The Wines of France: The Essential Guide for Savvy Shoppers

Since I love French wines it's great to have a source that reviews the wines I have bought and want to buy. It also makes it easier to take information to my favorite wine store to show them what I want.

Normally I don't even pay attention to the wine guide genre--they're outdated almost immediately and are characterized by "points" which are almost always awarded in the highest quantity to the usual suspects. Luckily I happened to open a copy of this one, probably because the author's book on Loire Valley wines is so invaluable. This is the guide I've always wanted. The focus is on winemakers, not vintages, and Ms. Friedrich has definite tastes and preferences which (importantly) coincide with mine. She happens to know a lot more than I do, however, and has a knack for ferreting out the unusual and succinctly characterizing a winemaker and his wines in a few pithy sentences. Her emphasis on terroir-driven and naturally made wines has major appeal for me. Many of these wines, while not household names, are available in the U.S. (alas, not all) so you don't have to be planning a trip to France to benefit from this book.

Whether you are a debutante at choosing wines or a serious collector, this book is just what you've been wishing someone would write! Jacqueline Friedrich is already well-known in the food and wine writing world but her latest book is not only a handy "pocket tool" of a wine guide, it makes you feel like you've been given the keys to the cellar. Wow, just leafing through it as I walked back from the mailbox, I was grinning at many of the cleverly described entries and the way it works, with crib sheets at the end of each region and the useful how-to-order-wine-in-a-restaurant appendix. Get one for yourself and one for each of your friends even if they may not be going to France any time soon - they'll be dreaming they were while opening a bottle of one of Jackie's recommended vintages.