The New France: A Complete Guide to Contemporary French Wine (Mitchell Beazley Wine Guides)

Customer Review: PUTS ASIDE ANY STUFFY NOTION OF FRENCH WINE
A great read and reference as to what is going on in French Wine today. Covers all the regions and introduces the reader to the regional personalities and the best producers. You gotta add this one to your wine library.
Customer Review: Very approachbale, very balanced account
This is a fine book, an excellent introduction to contemporary French wine. Jefford’s initial discussions of “appelation” and “terroir” are profound while at the same time approachable for beginners. His use of commentary by experienced vintners helps round out the presentation. And the inclusion of “flak” sections for the major appelations gives a balance to the book’s account. These sections deal with some of the various misgivings and criticisms that vintners, growers and consumers have with the regulations and the general wine-making practice. So despite the privilege Jefford accords “terroir,” he presents (and sometimes even supports) arguments against its hegemony.

Exploring Wine: The Culinary Institute of America’s Guide to Wines of the World, 2nd Edition Written by the experts who train today’s leading chefs and sommeliers, this invaluable guide thoroughly demystifies wine, from the basics of wine production to the nuances of wine lists, wine marketing, and wine service. Revised to reflect the many recent changes in the worldwide wine industry, the Second Edition of this critically acclaimed guide features an expanded American wines section, coverage of the latest developments in Italian wine and the new face of German and South American wine trades, and more.
Customer Review: Review of Culinary Institute
Very large book, almost too large to read and enjoy comfortably. However, makes a good coffee table book.
Customer Review: great for a gift
So the book might be a bit too technical-tongued sometimes, or it may contain unbalanced chapters (the one about serving wine should have been either more accurate or none at all) but by all means it is a great book. Graphics and pictures are superb. I enjoyed reading it, although, as an Italian, I found the story about Italian produce a bit modest (forgive me, it’s only that we have the best wines in all the world, it’s a fact…). I just need to find a wine book that tells it like it is: THE BEST WINE IS THE ONE YOU LIKE, OR THE ONE YOU DRINK WITH YOUR GREAT FRIENDS.

P.S. : my mom told me Mr. Mondavi, the prefator, is a relative of a relative. The world is small.

Perfect Pairings: A Master Sommelier’s Practical Advice for Partnering Wine with Food As thousands of wines from around the globe enter the marketplace and the American palate continues to adopt flavors from a range of cultures, the task of pairing wine and food becomes increasingly complicated. No longer is the choice simply red or white, or wines from California, France, or Italy. The typical shopper today has access to wines from those regions plus South Africa, Chile, Argentina, New Zealand, and Australia. If that isn’t confusing enough, Asian, Latin American, and Creole dishes might find their way onto the same table. Perfect Pairings, by well-known Master Sommelier and respected restaurant industry veteran Evan Goldstein, provides straightforward, practical advice for choosing the right bottle for each meal. The quintessential resource for matching wine and food, this book includes 58 companion recipes developed by celebrated chef Joyce Goldstein that showcase each type of wine.
Perfect Pairings combines in-depth explorations of twelve grape varietals, sparkling wines, and dessert wines with guidance about foods that enhance the wide range of styles for each varietal. Whether the Chardonnay is earthy and flinty; rich, buttery, and oak-infused; fruity and tropical; or aged and mature, Goldstein explains how to match it with dishes that will make the wine sing. His clear, educational, and entertaining approach towards intimidating gastronomical questions provides information for all readers, professional and amateur alike.

16 full-color photos
Six seasonal and special occasion menus
Tips for enhancing food and wine experiences, both at home and in restaurants
Glossary of wine terminology
Overview of the world’s primary wine-growing regions
Recommendations of more than five hundred wines, ranging in price from everyday to splurge
Customer Review: A must have for all food/wine junkies!
As a studying Sommelier, I find this book lays the foundation for food and wine harmony. It is a wonderful reference and will be helpful for all levels of wine education. Cheers!
Customer Review: Great on content, poor on photos
If you don’t care that much about photos with recipes, this book is excellent on text. There is a photo section in the middle but personally I like to see at least half of the cookbook with accompanying photos. I gave this as a first anniversary gift to my son and daughter-in-law because they enjoy both wines and foods. She liked it a lot for the information about how to combine dishes and also the sections on history of the wines/regions. It is weak on information about American wines and in some cases it might be difficult to find some of the foreign wines mentioned. I would probably use it more as a reference book than a standard cookbook.

