Introduction 1
About This Book 1
Foolish Assumptions 3
Icons Used in This Book 3
Beyond the Book 4
Where to Go from Here 4
Part 1: Getting Started with Wine 5
Chapter 1: Wine 101 7
How Wine Happens 7
What Color Is Your Appetite? 9
(Not exactly) white wine 10
Red, red wine 11
Rose wines 13
Choosing your color 13
Other Ways of Categorizing Wine 15
Table wine 16
Dessert wine 17
Sparkling wine (and a highly personal spelling lesson) 17
Chapter 2: A Matter of Personal Taste (Buds) 19
The Special Technique for Tasting Wine 19
Savoring a wine's appearance 20
The nose knows 21
The mouth action 22
Parlez-Vous Winespeak? 25
Deconstructing a wine's taste 26
The flavor dimension 28
The Quality Issue 29
What's a good wine? 30
What's a bad wine? 32
Chapter 3: Pinot Envy and Other Secrets about Grape Varieties 35
The Importance of Grape Varieties 35
Of genus and species 36
A variety of varieties 36
How grapes vary 37
Grape royalty 39
A Primer on White Grape Varieties 40
Chardonnay 40
Riesling 41
Sauvignon Blanc 41
Pinot Gris/Pinot Grigio 42
Other white grapes 42
A Primer on Red Grape Varieties 44
International superstars 44
Local heroes 46
Other red grapes 49
Chapter 4: Wine Label Lingo 51
The Wine Name Game 51
Grape names and place-names 52
Hello, my name is Chardonnay: Varietal wines 52
Hello, my name is Bordeaux: Place-name wines 53
Wines named in other ways 57
Decoding the Language of the Label 58
The mandatory sentence 58
Indications of origin 60
Some optional label lingo 63
Chapter 5: Winemaking Matters 67
Vineyard Jargon, Winemaking Talk 67
The World of Viti-Vini 68
Vine-growing variations 69
Winemaking wonder words 70
Even More Winemaking Terms 72
Part 2: Wine and You: Up Close and Personal 77
Chapter 6: Buying Wine to Drink at Home 79
Buying Wine Can Give Anyone the Jitters 80
Wine Retailers, Large and Small 80
Supermarkets, superstores, and so on 81
Specialty wine shops 82
Online merchants 82
Criteria for Choosing Wine Merchants 83
In the wine shop 84
On the Internet 86
Strategies for Wine Shopping 87
Explain what you want 87
Name your price 89
Chapter 7: Buying Wine in Restaurants 91
By the Glass or Buy the Bottle 91
Just a glass, please 92
Choosing from the bottle list 94
Analyzing the Wine List 95
What the wine list should tell you 96
Tips for using the wine list 98
The end result: Choosing your wine 99
Managing the Wine Presentation Ritual 100
Restaurant Wine Tips 102
Long Live Wine Bars 104
Chapter 8: Serving Wine 105
Getting the Cork Out 105
The corkscrew not to use 106
Corkscrews to buy 107
Dealing with cork particles in your wine 110
A special case: Opening Champagne and sparkling wine 110
Screw Caps Are "In" 111
Does Wine Really Breathe? 112
How to aerate your wine 112
Which wines need aerating? 113
Does the Glass Really Matter? 114
Color, size, and shape 115
Tulips, flutes, trumpets, and other picturesque wine-glass names 116
Which glasses to buy? 118
Washing your wine glasses 118
Not Too Warm, Not Too Cold 119
Entertaining with Wine 120
First things first 121
How much is enough? 121
Keeping Leftover Wine 122
Chapter 9: Marrying Wine with Food 125
With Wine and Food, Rules Do Not Apply 125
The Dynamics of Food and Wine 126
Tannic wines 127
Sweet wines 127
Acidic wines 128
High-alcohol wines 128
Other Ways of Pairing Food and Wine 128
Classic Pairings of Wine and Food 130
Part 3: Wine's Classic Face: The "Old World" of Wine 131
Chapter 10: Knowing the Wines of France 133
The French Model 133
Understanding French wine law 134
Fine distinctions in the ranks 135
France's Wine Regions 136
Bordeaux: The Legend 137
The subregions of red Bordeaux 139
Classified information: Left Bank 141
Classified information: Right Bank 142
Bordeaux to try when you're feeling flush 143
The value end of the Bordeaux spectrum 144
Practical advice on drinking red Bordeaux 146
Bordeaux also comes in white 147
