Cheese & Wine: A Guide to Selecting, Pairing, and Enjoying From the best-selling author of The Cheese Course comes a new guide to enjoying one of the most basic yet sophisticated culinary delights: cheese and wine. Janet Fletcher leads readers on an international tour of 70 cheeses, exploring the best wine pairings and serving suggestions. From Oregon’s autumnal Rogue River Blue to aromatic Brin d’Amour evocative of the Corsican countryside, cheese lovers will savor the range of textures, flavors, and colors. Featuring mouth-watering color photography and detailed, informative text, this collection of cheeses and the wines that go with them will inspire perfect pairings.
Customer Review: Somewhat decent but lacking overall
Janet Fletcher’s “Cheese & Wine,” is a decent compendium of the major Western European and American cheeses of the world but is somewhat lacking in basic information to make this is a must-buy. For starters, it is disappointing that only (approximately) half of the 70 cheeses listed in the book are accompained by photographic images. For a book that purports itself to be a good starting point for cheese novices this lack of visual information is a serious mis-cue. Another point that was disappointing was the lack of any pricing info on the assortment of cheeses. Even the most cursory inclusion of the general pricing for each item would have been greatly welcome. That being said the photos that are included are all spectacular and it goes without saying that the overall construction and layout of this tome is extremely well-done and very handsome throughout.

Customer Review: Wonderfully Done!
This book has been instrumental in my personal mission to teach myself more about cheese! From the where and how it’s developed to wine pairings, to ideas on putting together successful cheese plates, it’s a must have for any at home cheesemonger!

Great Wine Made Simple: Straight Talk from a Master Sommelier From “one of the wine world’s most popular voices” (USA Today), a newly updated edition of her by-now classic introduction to wine, GREAT WINE MADE SIMPLE: Straight Talk from a Master Sommelier, reflects up-to-the minute wine trends, including the burgeoning popularity of the Shiraz grape, new flavor maps, and much, much more.

First published in 2000, Great Wine Made Simple established Andrea Immer Robinson as America’s favorite wine writer. Avoiding the traditional and confusingly vague wine language of “bouquet” and “nose,” and instead discussing wine in commonsense terms, the book launched Andrea’s career as a wine authority without pretense.

Now, thoroughly revised, Great Wine Made Simple lives up to its title by making selecting and enjoying wine truly simple. With Andrea Immer Robinson as your guide, you will never again have to fear pricey bottles that don’t deliver, snobby wine waiters, foreign terminology, or encyclopedic restaurant wine lists. You’ll be able to buy or order wine with confidence–and get just the wine you want–by learning how the “Big Six” basic styles (which comprise 80 percent of today’s top selling wines) taste and how to read any wine label. Ten new flavor maps show what tastes you can expect from climates around the world.

Andrea Immer Robinson genuinely knows more about wine than most wine lovers could ever hope to learn. But she doesn’t believe that you have to join a stuffy, exclusive wine-tasting set, or study a lot, to become a savvy wine buyer. Unlike other wine guides, Great Wine Made Simple makes it easy to master the ins and outs of choosing a wine that you and your guests will love—on any budget.

In her down-to-earth style, Andrea guides you through follow-along-at-home wine tastings that are easy, fun, and affordable, and even suggests a milk tasting for understanding variations in wine-body style. Building on this foundation, she covers the rest of the wine landscape with her inimitable style, candor, and humor, from classic regions to new tastes, plus a bevy of practical issues like wine gear and proper storage. A refreshing blend of in-depth knowledge and accessibility, Great Wine Made Simple is a welcome resource for those who are intrigued by wine but don’t know where to start.
Customer Review: A near perfect introduction to wine for beginning and experienced wine drinkers
Andrea Immer Robinson’s Great Wine Made Simple (2005) succeeds brilliantly in making sense of the complex worlds of wine. I have read several introductions to wine, including Michael Broadbent’s Michael Broadbent’s Wine Tasting (Mitchell Beazley Wine Guides), Jancis Robinson’s How to Taste : A Guide to Enjoying Wine, Mark Oldman’s Oldman’s Guide to Outsmarting Wine : 108 Ingenious Shortcuts to Navigate the World of Wine with Confidence and Style, and Kevin Zraly’s Windows on the World Complete Wine Course: 2008 Edition (Windows on the World Complete Wine Course) and I recommend them all, but I learned the most from Andrea Robinson’s book. Her original and easy-to-follow approach will greatly enhance the appreciation of wine for new and experienced wine drinkers alike.

