Wine Style: Using Your Senses to Explore and Enjoy Wine

This book deserves more attention from wine-lovers like me than it seems to have gotten. It is not a book for wine novices, I think. For them, a more general book--like "Wine for Dummies", written by these very same authors--would be a better choice. However, if you already know something about wine regions and wine varietals, and if you already have tasted a range of wines in an informed way, then this book is the next step in your wine education. The authors identify and describe 12 worldwide "wine styles" (i.e., grouping wines by how they TASTE): four red-wine styles, four-white whine styles, two rose-wine styles, and two sparkling-wine styles. This is a very useful--and somewhat novel--way to approach wine. It presumes (correctly, I think) that when you are deciding which wine to open for dinner, for sipping, etc., the most important consideration is how it actually will taste, in broad terms. The authors have taken their expert knowledge of wines and applied it in a very original way to give us a new framework with which to make wine choices. I was impressed by how well-organized and thorough this little book is, while being very readable at the same time. What did I get out of this book? Among other things, I came to see that there is a "fresh and spicy" style of red wine, typified by Argentinian Malbec, which I now have tasted for the first time, and love. And the same for Argentinian Viognier, an "aromatic white". I also am starting to try "earthy whites", which I never had understood before. I'm sure that sooner or later I will re-read this book, looking for more insights such as these. Kudos to the authors for a job well done!

This book was very informative and helped me understand how to better categorize wine while I am tasting it. The wine wheel was a great addition.