Wine For Dummies (For Dummies (Cooking))
By addebook • Jun 21st, 2008 • Category: Pharmacy •
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Wine For Dummies (For Dummies (Cooking))
Wine For Dummies (For Dummies (Cooking))
By Ed McCarthy, Mary Ewing-Mulligan
Publisher: For Dummies
Number Of Pages: 432
Publication Date: 2006-10-09
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0470045795
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780470045794
Binding: Paperback
Wine enthusiasts and novices, raise your glasses! The #1 wine book has been extensively updated! If you’re a connoisseur, Wine For Dummies, Fourth Edition will get you up to speed on what’s in and show you how to take your hobby to the next level. If you’re new to the world of wine, it will clue you in on what you’ve been missing and show you how to get started. It begins with the basic types of wine, how wines are made, and more. Then it gets down to specifics:
How to handle snooty wine clerks, navigate restaurant wine lists, decipher cryptic wine labels, and dislodge stubborn corks
How to sniff and taste wine
How to store and pour wine and pair it with food
Four white wine styles: fresh, unoaked; earthy; aromatic; rich, oaky
Four red wine styles: soft, fruity, and relatively light-bodied; mild-mannered, medium-bodied; spicy; powerful, full-bodied, and tannic
What’s happening in the “Old World” of wine, including France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, and Greece
What’s how (and what’s not) in the New World of Wine, including Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, and South Africa
U.S. wines from California, Oregon, Washington, and New York
Bubbling beauties and medieval sweets: champagne, sparkling wines, sherry, port, and other exotic dessert wines
Authors Ed McCarthy, CWE, who is a regular contributor to Wine Enthusiast and The Wine Journal and Mary Ewing-Mulligan, MW, who owns the International Wine Center in New York, have co-authored six wine books in the For Dummies series. In an easy-to-understand, unpretentious style that’s as refreshing as a glass of Chardonnay on a summer day, they provide practical information to help you enjoy wine, including:
Real Deal symbols that alert you to good wines that are low in price compared to other wines of similar type, style, or quality
A Vintage Wine Chart with specifics on numerous wines
Info on ordering wine from out of state, collecting wine, and more
Wine For Dummies, Fourth Edition is not just a great resource and reference, it’s a good read. It’s full-bodied, yet light…rich, yet crisp…robust, yet refreshing….
Amazon.com:
In Wine for Dummies, Mary Ewing-Mulligan teams up with hubby and fellow wine educator Ed McCarthy to guide us on an exhaustive, entertaining trip around the enological–that’s right, enological–world. Though clearly experts themselves (Ewing-Mulligan is one of a handful of Americans holding the rare title Master of Wine), the authors assure us that even the most basic knowledge will undermine the very notion of wine pretension. It’s as simple as this: “This wine is named for a grape variety. This wine is named for a geographical region. When they make this kind of wine, it goes into this kind of bottle.” And so on.
By providing the context in which to begin exploring wine, Wine for Dummies can easily become the send-off for a lifelong education. McCarthy and Mulligan deflate many of the wine snob’s attitudes; they assure us that most wine sold today is “good wine,” and that any further distinctions made about wine are ultimately subjective. The practical, jovial mentoring the authors provide encourages readers to chart their own course toward drinking great wine (although the authors naturally recommend dozens of their own favorites along the way). In later chapters, McCarthy and Mulligan delve into more serious topics such as investing in and cellaring wine. Even these discussions seem appropriate, given that you’ll probably find the allure of wine growing as its mystery subsides to the force of this superb introductory text. –Todd Gehman
Summary: Great book for beginners!
Rating: 5
This book is really helping me learn the basics of wine. It helps you know what to look for in a good wine, and to help direct you to wines you may like. I am really enjoying it!
Summary: Just What the Doctor Ordered
Rating: 3
You will actually learn a lot from this entry in the “…for Dummies” series. It lacks the rigor and scholarship of most of the “…for Dummies” books, but you’ll know more when you finish it than you did before you started. You’ll learn that most wine flavors are actually aromas, you’ll learn about tannins, what is in balance in a “balanced” wine, what oak barrels do, and even what malolactic fermentation is (it’s what makes Chardonnay “buttery.”) You’ll definitely learn what grapes are used to make our familiar wines, and you’ll learn technical terms, like “extract,” and “foxy.” You’ll learn the difference between “fermented” in oak, versus “aged” in oak. And you’ll learn all about corkscrews. Unfortunately, the authors’ efforts to lighten the subject with humor completely fails; it seems slapstick after the interesting material they cover. One of the authors’ primary messages is that wine is a matter of taste, and we should all have the confidence to make up our own minds. They help us with the vocabulary we’ll need to communicate our conclusions to others, and they convey their affection for their specialty. You may roll your eyeballs when they gush over France and French wines, but we actually do owe the French our gratitude for its contribution to viniculture. Read “Wine for Dummies” to fill in the gaps in your knowledge, and skip the jokes.
