Wine - Making Sense of Wine - Matt Kramer byBuoy

The paperback edition of this highly praised wine classic includes a new preface and an all-new chapter that covers changes and advances in winemaking since the book’s initial publication. Kramer explores connoisseurship through the practical devices of “thinking wine” and “drinking wine,” making for an engrossing journey through one of life’s great pleasures. Wine’s complexities are often glossed over in favor of sound bites tailored to the novice. Kramer embraces and celebrates these complexities. The superbly written text covers the basics, from food and wine pairings to setting up a wine cellar.





From Publishers Weekly
Recommend Kramer's book to cherished adult "children" who refuse to be weaned from the beer bottle--this book may do the trick of transforming wine drinking into a familiar pleasure. While much wine writing verges on pedantry, columnist Kramer brings a disciplined reporter's ear to his job, along with wit and intelligence to spare. A relatively recent convert to wine, the author remembers how intimidating the drink can be, and seeks to tame it by solving the mysteries of its history, customs and manners. Why, for example, are many corks branded with their vineyard's name and year? As a precaution and tool for identification, lest the bottle label deteriorate in a damp cellar, and the cook or host need to verify the contents. Kramer is also not afraid to say, in his blunt style, that the overly technical language often used to explain how champagne comes by its bubbles is "gobbledegook." And because he asserts that wine is meant to be imbibed with food--"without the context of food, wine is a eunuch"--his final chapter includes recipes for such delicacies as blanc-manger and butternut squash soup.


From Library Journal
The author, a widely published food and wine writer, discusses the fundamentals of wine, as well as its fine points, from a perspective that combines common sense with scientific fact. Topics such as wine storage, service, and matching wine with food are dealt with in a no-nonsense fashion. Perhaps more interesting is the opening discussion of connoisseurship and the social dimension of wine. Some recipes are offered in the section on wine with food. The point of view taken is refreshingly free of dogma. This is recommended reading for those interested in wine and is a useful supplement to such standards as Andre Simon's Wines of the World , edited by Serena Sutcliffe (McGraw-Hill, 1981. 2d. ed.)