Wine Journal It’s time for a toast! Designed for recording the memorable aspects of each bottle of wine, the entry pages of this journal include an easy scoring system and plenty of space for pasting in labels. A completed journal becomes a handy personal reference book for both connoisseurs and casual sippers.

128 pages (guided), 8 x 5 inches
Customer Review: Great value for the price
I’ve just bought the wine journal and it it very nice! I is made lovely and all my labels fit in there. As a red wine lover I do not like that the journal has two parts - for reds and whites , but I am planning on putting reds in pages for whites.
Customer Review: I’ve researched others and this one is great
I ordered this as a gift and just received it. I think its great, the layout of the journal pages is simple and straightforward. There is plenty of room for writing your review - so many journals will have one line to fill in ‘taste’ (isn’t that what its all about?). And there is an open page to the left of each journal page that lets you paste in wine labels. I’m too lazy to peel off labels and the pages are so nicely designed that it wouldn’t look bad or look like anything is missing if you didn’t include a label. Some journals have a giant open spot on the page itself. It has a very simple scoring system with just 1 - 5 stars, and just circle what applies in a couple of different categories.

Its great as a gift, its a very nice looking book, hard cover, great design. I highly recommend it.

(If this review was helpful, please indicate so)

Vino Italiano: The Regional Wines of Italy At one time, Italian wines conjured images of cheap Chianti in straw-wrapped bottles. More recently, expensive “Super Tuscans” have been the rage. But between these extremes lay a bounty of delicious, moderately priced wines that belong in every wine drinker’s repertoire.

Vino Italiano is the only comprehensive and authoritative American guide to the wines of Italy. It surveys the country’s wine-producing regions; identifies key wine styles, producers, and vintages; and offers delicious regional recipes. Extensive reference materials—on Italy’s 300 growing zones, 361 authorized grape varieties, and 200 of the top producers— provide essential information for restaurateurs and wine merchants, as well as for wine enthusiasts.

Beautifully illustrated as well as informative, Vino Italiano is the perfect invitation to the Italian wine experience.

From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Review: The definitive book about italian wine
I had the hard-cover version of this book and insisted so many friends and colleagues read it I managed to lose it and had to buy another copy! Great descriptions, recipes and candid details about Italian wines– especially wines that one can actually have a chance to purchase without a plane ticket to Italy.
Customer Review: Wine Writing At Its Best
The writers situate fascinating personal and societal anecdotes within the context of Italian history and culture, broadening the story of wine beyond the science of viticulture. The authors obviously have a deep grasp and appreciation of Italian wines, and convey their knowledge eloquently, yet without a hint of pretentiousness. A very enjoyable read.

Wine and Philosophy: A Symposium on Thinking and Drinking Wine & Philosophy offers a collection of essays which explore a range of philosophical topics related to food; it joins Food & Philosophy and Beer & Philosophy in in the “Epicurean Trilogy.” Essays are organized thematically and written by philosophers, wine writers, and winemakers.

• Chapters include, “The Art & Culture of Wine”; “Tasting & Talking about Wine”; “Wine & Its Critics”; “The Beauty of Wine”; “The Metaphysics of Wine”; and “The Politics & Economics of Wine”
• Essays are accessible to a general audience while at the same time covering some serious philosophical ground
• Incorporates traditional areas of philosophical study, including philosophy of language, philosophy of perception, aesthetics, metaphysics, ethics and political philosophy
• A great complimentary text to any guided-tour visit to the Napa Valley or other wineries

Customer Review: Excellent!
This book provides an excellent overview of the enjoyment and the evaluation of wine, as well as discussion of the philosophical issues surrounding these areas. It combines experts from philosophy, wine tasting and the wine industry. Not only are the essays informative and thought-provoking, but moreover they are enjoyable to read! A great volume!