Burgundy: The Incomparable French Wine 149
The grapes: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Gamay 149
Districts, districts everywhere 150
From the regional to the sublime 150
The Côte d'Or: The heart of Burgundy 152
Côte Chalonnaise: Bargain Burgundies 157
Chablis: Exceptional white wines 157
Mâcon: Affordable whites 159
Beaujolais: As delightful as it is affordable 160
The Rhône Valley's Hearty Wines 163
Generous wines of the South 163
Noble wines of the north 164
The Loire Valley: White Wine Heaven 166
The Upper Loire 166
The central Loire Valley 166
Pays Nantais 167
Alsace: Unique Region, Unique Wines 168
The South and Southwest 169
France's bargain wines: Languedoc-Roussillon 169
Timeless Provence 170
Southwest France 170
Other French Wine Regions 171
Chapter 11: Italy, the Land of Great Vino 173
The Vineyard of Europe 173
The ordinary and the elite 174
Categories of Italian wine, legally speaking 176
Italy's wine regions 176
Reds Reign in Piedmont 178
Barolo and Barbaresco 178
Weekday reds 181
Piedmont's white wine 183
Tuscany the Beautiful 184
Chianti Classico and Chianti: Italy's iconic red wines 184
Monumental Brunello di Montalcino 186
The noble wine of Montepulciano 188
Three more wines of note from Central Tuscany 188
The Tuscan coast 189
The Tre Venezie 191
Three gentle wines from Verona, plus two blockbusters 192
Alpine Italy: Trentino-Alto-Adige 193
The far side: Friuli-Venezia Giulia 194
The Sunny South of Italy 196
Snapshots from the Rest of Italy 197
Chapter 12: Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Greece, and Other European Hot Spots 199
Intriguing Wines from Spain 200
Spain's classic wines start with Rioja 202
Ribera del Duero's serious red wines 204
Priorato: Emerging from the past 204
Other Spanish regions to know 205
Portugal: More than Just Port 208
Portugal's "green" white 208
Noteworthy Portuguese red wines 209
Germany: Europe's Individualist 210
Riesling and company 211
Germany's wine law 212
German wine styles 213
Germany's wine regions 215
Austria's Exciting Whites (and Reds) 218
Gruner Veltliner and company 219
Austrian wine names and label terms 219
The Glory That Is Greece 220
Greek grapes 221
Wine regions, producers, and label lingo in Greece 222
Three Other European Wine Hot Spots 223
Hungary: Unique Old World wines 223
Croatia: A wine renaissance in Eastern Europe 224
Slovenia: A surprisingly large wine country 225
Part 4: Wine's Modern Face: The "New World" of Wine 227
Chapter 13: America, America 229
The New World of American Wine 229
The grape variety as star 230
American Viticultural Areas 230
California, USA 231
Napa Valley: As Tiny as It Is Famous 234
The grapes of Napa 235
Who's who in Napa (and for what) 235
Down-to-Earth in Sonoma 237
Sonoma's AVAs 238
Sonoma producers and wines 240
Mendocino and Lake Counties 241
The San Francisco Bay Area 242
The Santa Cruz Mountains 243
What's New in Old Monterey 244
Gold Country: The Sierra Foothills 245
San Luis Obispo: Paso Robles to Edna Valley 246
Santa Barbara, Californian Paradise 247
Oregon: A Tale of Two Pinots 249
Oregon's other Pinot 249
Who's who in Willamette Valley 250
Two other Oregon wine regions 252
Washington State Reaches New Heights 252
Washington's wine regions 253
Who's who in Washington 255
The Empire State 257
The Finger Lakes region 257
Long Island and the Hudson Valley 258
Who's who in New York 258
Chapter 14: The Southern Hemisphere Explodes with Wine 261
Australian Wine Power 262
Winemaking, grapes, and terroir 262
Australia's wine regions 264
The Rise of New Zealand 267
Kiwi geography 268
Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir lead the way 268
Chile's Rapid Rise to Wine Fame 269
Chile's wine regions 270
The face and taste of Chilean wines 272
Argentina, a Major League Player 274
Regions and grapes 274
