Tasting Pleasure: Confessions of a Wine Lover

Rating:
Summary: Reads Almost like a Classic Adventure Novel!
Review: "Tasting Pleasure" is the wonderful story of a girl who combined the proverbial reporter's pad and pencil, youthful curiosity and zest for life, with a talented and trainable palette, to mold for herself an internationally recognised career and the post as the undisputed Queen of Wine. The story itself is a rather exciting one and takes the reader from Robinson's native London to the great winemaking houses of France, to the wine revolution in Mondavi's California to the established houses of Australia.

The truly wonderful aspect of this book is the rather long list of vintages and tastings that the author recants the stories of, most notably the wonderful story of her tasting of a bottle of wine from the cellar of none other than Thomas Jefferson.

Tasting pleaseure is a wonderful story of a woman's quick wit and creativity that brought about a truly amazing career and international recognition. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Just a Wine Lover?
Review: I confess to a liking for books from those who are knowledgeable when it comes to wine. Perhaps it is more correct to say books that provide me with knowledge and personal insights. Jancis Robinson's "Tasting Pleasure" is a particularly insightful look into the birth and growth of a wine connoisseur. In some respects the stars align perfectly for Ms Robinson as she rises, very quickly, from tour guide to assistant editor of the British wine trade magazine Wine & Spirit in 1975, to Master of Wine in 1984, to author and TV presenter. However it is also clear that the considerable knowledge and experience that she gained during these years contributed significantly to the evolution of her career and to her current status. She has been privileged to taste some extraordinary wines in the company of some extraordinary wine tasters; Michael Broadbent to name just one. It is easy for those of us who are unlikely to rise to such heights of pleasure to fall into the trap of dismissing such experiences as conceited ramblings. But it should be appreciated that access to such wine completes the spectrum of tasting experiences available to the connoisseur; those of us who taste the great and the near great have to be satisfied with being somehow incomplete. What is interesting is that Ms Robinson prefers to call herself a Wine Lover, that is something we can all claim to be.

Rating:
Summary: A Must For Fans of Jancis and of Wine!
Review: I have been shocked to see Jancis Robinson's books and videos being slated by Americans. Maybe her European style and English stlye of writing aggrevates Americans. I found this book absolutely charming! (Then again, I am European!)It's not a guide to wine in itself but more a fascinating tale of Jancis' involvement with wine and it's producers. If you bear this in mind when you order it, you will not be disappointed. Her turn of phrase makes this the ideal book to read whilst sipping a nice glass of wine!

Rating:
Summary: Dry...Dry...Dry
Review: I have to admit I didn't read the entire book. I got bored and decided to count the grains of sand in the street in front of my house.

This is just a brain dump of opinions and experiences. The last sentence should be "...well...I guess you had to be there."

Rating:
Summary: A Matter Of Perspective
Review: If you want tasting notes and rankings, pick up Robert Parker or Hugh Johnson. This is a book about a life in wine, not a book about wine.

"Tasting Pleasure" is a ramble through Jancis Robinson's ascent into the heavens of the wine world. She's been very lucky, and has supported that luck with intelligence and hard work. In other hands, this story might have been insufferable; but Robinson's greatest gift may be her ability to keep a sense of perspective while progressing from one table laden with fine bottles to the next. She is well aware of the essential frivolity of what she does for a living, and also well aware of her good fortune.

N.B.: Unless you're totally fascinated with Jancis Robinson, there are sections that are easily skippable. The book remains, even so, a worthwhile addition to your wine library.


Rating:
Summary: Is this a vintage read?
Review: It is difficult to critique a book that one should not be reading. After slogging through the 334 pages of this "diary dump", I am convinced that I am not in Jancis' target market for this particular book. I am relatively new to wine, but am developing a significant interest in it. But, I must conclude that either her target market consists of Jancis fans who want to read every word-at times I thought literally-she has jotted in her daily notes or-like the great vintage wines she describes-one cannot possible appreciate this book until one has stored it for 15 or more years.

Why, then, give it 2 stars versus 1? On the plus side, she writes well and, obviously, has a deep knowledge of and appreciation for wine. Further, there are short passages that are riveting; e.g., her tasting of a "[Thomas] Jefferson's Mouton", vintage 1787. Moreover, one does absorb an appreciation of the time and effort she puts into her work, and one (cautiously) generalizes that appreciation of wine can be-literally-a life-consuming endeavor.

On the minus side, there are the words. Often I recalled the (perhaps) apocryphal tale of Mozart's reaction to being told there were too many notes in one of his compositions. Here I caught myself wondering how in the world she managed to document all the minutiae she wrote (e.g., film production difficulties due to her pregnancy, and her husband's restaurant opening tribulations). Other times I caught myself looking at my watch as if sitting in a theater watching a movie by someone directing their life story, a rather disagreeable task on the surface. Did this book have an editor?

In sum, avoid this book in favor of one of her other fine books. Unless, that is, you aspire to become a female authority on wines, who writes books, produces numerous video and television series, whose husband becomes a very successful restaurateur, and who leads an apparently satisfying life. Oh yes, she tastes and drinks a quite a lot of wine.

Rating:
Summary: A new tonic for insomnia
Review: My wife found a damaged copy of Confessions for a few dollars, and bought it for me as a joke. She and I have both laughed for years at Jancis' smarmy tone in her column in Wine Spectator, though I also found her very knowledgeable about wine. Writing about herself rather than wine, Jancis has lost any sense of what the reader might possibly care about. It is the single most boring book I have read in my life, including chemistry textbooks. I seriously use it to fall asleep at night. It puts me out cold in 1/2 page, on average. That's worth a star!