There are dozens of wine grapes, but Robinson reduces this complexity by emphasizing the “Big Six.” These are three white grapes (riesling, sauvignon blanc, chardonnay) and three red grapes (pinot noir, merlot/cabernet sauvignon, syrah or shiraz) that provide most of the world’s quality wines. Each group of three is listed in ascending order of body style, i.e., light, medium, or full. She clarifies these styles by comparing their weight, richness, and thickness in the mouth to skim milk, whole milk, and cream. Robinson then lays out tasting sequences with easily available wines that show the distinctive quality and body of each grape. You quickly get an idea of the world’s primary wine styles.

In the succeeding chapters on taste, Robinson recommends that you taste wines side by side in carefully chosen pairs that will highlight key tastes. This method is far superior to tasting one wine at a sitting. Wines can generate a seemingly infinite number of tastes and here Robinson simplifies things by concentrating on pairs of wine that exemplify the major style terms of dry, crisp, oaky, tannic, buttery, grassy, spicy, floral, and Old World vs. New World.

In another great innovation, Robinson introduces flavor maps of the wine world combining where grapes are grown with climates. The maps are a bit hard to read at first, but well worth the effort, because they help you predict what a wine will taste like once you know where it’s from. For example, white grapes grown in cool climates may produce light bodied wines with apple or pear flavors while white grapes grown in warm climates may produce full bodied wines with pineapple or mango flavors. I found the flavor maps to be the most valuable part of the book, because they help you organize the world’s wines into a system that explains why they taste the way they do.

The remainder of the book is more conventional in its approach, with surveys of French, Italian, American regions and so on followed by such topics as shopping for wine, wine and food, and wine gear. In these sections, Robinson continues to communicate key information about wine without oversimplifying.

I think Great Wine Made Simple does makes a few missteps. A major omission is that only the briefest mention is made of serving temperatures. She does note that whites tend to be served too cold and reds too warm. Robinson’s 2008 Wine Buying Guide for Everyone, which I also highly recommend, does a satisfactory job explaining how to serve various types of wine; but I like Andrew Oldman’s general rule that white wines should be chilled for several hours and then removed 15 minutes before serving while reds should be refrigerated for 15 minutes before serving. Robinson could have said more about how to analyze the finish of a wine. Here I like the approach of her mentor, Kevin Zraly at Windows of the World in New York City, who describes what you should expect at fifteen second intervals in the minute or so after you have swallowed the wine.

Robinson occasionally criticizes other wine writers for being too technical. In part she does this because she feels that beginners will lose interest when confronted with overly technical prose, but this assumes that readers don’t know how to select a basic introduction to wine as opposed to a more advanced book. Robinson’s ideas easily stand on their own and are not strengthened by disparagement of those who write at a more detailed level or use specialized wine terminology.

To end, my criticisms are minor compared to Robinson’s substantial achievement. She has assembled an impressive apparatus for appreciating wine. My wine knowledge increased by several orders of magnitude after having read her book, and I know I will be returning to it for years to come.