How and Why to Build a Wine Cellar, Fourth Edition New (1998) third edition of the definitive guide to the construction of a home wine cellar. Over 20,000 copies in print. Chapters on temperature, humidity, insulation, construction techniques, bins, refrigeration, newsletter reviews, and much more. An underground classic.
Customer Review: Wine Cellar Construction Guide
This book has been extremely helpful. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed when I received it as it wasn’t covered in color pictures of steps along the way, as other books include. However, in browsing other books they fail to address the details and precautions based on experience that the author’s instructions provide. The author does a great job of defining the steps, yet allowing the reader to develop his own designs to suit his needs. Books with pictures would tend to sway the reader to try to build what they see. Thanks again for developing this guide.
Customer Review: An excellent book for anyone building a wine cellar.
I’ve used this book with great success, building two wine cellars of our own, and advising a number of other people on problems they faced in their own cellars.

It’s been vetted on a number of the wine discussion groups, in particular one the WineLovers Page where 25 to 30 different people have used it, and commented on it favorably.

Folks might be interested in the sort of problems you may have building a wine cellar; from recent email correspondence:

Hi Bob: Hope this finds you well and enjoying the holidays. So, I’ve got my wine cellar built and seems to be well-insulated, after adding a couple coats of paint on the interior walls and some molding, I’ll be ready to bring the wine in.

*****

Hi ______: Let’s plan to get together soon — I’ll send you some dates after the first.

Two thoughts: go very slow with painting the interior of the wine cellar unless aesthetics are very important. In a closed space, you can get some incredible aromas from paint. I’ve lent out my copy of Gold, and can’t remember his specific advice, but my vague memory is that he said don’t paint. You might want to post on that question — I don’t remember anyone discussing it. We didn’t paint either cellar but we didn’t care about aesthetics. I do remember being at a tasting in Glen Rock where the paint smell — especially with the high humidity — persisted for years and clung to the paper in the bottles. Didn’t affect the taste once I was away from the bottle, but it would have been unpleasant at the table. …

*****

Thanks Bob. Unfortunately you got me just after I put a coat of primer in the room, and I was surprised just how much it stunk. (No, it was not discussed in my thread!) Fortunately we have glass sliders on the cellar, not far from this wine room, and it’s a nice warm day (even here) and I’m hoping the smell can clear. At least there’s no wine around for the time being, but now I’ll have to figure on whether to put a coat of something else on there that can hopefully cover up the odor.

*****

Note: Readers of this review can find out what Gold has to say about painting inside the wine cellar by searching in the book on this page. In summary, he suggests that if you use drywall, paint with two coats of water based primer and two coats of water based paint. In the alternative, use a material other than drywall, and don’t paint at all.

*****

Practicality is very, very important in the wine cellar world, and it’s very hard to think of everything. Richard Gold becomes a very good friend indeed. As my friend’s experience suggests, read the book first — and often as construction proceeds. Even experienced builders make mistakes in this specialized field.

Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter (Hinges of History) In Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea, his fourth volume to explore “the hinges of history,” Thomas Cahill escorts the reader on another entertaining—and historically unassailable—journey through the landmarks of art and bloodshed that defined Greek culture nearly three millennia ago.

In the city-states of Athens and Sparta and throughout the Greek islands, honors could be won in making love and war, and lives were rife with contradictions. By developing the alphabet, the Greeks empowered the reader, demystified experience, and opened the way for civil discussion and experimentation—yet they kept slaves. The glorious verses of the Iliad recount a conflict in which rage and outrage spur men to action and suggest that their “bellicose society of gleaming metals and rattling weapons” is not so very distant from more recent campaigns of “shock and awe.” And, centuries before Zorba, Greece was a land where music, dance, and freely flowing wine were essential to the high life. Granting equal time to the sacred and the profane, Cahill rivets our attention to the legacies of an ancient and enduring worldview.
Customer Review: Excellent Historian
Thomas Cahill is arguably one of the best historians writing today.
The Hinges of History series is phenomenal.
Customer Review: Aegean Genesis
All of the books in Thomas Cahill’s Hinges of History popular history series are engaging and occasionally irreverent. Sometimes, however, a book’s title premise does end up seeming just a bit smaller than the number of pages allotted to it. In “Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea, Why the Greeks Matter,” the reverse is true. The book’s covers struggle to contain the ideas within. To paraphrase Peter Benchley: You’re going to need a bigger book. Cahill doesn’t though. Somehow he manages to fit much of the genesis of the long journey to who we are today within the book’s 304 pages of text and appendices. The reader will find philosophy, theatre, history, sculpture and rhetoric, and many other Greek roots of Western civilization, all bubbling up in Mr. Cahill’s happy cauldron.

