Retail Price: $21.99 WCT Price: $14.95 You Save: $7.04 (32%) Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours. Format: Paperback, 432pp. ISBN: 0470045795 Publisher: For Dummies Pub. Date: October 9, 2006 • 4th Edition Dimensions (in inches): 9.1 x 7.4 x 1.1 Item No: 0470045795 Average Customer Review:

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About the Authors

Ed McCarthy and Mary Ewing-Mulligan are two wine lovers who met at an Italian wine tasting in New York City’s Chinatown and subsequently merged their wine cellars and wine libraries when they married. They have since coauthored six wine books in the Wine For Dummies series (including two of their favorites, French Wine For Dummies and Italian Wine For Dummies) as well as their latest book, Wine Style (Wiley); taught hundreds of wine classes together; visited nearly every wine region in the world; run five marathons; and raised eleven cats. Along the way, they have amassed more than half a century of professional wine experience between them.

Mary is president of International Wine Center, a New York City wine school that offers credentialed wine education for wine professionals and serious wine lovers. As U.S. director of the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET®), the world’s leading wine educational organization, she works to make the courses she offers in New York available in more and more parts of the United States. She is also the long-standing wine columnist of the NY Daily News. Mary’s most impressive credential is that she’s the first female Master of Wine (MW) in the United States, and one of only 22 MW’s in North America (with 251 worldwide).

Ed, a New Yorker, graduated from City University of NY with a master’s degree in psychology. He taught high school English in another life, while working part-time in wine shops to satisfy his passion for wine and to subsidize his growing wine cellar. That cellar is especially heavy in his favorite wines — Bordeaux, Barolo, and Champagne. Besides co-authoring six wine books in the For Dummies series with Mary, Ed went solo as author of Champagne For Dummies, a topic on which he’s especially expert. Ed and Mary also share wine columns in Nation’s Restaurant News and in Beverage Media, a trade publication. They are each columnists for the online wine magazine, WineReviewOnline.com. Ed and Mary are both accredited as Certified Wine Educators (CWE).

When they aren’t writing, teaching, or visiting wine regions, Mary and Ed maintain a busy schedule of speaking, judging at professional wine competitions, and tasting as many new wines as possible. They admit to leading thoroughly unbalanced lives in which their only non-wine pursuits are hiking in the Berkshires and the Italian Alps. At home, they wind down to the tunes of U2, K.D. Lang, Bob Dylan, and Neil Young in the company of their feline roommates Dolcetto, Black & Whitey, Ponzi, and Pinot.


