The Sommelier s Atlas of Taste: A Field Guide to the Great Wines of Europe

Winner of the prestigious André Simon Drink Book Award

The first definitive reference book to describe, region-by-region, how the great wines of Europe should taste. This will be the go-to guide for aspiring sommeliers, wine aficionados who want to improve their blind tasting skills, and amateur enthusiasts looking for a straightforward and visceral way to understand and describe wine.

In this seminal addition to the wine canon, noted experts Rajat Parr and Jordan Mackay share everything they've learned in their decades of tasting wine. The result is the most in-depth study of the world's greatest wine regions ever published. There are books that describe the geography of wine regions. And there are books that describe the way basic wines and grapes should taste. But there are no books that describe the intricacies of the way wines from various subregions, soils, and appellations should taste. Now, for the first time ever, you can learn about the differences between wines from the 7 grand crus and 40 premier crus of Chablis, or the terroirs in Barolo, Champagne, and Bordeaux. Paying attention to styles, winemakers, soils, and the most cutting-edge of trends, this book explains how to understand the wines of the world not in the classical way, but in the modern way--appellation by appellation, soil by soil, technique by technique--making it an essential reference and instant classic.

RAJAT PARR is the wine director of the 17-restaurant Mina Group, which includes properties in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, and Washington, DC. His program at the flagship restaurant in San Francisco holds a Wine Spectator Grand Award. He is also the cofounder of the wine labels Domaine de la Cote, Sandhi, and Evening Land Vineyards. JORDAN MACKAY is a James Beard Award-winning writer who lives in Napa Valley and travels extensively, speaking and writing about wine, spirits, and food. His work has appeared in Food & Wine, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Decanter, the Art of Eating, Wine & Spirits, and many others. He is the author of Passion for Pinot and coauthor of James Beard Award-winner Secrets of the Sommeliers (also with Rajat Parr), Two in the Kitchen (with Christie Dufault), New York Times bestseller Franklin Barbecue (with Aaron Franklin), and Knife (with John Tesar).