Wine Tasting: A Professional Handbook

by Ronald S. Jackson

Book Overview

One of the most respected professionals in the wine industry-Ron Jackson, author of Wine Science (now in its second edition)- covers all practical and theoretical aspects of wine tasting in his new book. It details the basic techniques used by professionals to sense all visual, gustatory, and olfactory wine properties (sight, taste, and smell). It also describes the physiologic, psychologic, and physicochemical origins of sensory perception and discusses wine types to illustrate the characteristic features that distinguish the majority of wines. A large portion of the book is dedicated to the practical concerns of preparing and performing wine assessments. Readers are instructed in how to differentiate between the various types of wine tastings (each requiring its own design, tasting sheets, training, skill measurement, and analysis). Included is a general overview of the types and sources of wine quality and how wine is most appropriately paired with food. Special features include a flow chart of wine tasting steps, details of errors to avoid, procedures for training and testing sensory skills, sample tasting sheets, original data from 14+ years of training tasters, and numerous tables, charts, and figures.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 012379076X
• ISBN13: 9780123790767
• Release Date: February 2002
• Publisher: Academic Press
• Length: 295 Pages
• Weight: 2.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.4" x 9.7"

Customer Reviews

An amazing book for all tasters...

I am in the coffee business and spend all my days roasting and tasting coffee samples, or traveling to coffee-producing origins. And I actually prefer beer to wine (I'm a home brewer too). I say that as a preface to this: Wine Tasting by Ronald Jackson is the best book on sensory analysis I have ever read. It's a dry read, but that is why it works. It dismisses the romance of sensory experience in favor of a more empirical approach. In that way, it makes me actually appreciate what I am trying to do with coffee cupping on a daily basis, and understand how the tasting process can be fraught with errors. It also confronts the myth of super tasters and the huge egos you find in this kind of business, and helps me organize my methods of tasting to get the best results. So whatever the beverage, get this book!!!

Excellent book

Well written, clear, extremely informative and escapes all the affectation that you often see when people start to talk or write about wine. Maybe too detailed for most people looking for an introductory book on wine tasting, but if you are curious about the methodology and science behind, this is a great resource.

Wine tasting for the advanced wine taster

An amazing work which should be praised to the heavens by those advanced wine tasters who want to better understand what it is they're seeing, smelling, tasting and feeling. And why. Not a book for beginners, this is a carefully structured work of high calibre, right up there with the other landmark winetasting works by Amerine, Baldy, Broadbent, Noble and Peynaud. Every serious wine library should have a copy.