Product Description

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….

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5977 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-06
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

Review
“…friendly un–intimidating guide to all there is to know about wine…” (Irish News, 14th August 2004)

“…the no–nonsense guide to buying, storing serving and talking about wine…” (Choice Magazine, May 2004)

Irish News
"...friendly un-intimidating guide to all there is to know about wine..." (Irish News, 14th August 2004)

Synopsis
Wine enthusiasts and novices, raise your glasses! The No. 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 hot (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; and 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...

Customer Reviews

This Book Deserves SIX Stars!!!
The best thing about this book is that it is written by two real wine experts, who remember well what it was like to be a "wine newbie."

Ed is a former teacher who became interested, in wine, and met Mary at an Italian wine tasting in New York City. Two years later, they married, and formally merged their wine cellars and wine libraries. Ed has co-authored six wine books, and is the sole author of Champagne for Dummies. He also writes for Wine Enthusiast Magazine and Decanter.

Mary entered the retail wine business right out of college, when she accepted a position with the Italian Trade Commission. Today she runs a wine school based in New York City called International Wine Center, which mainly trains wine professionals. She is also a wine columnist for the NY Daily News. Mary is the first female Master of Wine (MW) in the United States, and one of only 19 MW's in the country (with 240 worldwide).

Both Ed and Mary are Certified Wine Educators (CWE). Ed and Mary write wine columns in Nation's Restaurant News, and in Beverage Media.

Having had many years of experience drinking wine (but without really knowing what I was doing), and having taken a wine course over the internet two times, I felt ready to invest in a couple of wine books. Everyone one on the American Amazon site absolutely raved about this book. When I received the book, I found all the raving to be completely UNDERstated!

The book is divided into six sections, and is extremely clear, and user-friendly. Section One deals with wine and wine-making, tasting and wine vocabulary, grape varieties, and pricing. Section Two deals with navigating wine shops and restaurant lists, all about serving and using wine (with some surprisingly helpful tips I'd never heard of), and judging wine labels.

Section Three explains and has separate chapters each of France, Italy, and Elsewhere in Europe. Another chapters discusses wine of Australia, New Zealand, Chile, and South Africa. there is a another large chapter on American Wines, covering California well, in addition to covering Oregon Washington, New York State, as well as a brief mention of both Ontario and British Columbia. A final chapter in Part Three deals with fortified wines--their history, and varieties--Sherry, Marsala, Port, Madeira, and Sauternes.

Section Four discusses wine information sources--publications, classes, tastings, auctions, catalogs, and on-line ordering. Next is explained how to write tasting notes, how to marry wine with food, and how to decide what kind of wine person you are--serious, small, or non-collector, and suggested wine strategies good for each type of wine person to follow. Also covered is how to invest in wine.

Section Five deals with most of the common wine questions, such as if wine is fattening, what vintage to buy, new and old oaks, who is a wine expert, if imported wines are better, if a wine has to be expensive to be good, and when to drink various wines. Part Six consists of various useful appendixes.
I learned SO much useful information from reading this book. If there were a higher rating than five stars, this book should have it. It is one of the best books I've read in the past couple of years.

I would also recommend another book to supplement this book, called The Wine Guy, by Andy Besch. It covers completely different aspects of wine purchasing, tasting, comparing, and finding out what YOU enjoy yourself.

Very useful
Accessible, easy to read, and well laid out. This will be very useful as a general reference, to those who want to get a bit of background about what they're buying, and to provide interesting facts about everything from the wine-making process to investing in wine to proper storage. There are good descriptions of wines and wine-makers world-wide. My only gripe would be that there wasn't more space devoted to matching particular wines to food.

excellent introduction to wine
This is an excellent, well-written introduction to the world of wine.