From: couch@a1.relay.upenn.edu (Randall Couch)
Newsgroups: rec.food.drink
Subject: Re: What's a good book to learn about wine?  (Hugh J.'s?)
Date: 27 Jan 93 18:43:15 GMT
Followup-To: rec.food.drink
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

In article <43548@sdcc12.ucsd.edu>, ph600fcy@sdcc14.ucsd.edu (Matthew
Harrington) wrote:
> 
> I'd like to learn all about wine from the basics on up.  I'm only
> familiar with the book by Lichine.  I think there are better ones
> around, though.

Some of the books recommended in response to your question are very
good (Oz Clarke, for example).  But I sense from the wording of your
question that you want more than just introductory readings.  Here
are a few "classics" that you may want to investigate if you're
serious about wine.  This is of course far from a complete list,
and seriously deficient in many areas (I can't recommend specific
books about Italian wine for example).  But I don't think you'll
go wrong in acquainting yourself with these as a serious student,
and some may become essential on your reference shortlist.  (Bear
with the inconsistent bibliographic info; I'm working from memory!)

Johnson, Hugh _The World Atlas of Wine_ (now in at least 2d edition)
      This book is priceless for nomenclature and to learn the lay
	     of the land for any wine type or unfamiliar specimen. (I think
      his encyclopedia is pretty good too, but not in the same league
      as this).

Johnson, Hugh  _Vintage:  The Story of Wine_ Based on a PBS series,
      a la Clark's _Civilization_. Marvelously engaging narrative
      history of wine culture, making, and drinking from earliest times.

Peynaud, Emile  _The Taste of Wine_  Classic on the sensory evaluation
      of wine (tasting) by one of the century's most influential
enologists.
      If you have access to chem lab facilities, also check out his
      _Knowing and Making Wine_ which is a more analytical (with exercises)
      book on recognizing and manipulating the flavor constituents in
wine--
      this is meant for oenology students, and will give you great insight
      into the complexity of the winemaker's task.

Penning-Rowsell, Edmund  _Bordeaux_  The classic book on development and
      history of claret, with appreciations of the most important
producers.
      The tasting remarks are now dated, but a good counterpoint to Parker.

Parker, Robert  _Bordeaux_  As you may know, Parker is the most powerful
      wine journalist currently working (in terms of effect on market and
      prices).  His newsletter, The Wine Advocate, fearlessly ranks wines
      on a 100-point scale and claims to be value-oriented and a consumer
      advocate.  Fortunes have been made and lost based on Parker   
      recommendations, especially in Bordeaux.  Naturally many people and
      producers resent this degree of influence and question the
significance
      of a 2-point difference on a 100-point scale for subjective
evaluation.
      I have no knowledge of Parker's business practices or ethics, but I
      will say that he has phenomenal knowledge, especially of Bordeaux,
      and I have found his tasting notes and relative rankings to agree
      with my own experience more times than any other source.  I'd trust
      his palate, if not the letter of the ratings, more than any other
modern
      writer on Bordeaux.  If you like Bordeaux wines, you should know this
      book.  New edition last year.

Amerine, ?, Fisher  _The Great Book of California Wine_  U.Ca Press. 
(title
      may vary slightly)  A great piece of bookmaking as well as
informative,
      this large format book gives essays by the founding enologists of
U.C.
      Davis, by MFK Fisher, and many others on history, geography, and 
      culture of California wine.  Not much use now for tasting, but
excellent
      for background.  

Broadbent, Michael _Pocket Guide to Wine Tasting and Wine Cellars_ The best
      concise reference on sensory evaluation and the trivia of storing
      serving, and recording.  By the Director of Christies' (the
auctioneers)
      wine division, another excellent palate (if a bit on the austere
British
      side)

Broadbent, Michael _The Great Vintage Wine Book_ (new edition 1992)
Encylopedic
      compilation of tasting notes on most of the world's better wines, 
      usually tasted every year, so you can see their development in
bottle.
      Of limited utility to actually own unless you're drinking or (buying
      to cellar) at a fairly serious price level, but good for reference.

There are a zillion others, mostly on specific regions. You might look at
Hubrecht Duijker's (sp?) series on regions (e.g., _The Good Wines of
Bordeaux_)
for "family portraits" of producers with good tasting notes.  I'd also
recommend
that you follow a couple of wine periodicals.  I think the best general
ones
are _Decanter_ (veddy Bditish, but good features and reasonable tastings)
and _The Wine Spectator_ (like, awesomely California, and very unreliable
ratings, in my experience, but good coverage of the biz in California).
If you read Spanish, like Spanish wine, and can find it, _Sobremesa_ is
a great food-and-wine mag from Spain with superb photography and great
tasting notes, mainly of Spanish wines.

Finally, I'd second the recommendation to take a course or otherwise
participate in some tutored tastings to start educating your palate.
At the intial stage, they can do things like prepare pure solutions
of such flavor constituents as tartaric and malic acids, grape sugar,
ethanol, and various tannins at their normal concentrations so you
can train yourself to pick out these flavors when they are mixed with
others in real wine.  Then you can do tastings of wines from a single
grape variety, or various producers in a region, to begin to recognize
other characteristics.  If you can't find such a group, you can do
a reasonably good job on your own with some effort and discipline. 
Some of the books above will help.

Best of luck!   


   
 



 
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