Drink This: Wine Made Simple

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About Drink This: Wine Made Simple

Product Description Ever been baffled by a wine list, stood perplexed before endless racks of bottles at the liquor store, or ordered an overpriced bottle out of fear of the scathing judgment of a restaurant sommelier? Before she became a James Beard Award—winning food and wine writer, Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl experienced all these things. Now she presents a handy guide that will show you how to stop being overwhelmed and intimidated, how to discover, respect, and enjoy your own personal taste, and how to be whatever kind of wine person you want to be, from budding connoisseur to someone who simply gets wine you like every time you buy a bottle. Refreshingly simple, irreverent, and witty, Drink This explains all the insider stuff that wine critics assume you know. It will teach you how to taste and savor wine, alone, with a friend, or with a group. And perhaps most important, this book gives you the tools to learn the only thing that really matters about wine: namely, figuring out what you like.Grumdahl draws on her own experience and savvy and interviews some of the world’s most renowned critics, winemakers, and chefs, including Robert M. Parker, Jr., Paul Draper, and Thomas Keller, who share their wisdom about everything from pairing food and wine to the inside scoop on what wine scores and reviews really mean. Readers will learn how to master tasting techniques and understand the winemaking process from soil to cellar. Drink This also reveals how to get your money’s worth out of wine without spending all you’ve got.At last there’s a reason for wary wine lovers to raise a glass in celebration. Savor the insider’s viewpoint and straight talk of Drink This, and watch your intimidation of wine transform into well-grounded, unshakeable confidence. From Booklist *Starred Review* It’s all about the grape, stupid! No, that’s not an entirely appropriate tone to set in identifying the basic premise of this welcome and enjoyable book. Indeed, as James Beard Award–winning wine writer and restaurant critic Grumdahl avers and asserts throughout her knowledgeable and buoyant text, wine is all about how and where grapes are grown. But never in this perfectly accessible course in wine appreciation is the author’s attitude toward the reader anything but supportive, considerate, and sympathetic to the intimidations inherent in being conversant in the language of wine. She admits she found understanding wine overwhelming at the outset of her career, and this admission underscores her careful explanations of how to negotiate wine lists in restaurants, build your own wine collections, how and with what to serve various wines, and how to comprehend the layouts of wine shops. Competence is what she seeks to instill in her readers, and her own is obvious from the first page. Her “teaching” method is based on her belief that “what you like is the only thing that matters. It’s your taste.” The book’s format is attractive and comfortable, adding to its appeal. For all active cookery collections. --Brad Hooper Review "If you haven't lived with reading Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl every week, you have missed the reason why we humans have opposing thumbs. They're there so you can keep turning her pages. With Dara doing a wine book, the days are over of buying bottles because the labels match your home team colors. Be bamboozled and intimidated no more. Dara is about to give you the best and easiest kind of wine smarts, and gift you a good read in the bargain." —Lynne Rossetto Kasper, host of The Splendid Table®, public radio's food show from American Public Media (NPR)"Most wine books have left me feeling like I am bringing a knife to a swordfight, completely underprepared. Not this one. Drink This is what I've been waiting for. Finally, a must-have book for the vino-challenged! For over a decade I have relied on Dara Grumdahl's insight and common sense wisdom regarding all matters related to food and wine, and now luckily, so can ever