Wine For Dummies (For Dummies (Lifestyles Paperback))
by Ed McCarthy, Mary Ewing-Mulligan
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Book Summary Information
Author: Ed McCarthy, Mary Ewing-MulliganBrand: HomeAndWine.com
Foreword: Piero Antinori
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-08-22
ISBN: 0764525441
Number of pages: 432
Publisher: For Dummies
Product features:
- Dimensions: 4 1/4" x 7 1/2" x 3/4"
- Selecting, storing and serving a great bottle to matching food and wine with this book
Book Reviews of Wine For Dummies (For Dummies (Lifestyles Paperback))
Book Review: This Book Deserves SIX Stars!!!
Summary: 5 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.
Summary of Wine For Dummies (For Dummies (Lifestyles Paperback))
The bestselling guide that demystifies wine-now revised and updatedWinner of the George Duboeuf Wine Book of the Year
"Smart and totally readable." -Newsday
"Crammed with useful, accurate information." -Wine Enthusiast
"Complete...and agreeably relaxed." -New York Times
The nation's most popular wine primer is now even better. Wine experts Mary Ewing-Mulligan and Ed McCarthy have revised this friendly, unintimidating guide to cover all the latest developments in the wine world: which wine regions are now hot (and which are not), information on new rules for shipping wine and the new vogue for screw-caps, and, of course, updates on vintages, producers, and wine resources on the Web.
As always, the authors deliver just what ordinary mortals need to navigate the wine list at a restaurant or the wine aisle at a store, select a great bottle, and truly enjoy it. They provide an easy-to-understand overview of wine grapes and wine production, a detailed survey of wine regions and producers around the world, tips on tasting wine and pairing wine with food, pointers on wine storage units, and unbeatable guidance on how to choose a decent bottle at an affordable price.
Ed McCarthy (New York, NY) writes for the Wine Enthusiast. His wife, Mary Ewing-Mulligan (New York, NY), one of only fourteen certified Masters of Wine in America, is a wine columnist for the New York Daily News. Both also teach classes at New York's International Wine Center, where Mary is a co-owner and director. They are also the authors of For Dummies guides to red wine, white wine, champagne, French wine, and Italian wine.
In Wine for Dummies, Mary Ewing-Mulligan teams up with hubby and fellow wine educator Ed McCarthy to guide us on an exhaustive, entertaining trip around the enological--that's right, enological--world. Though clearly experts themselves (Ewing-Mulligan is one of a handful of Americans holding the rare title Master of Wine), the authors assure us that even the most basic knowledge will undermine the very notion of wine pretension. It's as simple as this: "This wine is named for a grape variety. This wine is named for a geographical region. When they make this kind of wine, it goes into this kind of bottle." And so on.
By providing the context in which to begin exploring wine, Wine for Dummies can easily become the send-off for a lifelong education. McCarthy and Mulligan deflate many of the wine snob's attitudes; they assure us that most wine sold today is "good wine," and that any further distinctions made about wine are ultimately subjective. The practical, jovial mentoring the authors provide encourages readers to chart their own course toward drinking great wine (although the authors naturally recommend dozens of their own favorites along the way). In later chapters, McCarthy and Mulligan delve into more serious topics such as investing in and cellaring wine. Even these discussions seem appropriate, given that you'll probably find the allure of wine growing as its mystery subsides to the force of this superb introductory text. --Todd Gehman
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