Customer Review: Simply the Best
This is simply the best introduction to wine and winetasting that I have found. Many wine books get bogged down in minutiae, without telling you why it is significant. For example, they will spend three pages telling you about the soil and climate in a small region of say, France, without telling you how it affects the flavor and quality of the wine (i.e., why you should care). Somewhere in there will be a vague one sentence statement about how the wines taste “fruity” or “fresh.” Andrea Immer’s book actually concentrates on how to taste wine, using all your senses, and what specifically to look for in the color, nose, and flavor. She gives you a list of wines to taste, and through a series of tasting exercises you learn to recognize different flavors and aromas in wine. Her flavor map is an ingenious way to explain what flavors to expect from wines of the same grape grown in different climate zones, and it works! One heads up though, be prepared to drop some change on these tastings. Many of the tastings in the earlier chapters are affordable, but in the later chapters (read France and Italy), we found some of the wines to be cost prohibitive. While the earlier tastings are absolutely essential to getting the most out of the book, we chose to dispense with some of the later ones (Maybe some day I’ll buy that $80.00 Barolo). My suggestion: Buy the book, do the tastings in the first five chapters, and learn a heck of a lot about wine.

A Moveable Thirst: Tales and Tastes from a Season in Napa Wine Country A rollicking wine country travelogue paired with the only comprehensive guide to Napa’s public tasting rooms

Hank Beal is a wine pro–the executive wine buyer at an upscale supermarket chain. Rick Kushman is an ordinary joe–a guy who enjoys wine but doesn’t know a lot about it. Together, Hank and Rick set out to visit all 141 public tasting rooms in Napa during the course of a year. The result is A Moveable Thirst–an engaging, often hilarious book that’s one part Sideways, one part Frommer’s. The first part recounts their uproarious adventures on the road as Rick learns to sniff and spit like a true oenophile (but never stops asking stupid questions). The second part offers the most complete and detailed guide ever published to Napa’s wine rooms. For wine lovers and the more than 5 million people who visit Napa every year, A Moveable Thirst is a great read and an indispensable guide.
Customer Review: A veritable Cornucipia of Wine Infromation Centered on Napa Valley Wineries
While this is the 93rd book on wines that I’ve read since October of 2006, it also ranks as one of the most informative and enjoyable. It’s a virtual cornucopia of wine information, providing the reader with a pretty good overview of how great wines are made and the challenges of growing grapes, all under the guise of covering the wineries and tasting rooms of Napa Valley and its associated AVAs (American Viticultural Areas).

For anyone planning a visit to Napa, this book is a must read. The first 190 pages cover the authors’ experiences touring Napa wineries for a summer, while the last part of the book provides comprehensive touring information on the tasting rooms, including such topics as wines, hours, directions, cost, ambiance, etc. In addition to picking up many invaluable insights on where to go for tours and tastings, you’ll also learn a wealth about wine and the wine people of Napa….all done in a highly amusing and entertaining style. This book packs more insight into the world of wine than many books written by knowledgeable authorities on wine. That makes this book a must read for anyone who just wants to learn about wine in an entertaining read.

You’ll be hard pressed to find a more informative and more enjoyable book on Napa Valley wineries. It’s much more than a great touring guide. Enjoy!

Mark Vincent
Customer Review: A Bit Light but Otherwise Delightful
It’s hard not to like an amicable story of two friends on a quest to tour every tasting room in the Napa Valley in a single year. A comfortable self-deprecation by the narrator, amusing insights into the behavior of other visitors to the Valley, snippets of interesting conversations with vintners and servers, all overlaid with continued uncertainty about whether the year’s grapes will survive the unusual weather and provide the basis for more good wines. Only the most hard-hearted of readers wouldn’t want to join Rick and Hank on one of their tasting adventures.

But there is a sense that a bigger book was waiting to be written. The thesis of the book seems to have been “It’s fun to wander around the Napa Valley”. Well, duh. Perhaps a bit more attention could have been given to how the vintners adjust to changing climatic conditions, or how the Valley accommodates the newcomers who change their life to be nearer to Napa, or how local government tries to reconcile the rural character of the Valley with the increasing tourist stream.

I won’t discourage anyone from reading this book. If you have a rainy Sunday afternoon, a nice bottle of pinot noir, and are looking for a light, fun read, you can do little better. But if you’re looking for something with a bit more oak and tannin, you should look elsewhere.

