Wine Wise: Your Complete Guide to Understanding, Selecting, and Enjoying Wine

This ended up being a lovely gift for a friend who is interested in learning about wine. Wine is a passion of mine and I wanted to share this passion with a good friend. The book seemed to have a lot of useful and interesting information.

Very informative and useful, I havent read any other wine book but enjoyed this one and it has been on the money about the wines that I have purchased.

WINE WISE: YOUR COMPLETE GUIDE TO UNDERSTANDING, SELECTING, AND ENJOYING WINE comes from three professors of wine studies at The Culinary Institute of America and provides a fine review of the different styles, flavors, and costs associated with different wine varietals. Ten chapters cover major wine-making regions to discuss appellations, products, grapes, and how to understand both labels and the marketing techniques of wine producers. Highly illustrated with area maps, wine label photos, and discussions of blends and varietals, WINE WISE is a basic pick for any library strong in wine introductions.

Nice Book. Thoroughly covers the subject of Wine. Very nicely photographed. If you read this book you'll gain a better understanding and appreciation of wines from all over the world. You're not drinking wine, you're drinking the earth (terroir), climate and sun from whence the grapes grew. As the Masters of Wine say, Geography in a bottle.

The three authors of /WineWise/ are all professors of wine studies at The Culinary Institute of America. Together, they have put together a highly useful and educational overview guide to wine. There are some limitations to the book, but, within the scope of the book, they did a good job. The first chapter is a practical (but short) introduction to wine, wine making, how the appellation system works, and why some wines cost so much. There are two chapters on the major white and red grapes, with some sub-categorization on specific growth areas in different countries. There are ten chapters on major growing area, with comprehensive discussion of the various appellations, major growers and styles. Some of their lists of wineries are just that--a paragraph or so of names, with no editorial commentary or reason for their inclusion. The maps of the regions are excellent, and the included wine labels throughout the book are a nice touch. There are numerous sidebar articles expanding on specific subjects relevant to the topic on hand in the chapter. There are two reasonable chapters on wine pairings and doing wine tastings at home. Both are a good introduction, but either one could be the entire subject of their own book (and have been often enough.) The chapter on picking wine at restaurants is a nice addition to a beginning guide like this, though some of the suggestions may fall into the category of common sense. The final chapter of bargain wine choices is an interesting addition, with each of the authors picking wines in different price ranges and styles. Here is where you see that the authors either didn't collaborate directly, or the editor didn't want to directly interfere in the writing. Each of the author's sections are organized and arranged differently, with no consistency to either price, region, or system. And, while this isn't a major flaw (and the section is fairly helpful to new wine buyers looking to maximize their dollar and tasting range), it does explain the sometimes-noticed inconsistency within the chapters in writing style. For the price, /WineWise/ is worth the purchase for a new wine drinker, or for someone wanting a book to loan out to friends.