Synopsis
"One of the best start-from-scratch wine books ever written."--Frank Prial, The New York Times.
OVER 2 MILLION COPIES SOLD!
Celebrating 20 years of wine mastery...
The world's finest wine book gets a complete redesign for its 20th birthday. Thirty-two pages of brand new material, enhanced color, and even more cartoons grace this Anniversary Edition, which will thrill wine lovers once again as they get a taste of Kevin Zraly's unequaled advice. One thing hasn't changed, however: Zraly's inimitable, irreverent style. He answers every question about wine; offers the most up-to-date recommendations; provides advice on buying wine in stores and on the Internet; takes you on a country-by-country, region-by-region ratings tour of the latest vintages; and starts you on your way to becoming a wine connoisseur. Abundant full-color labels and maps complete the enticing picture. More current, more informative, more concise and precise than ever, this remains the wine guide against which all others are judged.
"A visually exciting, intelligently structured reference."--Bon Appetit
"Are you intimidated by wine stewards? Read Kevin Zraly's new edition of Windows on the World Complete Wine Course and order with aplomb"--Playboy
"The liveliest short course on wine ever wrapped between two covers"--Boston Globe
"Brims with enthusiasm... breezy, down-to-earth...Reads like an interesting conversation."--Chicago Tribune
"As entertaining as it is informative. A masterful job of simplifying a complex subject and making it fun in the process."--New York Daily News
"The top introductory book available."--Booklist
Reviews
Starred Review. Picking out a wine book, either for yourself or as a gift, can be almost as daunting as the wine list itself. Kevin Zraly, founder of the Windows on the World Wine School, knows this, and his newly-updated twentieth anniversary edition is as indispensable as the corkscrew. Zraly starts small, with an overview of developments in the wine industry since the book's last publication, and then covers the basics of fermentation, important wine regions and how to taste wine. What really sets the book apart from its peers is Zraly's patience with the reader. The book is peppered with questions ranging from "How long should I keep a Beaujolais?" to strategies on creating and stocking a wine cellar. Quirky quotes, anecdotes and cocktail party trivia are scattered throughout the book's margins. The result is an eminently readable book that manages to teach while it entertains. Through it all, Zraly remains down-to-earth and free of the snootiness many newcomers associate with the daunting world of wine. Wine experts may find this book lacking, though, and might be better served by a more exhaustive, encyclopedic book, as Zraly focuses on French and domestic wine at the expense of Italian, Spanish and Australian brands. (Including Yellow Tail, an Australian wine that, according to Zraly, is the top-selling imported wine.) Still, this is an excellent introduction to the world of wine and should be warmly received by those looking for a well-structured and informative book on the subject.
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This latest edition of Zraly's wine primer takes into account the most recent vintages and the newest wines to appear in the American marketplace. Zraly continues to be one of the country's leading wine advocates and one of its most gifted teachers, his enthusiasm for his subject shining on every page. Steering clear of wine snobbery, Zraly leads the neophyte gracefully through convoluted territory. In addition to wines from Europe and California, Zraly talks about Australia's contribution, which now supplies the U.S. with its best-selling imported wine. He also rates Argentine and Chilean wines, whose quality has come to rival California's finest products. The bulk of Zraly's text dwells on the classic French wines of Burgundy, Bordeaux, the Rhone Valley, and Alsace, whose historical complexities and specialized terminologies generate the mystique that endows these wines with perennial allure. The book's layout and its use of multiple sidebars on every page help pack an amazing amount of both practical information and entertaining details between the covers. Mark Knoblauch
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