Names to know 276
The South African Wine Safari 277
South Africa's principal wine regions 278
Steen, Pinotage, and company 279
Part 5: Wine's Exotic Face 281
Chapter 15: Champagne and Other Sparklers 283
All That Sparkles Is Not Champagne 284
Sparkling Wine Styles 285
The sweetness factor 285
The quality factor 286
How Sparkling Wine Happens 287
Tank fermentation: Economy of scale 287
Bottle fermentation: Small is beautiful 288
Tasting the difference 289
Champagne and Its Magic Wines 290
What makes Champagne special 290
Non-vintage Champagne 291
Vintage Champagne 292
Blanc de blancs and blanc de noirs 294
Rose Champagne 294
Sweetness categories 295
Recommended Champagne producers 296
Grower Champagnes 298
Other Sparkling Wines 299
Italian spumante: Dry and Sweet 300
Spanish sparkling wines (Cava) 302
French sparkling wine 302
American sparkling wine 302
English sparkling wines 304
Buying and Serving Bubbly 305
Chapter 16: Wine Roads Less Traveled: Fortified and Dessert Wines 307
Timing Is Everything 308
The Growing Popularity of Sherry 308
The Jerez triangle 308
The phenomenon of flor 309
Communal aging 310
Two makes 12+ 310
Serving and storing Sherry 312
Recommended Sherries 313
Montilla: A Sherry look-alike 314
Italy: Marsala, Vin Santo, and the Gang 314
Port: The Glory of Portugal 316
Home, home on the Douro 316
Many Ports in a storm 317
Storing and serving Port 319
Recommended Port producers 320
Long Live Madeira 321
Timeless, indestructible, tasty, and baked 321
Endless finish 322
Madeira styles and grape varieties 323
Sauternes and the Nobly-Rotted Wines 324
Sauternes: Liquid gold 324
Mining the gold 325
Recommended Sauternes 325
Letting baby grow 326
Sauternes look-alikes 327
Hungary's Tokaji Aszu and Tokaji Eszencia 327
Part 6: When You've Caught the Bug 329
Chapter 17: Buying and Collecting Wine 331
Finding the Rare and Collectible Wines 332
Buying fine and collectible wines on the Internet 332
Some US wine stores worth knowing 334
Buying wines at auctions 335
The Urge to Own: Wine Collecting 338
Balancing your inventory 338
Organization is peace of mind 342
A Healthy Environment for Your Wines 343
The passive wine cellar 343
If you can't be passive, be bullish 343
Wine caves for apartment dwellers 346
Chapter 18: Continuing Education for Wine Lovers 347
Back to the Classroom 347
One wine school in action 348
Wine tastings of all shapes and sizes 349
Dinner with the winemaker 350
Winery visits 350
When in Rome 351
Armchair Travel 353
Recommended books 354
Wine magazines and newsletters 357
The blogosphere of wine 359
Chapter 19: Describing and Rating Wine 361
The Challenge of Putting Taste to Words 362
When It's Your Turn to Speak 363
Organizing your thoughts 363
Describing a wine 365
Rating Wine Quality 366
Part 7: The Part of Tens 369
Chapter 20: Answers to Ten Common Questions about Wine 371
What's the Best Wine? 371
Which Vintage Should I Buy? 372
What Grape Variety Made This Wine? 373
How Do I Know if a Wine Is Flawed? 373
Are There Any Wines without Sulfites? 374
What Are Organic Wines? 374
Should I Join a Wine Club? 375
How Should I Store My Wine? 376
Are Wine Experts Sommeliers? 377
How Do I Know When to Drink the Special Older Wines I've Been Keeping? 377
Chapter 21: Ten Wine Myths Demystified 379
The Best Wines Are Varietal Wines 379
A More Expensive Wine Is a Wiser Choice 380
The Palest Rose Wines Are the Best 380
A Screw-Cap Closure Indicates a Lower-Quality Wine 381
Red Wines Are More Sophisticated than White Wines 382
White Wine with Fish, Red with Meat 382
Number Ratings Don't Lie 383
The Quality of a Wine Is Objectively Measurable 384
Very Old Wines Are Good Wines 384
Champagnes Don't Age 385
Part 8: Appendixes 387
Appendix A: Pronunciation Guide to Wine Terms 389
Appendix B: Glossary of Wine Terms 397
Appendix C: Vintage Wine Chart: 1996-2015 407
Index 411
