A Taste for Wine

A complete home wine tasting course, from the basics of grapes to blind tasting, from celebrated wine critic and educator, Rose Murray Brown, Master of Wine.

The perfect wine gift for any wine lover, A Taste for Wine is a complete home wine-tasting course from award-winning wine critic and educator Rose Murray Brown MW.

ONE OF THE TIMES BEST BOOKS OF 2025
ONE OF FORBES' ESSENTIAL WINE AND SPIRIT BOOKS OF 2025

'How do you distil a lifetime of knowledge and learning into 224 pages?...Rather than a dry encylopaedic catalogue of wine grapes and styles, this is a series of masterclasses for the layperson. So you cover all the ground at your own pace - with a glass in hand.'
Tony Turnbull, The Times, 'Books of the Year 2025'

- Begin with the key elements of taste, before learning how wine is made and the effect this has on flavor.
- Familiarize yourself with every significant grape variety and the wine countries of the world, including a complete directory of international wineries to visit.
- Dive into natural, orange and low-alcohol wines, and enjoy expert at-home food and wine matching.
- Prepare for a changing world of wine, with features on everything from urban wineries to PiWI grapes.

A Taste for Wine includes ten step-by-step tasting practices in which to apply your newfound knowledge, interspersed throughout the book:
1. Classic Whites
2. Classic Reds
3. Full, Rich Whites
4. Crisp, Delicate Whites
5. Soft, Juicy Reds
6. Sparkling Wines
7. Comparing Sweetness
8. Fortified Wines
9. Full Rich Reds
10. Taste Trends

'Rose Murray Brown has written a genuinely useful guide to tasting in the no-nonsense vein of Mary Poppins.' - Club Oenoloqique

Rose Murray Brown is one of only 422 Masters of Wine - and one of only 154 female MWs - in the world.  She is also one of very few 'generalist' MWs covering all regions of the wine world focusing primarily on consumer and trade education - as well as working as a consumer journalist.

After training at Sotheby's for 12 years as a wine and spirit specialist, Rose set up her own wine school in Scotland in 2001.  She offers her own brand of consumer wine courses, virtual and in-person wine masterclasses, fine wine dinners, corporate entertainment events and escorted wine tours for beginners to advanced level.  Her wine school, Rose Murray Brown Masterclass, was rated as Scotland's best in the Top Ten places to learn about wine in the UK by the Telegraph.  

Rose is also Scotland's leading award-winning wine journalist.  She has been the weekly wine columnist at the Scotsman, Scotland's national newspaper, for 38 years covering all topics of the wine world on her weekly Saturday page.  She also contributes to international specialist trade and consumer magazines and broadcasts on BBC Radio Scotland - and has presented a 13 part series on food and wine for Tyne Tees TV/Yorkshire.  

As a great lover of travel, Rose first fell in love with wine whilst studying Italian in Perugia during university holidays.  Today she travels the world as a wine journalist and wine judge at international competitions (eg Hungary, Chile & China) - and personally organizes and hosts consumer group tours to wine regions (most recently to Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Georgia and Hungary).

Rose is a certified wine educator.  She is a member of The Institute of Masters of Wine, Association of Wine Educators and Circle of Wine Writers.  In her spare time she is an active charity fundraiser - she created the popular Comic Relief Wine Fair which raised over £30,000 for Wine Relief.  

In 2021 Rose was the Drinks Judge for the André Simon Food & Drink Book Awards.  In this process she assessed over 30 recently published drinks books giving her valuable up-to-date knowledge of wine book publishing and what they offer consumers today.