Wine: An Introduction

by Joanna Simm and Joanna Simon

Book Overview

From the grape to the glass -- a stylish, contemporary guide to experiencing the world of wine. Open the pages of this inspiring guide and you uncork the exciting world of wine. Award-winning wine... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0789480638
• ISBN13: 9780789480637
• Release Date: October 2001
• Publisher: DK Publishing (Dorling Kindersley)
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 2.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 8.8" x 11.3"

Customer Reviews

An excellent introduction into the world of wine

This was the assigned text book for the International Sommelier Guild Level 1 course. The material is well organized and concise. It provides a good introduction to wines from the grape, the regions in which they are grown, the wine making process, how to evaluate wine and food pairing. Joanna Simon provides a good place to start for anyone who wants to enjoy the amazing world of wine.

beautiful to look at, fun to read

This is one of my favourite books on wine. I like the way the book presents Ms Simon's essays, has lists of useful facts and the pictures - gosh, its got pictures of wine grapes so ripe I'm tempted to eat them. Ms Simon's writing is simple and a joy to read, and for a starter book on wine, this is hard to beat. Unfortunately, the negative reviews do have a point. It's not that the book is badly organized - the organization is logical and coherent. What went wrong is that the editors at DK gave a table of contents that makes people guess what's in each chapter. Terrible! An index is no substitute for a proper contents page. A more detailed listing of sub-headings in the table of contents would tell people at a glance what's in the book and where to find it. We shouldn't be made to flip through the book deciphering exactly where was the part that dealt with deciphering wine labels. sigh. Anyway, a very nice book to have.

A Great Place To Start

Honestly, when it came down to it, I knew pretty much nothing about wine - other than there were a certain few I liked. Finally, tired of feeling overwhelmed when even considering buying a wine, I decided it was time to learn more about the subject - and this book stood out on the shelf. It gives a nice variety of information, apparently, everything needed to start heading into the world of wine. There are plenty of descriptions about the different types of grapes, the flavors each has, and where they are grown. There's a great section on tasting wine, including the various flavors that can be detected, and the proper way to do it. There's a large list of all the diferent types of wine - making it obviously clear there's more than just white, red, and blush wines.It also tells you how to read the label on a bottle - even those not in English - to find the information about where it's grown, what kind of grapes make up the wine, and such.Thanks to this book, I don't feel quite so lost anymore - but I realize there's a lot more to learn, but this book is like a great guide to help you know what you're looking for now.