Greetings vinophiles!

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Hi John, IMHO, Discovering Wine by Joanna Simon and Wine for Dummies by Ed McCarthy and Mary Ewing-Mulligan are pretty good beginner books, and of course to understand wine, you have to taste, taste, and taste some more! Wellcome to the wolrd of wine. Cheers!

Man-Ho Chu

Books are fine, but what you really need to do is taste. I recommend that you find some others with similar interests and organize two kinds of tastings:

1. A group of multiple wines all made from the same grape. This will teach you to recognize similarities in wines made in different styles from the same grape.
2. A group of multiple wines, each made from a different grape. This will teach you to recognize the differences between them.

Repeat ad nauseam. One of each is nowhere near enough.

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'm hoping that I can help others who want

I'd agree tasting is most important thing. I think Wine for Dummies is reasonably well done. Also Andrea Immer's first book, which includes some suggested wines for side by side comparison/

Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book is an all time classic. It will give you a comprehensive picture of the wine areas and grapes of Planet Earth. Being small, it has the advantage that you can take it to your local wine shop/supermarket to have some references while "label surfing"

Yves

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I'm hoping that I can help others who want

1) Don't do 'tastings'. Wine should be accompanied by a meal. Most good wines taste different with food. So, prepare a meal, invite a few freinds over, and open several bottles. 2) Don't get too concerned with increasing your knowledge all at once. There are thousands upon thousand of wines, and each wine-producing country has a large variety of both grape type and price.

My best suggestion is to start with Italian wines, and a good book is David Gleave's "The Wines of Italy".

Go to a wine shop (not a supermarket) and ask the clerk to show you the Italian section and discuss the various native types (Barbera, Barolo & Barbaresco, Chianti, Vino Nobile, Soave, Pinot Grigio, Vermentino, Rubesco, Copertino, Salice Salentino, Brunello, Taurasi, Nero d'Avola, etc.) as well as the 'international' grapes that have been planted there (Chardonnay, etc.).

Be prepared to spend some money. Good wines aren't cheap (at least not usually) and cheap wines aren't good (usually).

While the underlying tenet (wine tastes different with food, and tastes different with different foods) is quite sound, this does not meain that plain old "tastings" (at a winery or a wine shop) are useless. First, they can be fun in and of themselves (if the wine is decent and/or the countryside is nice). Second, as you gain experience (drinking wine with and without food), you will be able to figure out, sans food, which wines might go well with certain foods, and no longer be at the mercy of opined people.

To some degree, wine tasting is a little like spice tasting. You wouldn't eat spice by itself, but learning how it tastes like by itself helps you figure out how it would go with food.

However, many wines do taste really nice by themselves.

Jose

I would say don't do tastings until you have had a chance to try a great many wines with a meal. Tasting can be very misleading. Many wines drunk on their own taste terribly acidic, astringent and bitter, but taste glorious with a nice juicy steak or ribs. I would not taste Barbera alone, for instance, because of its strong acidity. But put it together with a nice piece of meat and you're in heaven!

Or... do do tastings but be aware of the fact that there will be a difference. Taste that Barbera plain while you're at the winery, try to remember the sensations, and then taste it again with a juicy steak and note the differences. Then, like Pavlov's dogs, the next time you taste it plain, you will remember how different it was with the steak, and begin to associate the acidity with "goes well with steak". Well, ok, it may take a little more than one go-around, but that's what makes wine fun.

In fact, I reccomend tasting wine with the =wrong= foods as well as the "right" foods. That's a real eye opener.

Jose

See below. But bear in mind wine is more than just knowing varietals. Sometimes it is easier to spot regional differences.

I'd combine the book and the tastings. Get "Essential WInetasting" by Michael Schuster and follow the tastings in the book.

Ken,

That is one of the great things about Andrea Immer's "Great Wine Made Simple," that DaleW mentioned - it is a tasting course, and a good one. The producers listed might be outdated a bit now, but it's a book with great "homework." I recommend it more often, than any other.

Hunt

Thanks. I'll look for it. I just checked my local library's web site, and they don't have it.

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I'm hoping that I can help others who want

Get some Italian regional cookbooks, cook some Italian regional dishes and drink some Italian regional wines and that's all you need to know. NEVER, EVER tast wine apart from a meal, which is how wine is supposed to be drunk.

Wines of Italy by David Gleave.

The book is "Great Wine Made Simple" by Andrea Immer (now Robinson), subtitled, "Straight Talk from a Master Sommelier." Published by Broadway Books, NY, ISBN: 0-7679-0477-X. Great mini-course and set up around actually experiencing (I hesitate to use the T-word, "tasting.") the actual wines. As I mentioned, the references to choices for the homework are a tad dated, but with a bit of interpolation, is still viable.

Good luck finding it. You might want to check out Andrea's Web site (can't find the URL right this instant), as she has several books and DVDs/VHS tapes FS on it.

Hunt

Try abebooks.com



Yes, Abebooks would be a good choice. I've had several Amazon orders directed there, and they have performed nicely. Since this one is still in print, it should not be hard to find, though a public library might not have it, unless they are in a major metro-area.

Good call, Hunt