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.
