Review: A book that truly lives up to the name
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 22, 2012
My father is a huge wine connoisseur to the point where he can easily pair up the right wine for a meal without hesitation or even design an entire meal around a particular wine. You would think some of that knowledge would rub off on me, however, I'm the kind of guy that has trouble telling the difference between a red and white. His 65th birthday was rapidly approaching and I wanted to do something special beyond giving a simple gift. So, in order to impress my old man I received this book as a gift from a colleague and dove right in.From page one I knew this book was going to make a big impression on me. I honestly believed `Merlot' was a brand of wine and not simply a type of one. All of the knowledge stowed within these pages was news to me and I was impressed at how easy it was to read. There were no mountains of technical detail following each type. The author gives of the information that would turn a novice into a pro minus the history lesson. I'm sure that knowledge has its place but I'm more concerned about the application and not the journey thus far so this book was speaking my language.Two chapters of the book really spoke volumes to me which surprisingly were the last two. Knowing how to pair a wine with a meal was an absolute must for me. I really wanted to know how to translate my dad's years of experience into something I could easily understand and this book nailed it. I didn't know how easy it was until I started piecing back previous meals with my dad and realizing he used the same system as well. The terminology chapter was my favorite because it explained how commonly used words are used to describe the taste of a wine and completely gives them a whole new meaning. With only a few of those words at my disposal I can increase my wine expertise ten-fold and finally understand why my dad kept calling his favorite red wines `bright' that wasn't actually referring to its color.If you're looking to increase your wine knowledge with no foundation to stand on than by all means, this is the book for you. I was completely oblivious before reading this book and within 30 minutes I knew more about wine than I believed possible. The investment and time spent was well worth the look on my dad's face when I was able to pair a Ribera del Duero wine to his favorite cheese without even missing a beat.