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Summary: Finally, a book that lives up to its title...
Review: What can I say about this book other than buy it...I am a business person who always stumbles when asked to order a bottle of wine. I know whites from reds, sometimes (although there was that embarassing time I ordered a bottle of Cabernet and thought I was getting a bottle of white wine), and I can generally fake my way through a wine list (by looking at prices) but I could never predict the flavor of what I was getting myself and my dinner companions into. Until now... Immer's easy to understand, yet thorough system has given me the education in wine that I sorely lacked. Reading this book, I felt like a waiter in a class with her. Each chapter contains some introductory text (beautifully written) and tasting exercises. Just reading her descriptions of what you should experience in each tasing was almost (not quite, but almost) as good as tasting the wine myself. Here is a woman whose depth in prose is only matched by her knowledge of wine. Her simple descriptions of the big six grapes, the wine buyer's toolbox, a flavor map of the world, wines from France, Italy and the rest of the world have opened up my world. No more white Cabernet for me...
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Summary: The name says it all!
Review: When I opened the cover of this book, I found it hard to close it! I must say that this book definitely put the fear of choosing wine to bed for me and motivated me to get to the liquor store and choose wines I had not yet ever tried -- with confidence! This is one of the BEST books I have ever purchased!
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Summary: Controlling information overload
Review: While I love this book, I would recommend developing a strategy for using it. There are numerous wine tasting "lessons" that result in a lot of wine being purchased and consumed; it would be easy to get lost in all the new information. Using this strategy is time consuming (a single lesson every other week or so), but I feel I've learned and retained so much that it's well worth it. First, I do a single tasting lesson (comparing 2-3 bottles) on a Friday night, eating the same food and using the same type glasses for every lesson. This allows me to learn about the lesson being taught, not necessarily the wines themselves. Then, using the book "Pairing Wine with Food" (available at Amazon), I finish each bottle on following nights, preparing a meal selected specifically for that wine. (I also break out the Riedel glasses designed for that particular wine, but that's just for fun.) The subsequent nights help me to learn more about the nuances of the individual wine because I can concentrate on it alone. In the process, I've discovered that there are no wine types I dislike, just individual wines from specific vineyards that don't thrill me. I use a PDA program to help me keep track of what to buy and what to avoid. Doing it this way makes me feel like I'm taking a college class with homework I love and without paying tuition or taking tests!
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