Summary: The Art of Wine
Rating: 4
To educate myself about wine, I’ve read several books on the topic. I find that Wine For Dummies, 4th edition, suits my needs and tastes best. Wine For Dummies is thorough and easy to imbibe, definitely a top-shelf Dummies title. I own about a dozen For Dummies books and love them all (so call me a “dummy” but Dummies books have made me smart!). I am sure that this vintage guide, like many of the fine wines it celebrates, will age well. Ten years from now (when the ‘05 Bordeaux are mature and ready to pour), I will still be able to glean helpful hints from its pages before restocking the wine cellar, or in my case, the homemade, basement wine rack. My wife and I have happily sampled many of the wines that the book recommends. When we sip a Margaux or a Barolo, we often let the wine whisk us off to the landscapes where the grapes grew. In our imaginations, aided by Wine for Dummies’ brief descriptions, we can almost see the grapes ripening on Tuscan hills or the slopes of the Cote de Nuits. Why not, the weather of each vintage is still in the grapes; why shouldn’t the landscapes live on in the wines? Recently we’ve discovered a way to enhance our Out-Of-Ohio experiences and bring those faraway places into sharper focus. We read Art History For Dummies while sipping our favorite Wine For Dummies-inspired vintages.
Art History and wine go together as well as, well, wine and cheese. We’ve learned to taste particular wines while savoring specific chapters of Art History. What a cultural banquet and tour! It’s like simultaneously tasting and seeing France, Italy or Spain, without forking out $1,000 for a plane ticket or vacationing on jet lag!
Here’s our short list of wine and art history pairings:
While reading chapter 13 in Art History For Dummies, “Going Loco with Rococo,” we sipped an Italian bubbly called Prosecco (which Wine For Dummies calls “eminently affordable”)–though pink champagne may be a more fitting match since both Rococo and champagne derive from French soil. or try a little of both! Art History for Dummies says, “In the early 18th century, the upper classes–first in France, then all over Europe–rejected Baroque sobriety and got DRUNK [my emphasis] on ornamentation: swirling fanciful curves; bright pastel colors; dripping gold filigree; and sensuous scenery.” It was a partying period. What better way to wobble your way back to the Rococo than with a Wine For Dummies’ flight.
Wine For Dummies calls wine “the lifeblood of the Italian people.” We’ve found that reading about the Italian Renaissance while drinking a velvety Italian red like Barolo, Amarone, or a Barbera d’Asti really heightens the experience–you get right into that Italian lifeblood. Wine For Dummies says “Both Barolo and Barbaresco are robust reds….Their aromas suggest tar, violets, roses, ripe strawberries, and (sometimes) truffles.” To me, they now also suggest Michelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo! (I must add that the Da Vinci section of Art History For Dummies includes an enlightening Da Vinci Code detour–I wouldn’t sip too much while navigating this sub-section.)
If you prefer something more exotic as you delve into the Venetian Renaissance (chapter 12), try a Bellini. Art History For Dummies says, “If you order a Bellini in a bar, the bartender will serve you a drink made from white peaches and Italian champagne. The mixture has a distinct pink glow…the same beautiful shade of pink that Giovanni Bellini once mixed on his palette and applied to such masterpieces as his San Zaccaria Altarpiece in Venice. What better compliment for a Renaissance painter than to have the colors he mixed 500 years ago still inspire revelers today!”
For the Spanish Baroque crack open a Rioja, which Wine For Dummies says “rules the roost,” or better yet a Ribera, especially while letting your eyes wander over the mystical canvases of Jusepe de Ribera! WFD says of this Spanish red: “Perhaps no where else in the world does the Tempranillo grape variety reach such heights, making wines with body, deep color and finesse.” Sounds almost like they’re describing a Spanish painting.
We matched a Cote du Rhone with the Post-Impressionism chapter, especially the sections on van Gogh and Cezanne, who painted in Provence, just south of the Rhone region. Wine For Dummies says Cote du Rhone “is one of the best, inexpensive red wines in the world.” Even van Gogh could afford it! WFD gets a little art-historical in this section: “Provence…may be France’s most beautiful region. Home of the Riviera, Nice and Cannes, it’s certainly the country’s most fashionable and touristy region. But it’s also an ancient land, with a thriving old capital Aix-en-Provence. The excellent light and climate have always attracted great artists–such as Vincent van Gogh–who painted many of their best works here. Wine has always been part of Provence’s culture and economy.” You might also try the Les Baux-de-Provence or a Bandol, which WFD notes “enjoys Provence’s greatest reputation for reds.”
Hands down, most people’s favorite “art ism” is Impressionism. For French Impressionism, I suggest a summery French rosé. or if you prefer to digest your Monets and Renoirs with a shimmering white, uncork a Vouvray from the Loire Valley or a Chablis from Northern Burgundy and picture yourself sitting at the front table in Renoir’s Moulin de la Galette: “Sunlight filtering through the surrounding trees bathes the gay company in dappled light, lending a breezy look to the scene, which gives it both immediacy and the feeling of an unending summer.” (Art History for Dummies)
For the section on American Abstract Expressionists, especially Jackson Pollock, we opened a Ravenswood Zin, a dazzling Sonoma wine that really attunes you to what AHFD call’s Pollock’s “exhilarating explosions of energy on canvas.” Just don’t spill or splash your wine.
Together both Dummies books provide a rich cultural journey that will uplift anyone’s tastes.
Summary: rcarney
Rating: 5
So you want to get an idea about how and why’s of wine in the world. This is the book.
Summary: Excellent Book for Learning About Wine
Rating: 5
This is a really excellent book. I would consider it the second best wine book out there. The first being Windows on the World Complete Wine Course: 2007 Edition (Windows on the World Complete Wine Course). I suggest buying both to gain a thorough knowledge of wine.
Free download Links
http://rapidshare.com/files/119990726/Wine_For_Dummies.pdf
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