After reading Edith Hamilton’s classic popular history “The Greek Way,” a person could legitimately feel that he or she has learned much through Ms. Hamilton’s literate and well-reasoned presentation of ancient Greek thought and deed. On the other hand, when a reader finishes “Why the Greeks Matter,” he or she may feel the need to rush out and devour Homer, Aeschylus, Pindar, Sappho and Plato. That same reader may also feel a compulsion to book a flight to Greece in order to be able to look up from a guide book and see the Parthenon atop the Acropolis or to sail the wine-dark sea in a ship of any hue.

The Greeks do matter, and Mr. Cahill makes a reader want to realize that truth.

To Cork or Not To Cork: Tradition, Romance, Science, and the Battle for the Wine Bottle In Judgment of Paris, George M. Taber masterfully chronicled the historic 1976 wine tasting when unknown California wines defeated top French ones, marking a major turning point in wine history. Now he explores the most controversial topic in the world of wine: What product should be used to seal a bottle? Should it be cork, plastic, glass, a screwcap, or some other type of closure still to be invented?

For nearly four centuries virtually every bottle of wine had a cork in it. But starting in the 1970s, a revolution began to topple the cork monopoly. In recent years, the rebellion has been gathering strength. Belatedly, the cork industry began fighting back, while trying to retain its predominant position. Each year 20 billion closures go onto wine bottles, and, increasingly, they are not corks.

The cause of the onslaught against cork is an obscure chemical compound known as TCA. In amounts as low as several parts per trillion, the compound can make a $400 bottle of wine smell like wet newspaper and taste equally bad. Such wine is said to be “corked.” While cork’s enemies urge people to throw off the old and embrace new closures, millions of wine drinkers around the world are still in love with the romance of the cork and the ceremony of opening a bottle.

With a thorough command of history, science, winemaking, and marketing, Taber examines all sides of the debate. Along the way, he collects a host of great characters and pivotal moments in the production, storage, and consumption of wine, and paints a truly satisfying portrait of a wholly intriguing controversy. As Australian winemaker Brian Croser describes it: “It’s scary how passionate people can be on this topic. Prejudice and extreme positions have taken over, and science has often gone out the window.”
Customer Review: At last the truth is out
George Taber has finally unearthed what so many of us in the wine industry have been saying; Closures are dependent on the varietal, region and the target consumer. Mr. Taber has taken a rather dull topic and made a page turner book revealing personal and industry stories of the history of wine closures and their varying success. This author has obviously spent a lot time investigating and interviewing notables in the wine world to bring us all up to speed. I hope this book reaches international readership so the wine world can continue its quest for quality and ultimately, a better consumer experience.
Customer Review: Romancing the Cork
TO CORK OR NOT TO CORK outlines the history of how wine has been protected over the years utilizing wonderful stories of successes and failures in protecting the “nectar of the the gods.” George Taber’s historical perspectives bring light from various perspectives as to what has been used to preserve wine from the oxidizing air. Wine makers want to protect their wines and provide their buyers with the best wine possible. Customers want the romance of “poping that cork.” The cork industry wants to preserve its business. Mr. Taber looks at these various perspectives and provides further alternatives, like ZORKS. This book reads well and is broken out in manageable chapters for reading. I highly recommend this book for any wine lover. It will definitely open a new perspective in wine appreciation. George Taber’s expereinces in writing for a national magazine for many years plus his love for wine make this book enjoyable reading. The passion reads well in this book!