The Backyard Vintner: An Enthusiast’s Guide to Growing Grapes and Making Wine at Home (Backyard) Anyone who ever wanted to have homemade wine and never thought they had the space or ability to make it will love this book. The Backyard Vintner is a handy guide to at-home wine making that teaches readers the tips and tricks of the trade. It is perfect for those who want to bring the feeling of wine country right into their own backyard.

The Backyard Vintner teaches readers how to start and maintain a vineyard, providing vital information on topics such as planting, trellising, and proper pruning techniques for grapes; which grape varieties will grow best in every climate or region; and the wines that can be made from each variety. Basic recipes for wines, and advice on topics such as bottling, storing, and serving wines, are also provided.
Customer Review: Growing grapes made easy
This book provides usefull and pertinent information all the way from the grape planting process to the wine making process. He walks you through every step carefully, but does not suggest a robotic structure for making wine, he leaves open oppertunies to show your own creativity.
Customer Review: Touches on the important points
I’ve purchased several “how to” wine books and this one is good, but not great. I would not rely on it as my only reference. Rather, it makes a very good companion for “From Vines to Wines.”

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Wine Basics (The Complete Idiot’s Guide) From Chardonnay to Cabernet, discover the world of wine…

The senior editor of Wine & Spirits magazine helps beginners understand everything about wine from the process to popular varieties, from tips for tasting to advice on buying, and more. She also covers world wine regions and offers tips on wine making, storage, etiquette, wine and food pairing, and entertaining.

• Author is a wine expert with contacts throughout the wine world
• The U.S. is the third largest wine-consuming nation in the world and wine consumption in the U.S. has more than doubled in the past 12 years
• Wine books are consistently strong sellers

Customer Review: great first book about wine
This was my perfect first book on wine, after this one I can now chose and read the others. In particular guided tastings are what I will be looking for when I will dig deeper into any given continent, country or region. Main chapters of this book are the 4 or 5 most known varietals for white and red. This way at your own pace you get to know the basics. This book will also help “red wine only” drinkers to discover the world of whites and, why not, vice-versa. I also liked the fact the author gave excellent suggestions to save money where possible. There is also information on different styles (like sparklings or porto for example), accessories and basic notions (one getting closer to this world would need to know something about how wine is produced). Great hints on organizing guided tastings, purchasing at the stores or reading wine lists at the restaurants.
Customer Review: have a winetasting party
this is a great book for anyone wanting to grasp the basics of wine, not knowing where to start! I feel like the author doesn’t talk down to readers who might not know alot about wine already. She explains things thoroughly, so you get involved in chapters, but it’s not overwhelming, esp. because of the helpful summary of key info at the end of each chapter. The setups for the winetastings were really helpful when I had a winetasting party, everyone could participate, have fun, and learn something.

Living in a Foreign Language: A Memoir of Food, Wine, and Love in Italy

Customer Review: great read
This book, Living in a Foreign Language, is a delightful read, making the reader wish to join these ex-pats in Italy! Tucker’s writing is fast-moving and evokes a real mental ‘taste’ of the country, its people and enjoyment of food and food preparation.
Customer Review: Off to Italy
This is a sleeper. Once you start you cann’t put it down. You are taking on an adventure and you feel part of it. You learn about a true love story and buying a place in Italy and getting to know the locals. The place, food, wine and how about the 400 year old pizza oven. Wonderful..couldn’t put it down. At the end you wonder could they let you rent this place?
Marie, St. Louis, MO

Choose of lovely red wines
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Plum Wine Bottles of homemade plum wine link two worlds, two eras, and two lives through the eyes of Barbara Jefferson, a young American teaching at a Tokyo university. When her surrogate mother, Michi, dies, Barbara inherits an extraordinary gift: a tansu chest filled with bottles of homemade plum wine wrapped in sheets of rice paper covered in elegant calligraphy—one bottle for each of the last twenty years of Michi’s life.

