Introduction 1
Chapter 1: Unlocking the Mysteries of Wine 3
Wine 101 3
What Color Is Your Appetite? 4
(Not exactly) white wine 5
Red, red wine 6
Pink wines: From rose to "blush" 7
Which color of wine when? 7
Other Ways of Categorizing Wine 8
Table wine 8
Dessert wine 9
Sparkling wine 9
The Special Technique for Tasting Wine 10
Savoring a wine's appearance 11
The nose knows 11
The mouth action 12
Chapter 2: The Wine Label and What It Tells You 15
The Wine Name Game 15
One or the other: Naming a grape or a place 16
Hello, my name is Chardonnay: Varietal names 16
Hello, my name is Bordeaux: Place names 17
Wine Labels, Forward and Backward 17
The mandatory sentence 18
Phrases of origin 20
Some optional label lingo 20
Chapter 3: Buying Wine to Drink at Home 23
Wine Retailers, Large and Small 23
Supermarkets, superstores, and so on 24
Wine specialty shops 25
Online merchants 26
Criteria for Choosing Wine Merchants 27
In the wine shop 27
On the Internet 30
Strategies for Wine Shopping 31
Don't be afraid to experiment 31
Explain what you want 31
Name your price 32
Asking the right questions 33
Chapter 4: Knowing the Necessary Wine
Gadgets and Glasses 35
Contemplating Corkscrews 35
The corkscrew not to use 36
The corkscrew to buy 36
Other corkscrews worth owning 37
Looking at Glass Matters 38
The right color: None 39
Thin but not tiny 39
Tulips, flutes, and other picturesque wine-glass names 40
Washing your wine glasses 42
Chapter 5: Serving Wine 43
Confronting the Cork 43
Removing the cork 44
Waiter, there's cork in my wine! 45
Opening Champagne and sparkling wine 46
Welcoming the Rebirth of the Screwcap 48
Letting Your Wine Breathe 48
How to aerate your wine 49
The wines that need aerating 49
Serving Wine at the Right Temperature 51
Pouring Wine 52
Keeping Leftover Wine 53
Chapter 6: Confronting a Restaurant Wine List 55
Understanding How Wine Is Sold in Restaurants 55
Wines by the glass: House and premium wines 56
The (anything but) standard wine list 58
Discovering How to Read a Wine List 59
What the wine list should tell you 59
Tips for using the wine list 60
Digital browsing 62
Ordering Your Wine 62
Handling the Wine Presentation Ritual 63
Trying Restaurant Wine Tips 65
Chapter 7: Where to Go from Here 67
Taking Your First Steps 67
Visiting dummies.com 68
