Description:
Dennis Overstreet is a salesman. With the publication of Overstreet's New Wine Guide, cowritten with David Gibbons, he's also a raconteur, a biographer, and an essayist. But above all, he's a salesman. Twenty-five years ago, he founded The Wine Merchant, Beverly Hills, a retail wine shop on Little Santa Monica in Cannes's sister city. Today he continues with a book "meant to help readers recognize and enjoy the finest wines in the world." In his effort to hip you to the best and the brightest, he weaves you through a volume chock full of historical fact, controversial theory (for example, he claims that phylloxera was the best thing to happen to California winemaking), and bravado (chapter 4, "Buying with Confidence" reads like the script for a Wine Merchant infomercial). It's no dry textbook, probably enjoyed best in sips rather than gulps. Though newcomers to wine will appreciate the list of grape types, notes on opening Champagne, and how to organize a tasting, Overstreet's tome isn't really meant for novices; they're liable to skin their knees tripping on the names he so abundantly drops. The Mick Jagger/Cristal story and the dream-up-a-wine-for-a-celeb "What's My Wine?" pages are less Riesling than Robin Leach (Overstreet offers Cameron Diaz "a succulent, spicy Gewürztraminer"), and a long chapter inviting restaurant wine staff to match a menu to wines, without giving the reader the recipes, smacks more of My Dinner with the Sommelier than booze news you can use. But unqualified gems abound, too, such as Ten Smart Questions to Ask the Sommelier ("Can you recommend something off the beaten track?"). And any wine book that devotes half of its Washington section to Blackwood Canyon's trippy winemaker Mike Moore deserves attention. Ultimately, the book is less a guide than the stylish writings of a savvy wine retailer operating on schmooze-control. Someday, Tina Brown will guest-edit an issue of Wine Spectator; until she does, there's Dennis Overstreet. --Tony Mason
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