Why did Michi leave her memoirs to Barbara, who cannot read Japanese? Seeking a translator, Barbara turns to an enigmatic pottery artist named Seiji, who will offer her a companionship as tender as it is forbidden. But as the two lovers unravel the mysteries of Michi’s life, a story that draws them through the aftermath of World War II and the hidden world of the hibakusha, Hiroshima survivors, Barbara begins to suspect that Seiji may be hiding the truth about Michi’s past—and a heartbreaking secret of his own.
Customer Review: Very Disappointing
I didn’t like this book from the start, but I continued to read it because I’m in a book club and we meet monthly to discuss the chosen book. I’ve been in the book club for 7 years and this book is on my bottom 10 list for sure (maybe bottom 5). Anyway, the story dragged on and on. The characters weren’t terribly interesting or well developed. Serji was completely unappealing - why any woman would give this man what Barbara gave (and offered) is beyond my comprehension - he was a self-obsessed, arrogant, chain-smoking, thoughtless little man. I don’t know what the author thought his appeal would be to any woman, and since the book is primarily a love story (?) it’s even more baffling.

Anyway, I definately don’t recommend this book and I’m quite confused about all those who gave it 5 stars. I believe they must be strong enthusiasts of Japanese culture in the 1960’s and/or very interested in the sad history and aftermath of the bombing of Hiroshima. If these topics aren’t your “cup of tea” this book is not for you.
Customer Review: Exquisite writing
The only problem I had with this book was that at least two of the haikus were not written in the traditional format of 17 syllables….but I suppose something could have been lost in translation. That criticism aside, the book was beautifully, believably, written and captured the time, the place and the characters perfectly. Simply put, it is an exquisite story.

Michelin Red Guide 2008 San Francisco Bay Area & Wine Country (Michelin Guide San Francisco, Bay Area & Wine Country) The Michelin Guide to San Francisco 2008 is the latest title to be updated in a world-renowned series of hotel and restaurant guides. Each listing is recommended by Michelin’s team of anonymous, independent inspectors based on a process that has stood the test of time. Michelin awards select restaurants stars for culinary excellence. The guide is organized by neighborhood and detailed descriptions of each listing provide the reader with a picture of everything from the ambience to the cuisine. This guide celebrates the culinary diversity San Francisco and is perfect for locals and visitors alike.
Customer Review: It makes your mouth water!
I visit the San Francisco area a couple of times a year (actually, I spend most of my time in the Wine Country, where I have family), and it’s always great to have reliable recommendations for dining there. The Michelin San Francisco, Bay Area and Wine Country Guide has the imprimatur of the Michelin name, and I can vouch that its reviews of the dining establishments I’ve “vetted” myself (Spinnaker’s, Brix, Kenwood, Cafe Citti, Wolf House) are absolutely spot-on, which makes me eager to try more of Michelin’s recommendations. I might quibble about the exclusion of a few of my favorite places (particularly the superb Italian cuisine and cozy, old-California ambience of the Swiss Hotel in Sonoma, which I urge the Michelin raters–and whomever is reading this review–to consider), but in general this guide gives readers a cornucopia of excellent restaurants and hotels to choose from.
Customer Review: I’ll sound like a cheapskate but…
the Michelin Guides in Europe, for the most part, are thousands of pages long (2,010 for France, 1,300 for Italy) and are similar in price to the individual guides for San Francisco/Napa, LA, and Las Vegas, none of which are more than 350 pages. I’d really like to see a combo California-Nevada guide. Come to think of it, an “East Coast” (Bos-Wash) guide would be great too. Geographically the populated part of California + the more populated parts of Nevada are about the same size, though only about 75% as populous, as France. The Northeast corridor is similar in population and even smaller geographically, so why not give us a comparable deal? I’d feel a lot better about shelling out the dough every year or two if the US guides had expanded coverage.

Anyway, the guide for San Francisco is well done and worth buying if you live there or get there often. The LA guide I found to be lacking in review quality and to some degree writing style. I don’t know anything about Vegas restaurants.

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.