The left-hand side of each page features basic terminology, while the right-hand side uses more advanced language. For a tasty finale, theres practical information about matching wine with food, shopping for wine, and even what wine to bring as a guest. Its the witty, wise Wine 101 that every would-be expert should have!

An intoxicating memoir of an American who discovers a passion for French wine and gambles everything to chase a dream of owning a vineyard in Burgundy Ray Walker had a secure career in finance until a wine-tasting vacation ignited a passion he couldn’t stifle. He quit his job and moved to France to start a winery—with little money, limited command of the French language, and no winemaking experience. He immersed himself in the extraordinary history of Burgundy’s vineyards and began honing his skills. Ray shares his journey to secure the region’s most coveted grapes. The Road to Burgundy is a glorious celebration of finding one’s true path in life and taking a chance—whatever the odds.

Are you a fan of wine? Often find yourself scouring alcohol stores for new flavors to experiment with? Do you value wine for more than its intoxicating effect? In that case, this is the book for you. You will learn how to properly host wine tasting parties, social events dominated by the consumption of wine not for intoxication, but for the knowledge of the different processes preceding the final product and how each of those individual processes ?as well as circumstances ?contribute to the flavor of the wine. Not only will you learn how to identify properties of wine based only on sight, but you'll learn to truly appreciate the beverage for what it is, not what it does.

Beyond Flavour is a practical guide to blind wine tasting which will help wine lovers increase their knowledge and improve their blind tasting skills. The book offers detailed descriptions of the key attributes of major grape varieties and wine producing regions, and argues that assessing a wine's structure - acid structure in white wines and tannin structure in red wines - is a more reliable indicator of a wine's identity than the traditional reliance on flavour. Beyond Flavour includes analysis of wine style by country and region; descriptions of recent vintages for classic European origins; and tips for blind tasting exams. Beyond Flavour is an indispensable guide to blind wine tasting for wine students, professionals and others seriously interested in understanding why wines taste like they do.

Charles Sullivan's Napa Wine: A History, is the engaging story of the rise to prominence of what many believe to be the greatest winegrowing area in the Western hemisphere. This new edition completes that picture, bringing to light more than a decade of dramatic changes and shifted norms visited upon the valley, from pholoxera-wasted vineyards to High Court-officiated territorial battles, told in a rousing, transportive narrative. Beginning in 1817 with the movement of Spanish missions into the San Francisco Bay area, Sullivan winds his way through the great wine boom of the late 19th-century, the crippling effect of Prohibition, and Napa's rise out of its havoc to its eventual rivaling of Bordeaux in the judgments of 1976 and 2006. Published in cooperation with the Napa Valley Wine Library, the book includes historic maps, charts of vineyard ownership, and vintages from the 1880s to present.