Rating: 
Summary: I didn't even KNOW what a sommelier was...........
Review: ....but I wanted to learn SOMETHING about how to find a wine that I like, at a price that I could afford.Within 3 chapters, I had learned more about wine than I had in numerous other books/articles, and 20 years of actually drinking the stuff. The second she used the "...first sip of Guinness stout for the Buweiser drinker." analogy to debunk the 'the more expensive/famous the wine, the better it is' misconception (gross paraphrase), I was completely hooked. By reading this book, you will learn how to find a bottle of wine you will actually enjoy, not the bottle you're told you should appreciate. Wonderful book, very cool author.
Rating:
Summary: Budding wine geek gets a reality check...
Review: A few years ago I fell in love with wine. I'd read several books on how to understand wine over the years (yes, including Wine for Dummies) and none of them ever seemed to crack that unspoken magical shell of understanding wine. I knew the answers were out there. I could smell them in the air. I'd resigned myself to figuring it all out on my own and to hell with anyone who has written a book on wine, unless of course there's lot of great pictures. I'd started to think that the big wigs, including Andrea Immer, were part of a forbidden inner circle of wine gurus that pass secret info to one another but when faced with the public, blurt trivialities and nonsense just to keep us guessing, much like math professors in college.
The other day, I sat down at the local bookstore, picked up her red teasing title and began to read. There were very few pictures. That didn't matter. There was no long-winded technical mumbo jumbo. That didn't matter either. What I had found was a book that finally gave me the answers for which I'd been searching.
Her style of writing is warm and friendly. Her methods are straightforward and revealing.
What I have come to discover is that Andrea's book is like that first glass of incredible wine that sent me over the edge. What a great companion to the wine experience.
Thanks Andrea.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book- even for those new to wine
Review: Andrea has a real gift for explaining a somewhat complicated topic in an easy to understand manner. I purchased a highly recommended book on wine before this one, and ended up more confused than enlightened. Andrea's book is very well written, and explains the world of wine in simple terms that anyone could understand. Her enthusiasm and love for wine shines through, and her writing style is down-to-earth and fun. It seems she is writing to a good friend. Her tasting exercises are excellent, and easy to perform. She gives specific recommendations in a variety of price ranges, so people on any budget can still learn about wine and develop an appreciation of the various grapes and flavors. She even covers how to go about choosing a wine on one of those huge restaurant wine lists, and such basics as wine glasses, storage, and the difference in the various corkscrews available. The part I appreciated most was the pronunciation guide for the large array of vocabulary associated with wine. This was a big help. My only suggestion for improvement would be to have these words together in a glossary in the back of the book, in addition to the book content.
Rating:
Summary: Simple and fun
Review: Andrea Immer does a fantastic job of teaching the reader about wine in simple terms without snobbery and confusion.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Education In Wine
Review: Andrea Immer is a charming writer. Her personality and unpretentious love of wine shine through on every page. Additionally, she has created a framework for understanding wine that is easily comprehensible. The information she provides is not arcane and so detailed that, like after reading many wine books, I put it away and promptly forgot everything. Instead, she gives smart charts of information, comparisons of vital topics, and suggestions for wine tastings that really work to clarify the world of wine. This is a highly usable book, very readable, and one will come away with a high regard for its author.
Rating:
Summary: Going for the senses
Review: Andrea Immer's book is accessibly written, providing a wine tasting process that helps one grasp the essence of grapes and their wines, not by reading but by tasting the real thing. In a lively, engaging format, she lays out comparisons of white and red varietals so one can learn about the character of specific grapes. I am so enthusiastic about her method that I am conducting my first wine tasting, comparing Pinto Noir, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, with the wine tasting group I've attended for a few years. We intend to continue trying other tastings she suggests.
Rating:
Summary: What a Find for Wine Lovers
Review: Andrea is on the Food TV Network often and really knows her stuff. This book shows that someone who really knows their topic can put it into simple words. That's exactly what Ms. Immer does with wine tasting. We've now gotten our wine drinking friends into the book and our having great fun utilizing her step-by-step tasting process. What a great time! This is so well done. Let's have more from Ms. Immer, especially on all those creative drinks she produces on the Food Network shows!
Rating:
Summary: A simple way to learn about wines
Review: As the title indicates, Andrea Immer makes wine very simple to understand. Instead of being an encylocpedic reference manual on wine producing regions & other esoterica, she breaks down winetasting into the following simple components and describes them: full body vs. light body, dry vs. sweet, crisp vs. low-acid, oaky vs. no oak, high tannin, vs. low tannin. To help the reader better understand them, she employs the techinique she uses to train the waiters at the restaurants she's worked at - she has them taste. Therefore, you are going to be buying and tasting multiple flights of wines. This may be a plus or minus depending on your point of view. While the tasting flights are the most useful, she does also provide simple short-cuts to help you determine the character of wine based on characteristics like color and alcohol content and includes a primer on cracking the "code words" that appear on wine labels.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book - Written Simply
Review: At the start of her book, Andrea Immer promises it will be like no other wine book - and she delivers. This is a down-to-earth writing which brings the common man to a comfort level where he order from a wine list without sweating. The book's construction as part-course and part-antidotal is very smartly done. Immer offers some great tips about how to navigate your way through wine in store and restaurants and how to know one bottle from another. She encourages trying new things and offers a whole bunch of recommendations. The greatest thing, though is that she offers timeless lesson plans here. There is no list of essential wines to buy or drink, and she doesn't force here personal preferences on the reader. The one downside is that, to truly maximize enjoyment of this book, you need to invest in the wine tastings and comparisons spelled out inside - I suggest making this book a group activity.
Rating:
Summary: A great buy
Review: Completely through dumb luck, I picked up a bottle of wine for a recent dinner party that was not only delicious in its own right, it made the food taste better. I'd never had that experience before, but it was enough to make me want to learn more about wine, so that I could intentionally pick good wine/food combinations in the future. I'm so glad this was the first book on the subject that I ordered. Beside being a fun read, the author does a wonderful job of educating the reader, without seeming pretentious or preachy. Although she begins with the assumption that you nothing, I can't imagine even an already knowledgable wine enthusiast not learning something from this - it's packed with good information. At the end of each discussion section, she includes a 'how to have a wine test' guide, beginning with comparisons of the six most common wine styles, and progressing to tastings on wine characteristics (oaky verses steel barrel, etc) and wines from lesser known grapes. Also included are basic hints for choosing wines, predicting a wine's flavor, and pairing wine with food. Not only would I buy this book again, I've recommended it to several friends - in my opinion, it's a can't-miss-purchase on the subject.
| 
