Andrea Immer's Wine Buying Guide for Everyone

I enjoy Andrea Immer's approach to wine. She makes it fun and easily understandable. This buying guide lists the price range, her notes and what I think is best of all, how long a bottle lasts after it has been opened. Great little reference book. Its also small emough to be able to put into a largeer purse or bag so you can carry it with you when you are wine shopping.

The book is a nice size so you can stick it in the glove compartment, pocket or purse as you travel around California (where I live) visiting wineries. Page 6 is How to Use This Buying Guide with an explanation of how to read a label and then how the book will note the wine name and provnance (country or state), price category ($ $$ $$$ etc), taste and value ratings, and symbols like a check mark for best-of (rated most popular in their category) or an X mark worthy write ins in their respective categories and a happy face for An Andrea personal favorite. Also helpful is a notation about 'Kicthen Refrigerator or Countertop survivor. The pricing is $=up to $12, $$=12.01-$20.00, $$$=$20.01-$35.00, $$$$-above $35.00. She keeps the rating criteria simple with scores listed on a scale of 0 up to 30. 0-9=Poor,10-15=Fair, 16-19=Good, 10-25=Very Good, 26-30=Outstanding and X=No data available because these are writes. She notes on page 10 that 'I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that I began to test how long wines hold up in the everyday kitchen not because I was on a quest to answer these big picture questions but because I kept tasting some impressive leftovers ... Even more astonishing, some of the wines stayed that way for days. Even more astonishing, some of the wines that were initially underwhelming actually came around and started tasting better after being opened for a while (in the same way that some cheeses need to sit out at room temperature to show their best flavor or a pot of chili can taste better after a day or two in the fridge).' On page 12 she explains how the wines were chosen. She writes 'The wines represented are top sellers in stores and restaurants nationally, in each style category. I featured mostly the top selling premium, cork finished wines because they outsell generics overall. However, I did include the dominant jug and bag in a box wines and my tasters did not ignore them'. She then proceeds to lay out the 25 most popular Whites, Reds, Best of big 6 grapes, 20 most popular Merlots, 30 most popular Cabernet Sauvignons and Blends, 10 most popular Champagnes and Sparking wines, 10 most popular Pinot Grigio/Gris, 5 most popular other Whites, 10 most popular Italian and Spanish Reds, 10 Most popular Shiraz/Syrahs, and Rhone style reds and 10 most popular Red Zinfandels. Overall its one of the best and most useful wine guides I have bought and used. Buy the 2006 edition instead of this one or inaddition to this one since it has over 50 new wines listed.

This book succeeds in what it aspires to do: make wine-buying an unintimidating act. So many Americans think of wine as a special-occasion indulgence, and that it can't possibly be good if isn't expensive, as opposed to the more European attitude that a glass of wine (or two) is an everyday thing. Naturally, to have wine as a more everyday life- and food-enhancer, unless you're a multi-millionaire, you'll want to know about good wines in different price categories. Immer's non-snobbish approach led her to include an under-$12 category, for which I am grateful. (Who'd have thought a $7 Chardonnay from Vons Market, Lindeman's Bin 65 from Australia, could be this good?) In just a few skims, I already feel far more knowledgeable about wine than I did before. I've already tried some of her recommendations and have been very pleased. I've tended to stick to the same few wines due to disappointments when I've experimented (based more on label appeal than anything else!) but now I know of literally hundreds of wines that I'd like to try. The layout of this book is very user friendly and it's small and lightweight enough to bring on a shopping trip. This is not a book for the connoisseur who loves hard-to-find wines but is geared toward the buyer of wines you'll find in many American restaurants and merchants such as grocery stores.

I'm impressed that this tells how long different wines will last after opening either at room temperature or in a refrigerator. That is something I haven't seen before.