Table of Contents

Introduction Welcome to Wine For Dummies, 4th Edition How to Use This Book Part I: Getting Started with Wine Part II: Close Encounters of the Wine Kind Part III: Around the World of Wine Part IV: When You've Caught the Bug Part V: The Part of Tens Part VI: Appendixes Icons Used in This Book Wine Is for Everyone Detailed Contents: Part I: Getting Started with Wine Chapter 1: Wine 101 How Wine Happens What could be more natural? Modern wrinkles in winemaking The main ingredient What Color Is Your Appetite? What white wine is Is white always right? Red, red wine A rose is a rose, but a rosé is "white" Other Ways of Categorizing Wine Table wine Dessert wine Sparkling wine (and a highly personal spelling lesson) Chapter 2: These Taste Buds Are for You The Special Technique for Tasting Wine Two very complicated rules of wine tasting The appearance of the wine The nose knows Tasting the wine The Pleasure Principle: Discovering What You Like You get what you ask for Parlez-vous Winespeak? Describing Taste Sweetness Acidity Tannin Body Flavors The Quality Issue: What's a Good Wine? One man's meat... Balance Length Depth Complexity Typicity What's a Bad Wine? The Final Analysis: Do You Like It? Chapter 3: Behind the Scenes of Winemaking A Reality Check for Wine Jargon Operation: Delicious Vine-growing vernacular Winemaking wonder words Chapter 4: Pinot Envy and Other Secrets about Grape Varieties It's the Grape Whodunit Of genus and species A variety of varieties How the Grape Done It Personality traits of grape varieties Performance factors of grape varieties Like grape, like wine Royalty and Commoners in the Kingdom of Grapes A Primer on the Major White Grape Varieties Chardonnay Riesling Sauvignon Blanc Pinot Gris/Pinot Grigio Gewürztraminer Other white grapes A Primer on the Major Red Grape Varieties Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot Pinot Noir Syrah/Shiraz Zinfandel Nebbiolo Sangiovese Tempranillo Other red grapes Chapter 5: Is It a Grape? Is It a Place? What's in a Name The Wine Name Game Hello, my name is Chardonnay Hello, my name is Bordeaux Wines named in other ways Part II: Close Encounters of the Wine Kind Chapter 6: Navigating a Wine Shop Buying Wine Can Intimidate Anyone Where Wine Is Sold Supermarkets Discount warehouses and superstores Wine specialty shops Inside the wine shop Choosing the Right Wine Merchant Price Selection Expertise Service Wine storage conditions Strategies for Wine Shopping See a chance, take it Explain what you want Name your price Chapter 7: Navigating a Restaurant Wine List Buying Wine in a Restaurant How Wine Is Sold in Restaurants The choice of the house Premium pours Special, or reserve, wine lists The (anything but) standard wine list How to Scope Out a Wine List Sizing up the organization of the list Getting a handle on the pricing setup What the wine list should tell you Rating the list's style How to Ask for Advice How to Bluff Your Way through the Wine Presentation Ritual If You Are Truly on Your Own Restaurant Wining Tips When Traveling Abroad Chapter 8: How to Open a Bottle — and What to Do Next The First Step: Uncovering the Cork Getting the Cork Out The corkscrew not to use The corkscrew to buy Other corkscrews worth owning Waiter, there's cork in my wine! A Special Case: Opening Champagne and Sparkling Wine Forget how the victors do it in locker rooms A sigh is better than a pop Does Wine Really Breathe? How to aerate your wine Which wines need aerating? Does the Glass Really Matter? First, the right color Now the size, thickness, and shape Tulips, flutes, balloons, and other picturesque wine-glass names How many glasses do I need, anyway? Washing your crystal glasses Serving Wine Not Too Warm, Not Too Cold Storing Leftover Wine Chapter 9: Judging a Wine by Its Label The Wine Label and What It Tells You The forward and backward of wine labels The mandatory sentence Some Optional Label Terms Vintage Reserve Estate-bottled Vineyard name Other optional words on the label Part III: Around the World of Wine Chapter 10: Doing France The French Model Understanding French wine law Fine distinctions in the ranks France's Wine Regions Bordeaux: The Incomparable The subregions for red Bordeaux The Médoc mosaic Classified information Top wines to try when you're feeling flush The value end of the Bordeaux spectrum Practical advice on drinking red Bordeaux Bordeaux also comes in white Burgundy: The Other Great French Wine Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Gamay Districts, districts everywhere From the regional to the sublime The Côte d'Or Bargain Burgundies: The Côte Chalonnaise Chablis: A unique white wine Mâcon: Affordable whites Beaujolais: As delightful as it is affordable The Hearty Rhônes of the Valley Generous wines of the south Noble wines of the north The Loire Valley: White Wine Heaven Alsace Wines: French, Not German Chapter 11: Italy, the Heartland of Vino The Vineyard of Europe The ordinary and the elite The wine regions of Italy Categories of Italian wine, legally speaking Reds Reign in Piedmont Weekday reds Whites in a supporting role Tuscany the Beautiful Here a Chianti, there a Chianti Brunello di Montalcino, overnight celebrity Two reds and a white Super-Tuscans A Cornucopia of Wines from the Northeast Doing Romeo and Juliet proud The Austrian-Italian alliance The far side: Friuli-Venezia Giulia Cameo Appearances from the Rest of Italy Chapter 12: Elsewhere in Europe Intriguing Wines from Old Spain Rioja rules Ribera del Duero challenges Four other Spanish regions to watch Portugal: More Than Just Port Portugal's "green" white Noteworthy Portuguese red wines Germany: Europe's Individualist Riesling and its cohorts Germany's wine laws: Ripeness is king Fooling Mother Nature Dry, half-dry, or gentle? What's noble about rot? Germany's wine regions Switzerland: Stay-at-Home Wines Austria: A New Quality Direction Chapter 13: The Brave New World of Wine The Old and the New of Chile Blessed isolation Foreign flavor The face and taste of the wines Argentina, a Major Player Winemaking Thunder Down Under Winemaking, grapes, and terroir Australia's wine regions New Zealand New Hope in South Africa South Africa's principal wine regions Steen, Pinotage, and company South Africa's best bets Chapter 14: America, America The New World of American Wine Home-grown ways Playing by their own rules California, USA Where California wines grow When the wines are good Napa Valley: As Tiny as It Is Famous The grapes of Napa Who's who in Napa (and for what) Down-to-Earth in Sonoma Sonoma's AVAs Recommended Sonoma producers and wines Mendocino and Lake Counties San Francisco Bay Area Santa Cruz Mountains Down in Old Monterey Thar's Wine in Them There Foothills San Luis Obispo: Mountain Meets Maritime Santa Barbara, California Paradise Elsewhere in California Oregon, A Tale of Two Pinot

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