Product Description

At last, a wine book that makes selecting and enjoying wine truly simple. With renowned wine expert Andrea Immer as your guide, never again will you have to fear pricey bottles that don't deliver, snobby wine waiters, foreign terminology, or encyclopedic restaurant wine lists. You'll be able to buy or order wine with confidence-and get just the wine you want-by learning how the "Big Six" basic styles taste and how to read any wine label.

Andrea Immer genuinely knows more about wine than most wine lovers could ever hope (or want) to learn. But she doesn't believe that you have to join a stuffy, exclusive wine-tasting set to become a savvy wine buyer. Unlike other guides on the market, Great Wine Made Simple makes it easy to master the ins and outs of choosing a wine that you and your guests will love-on any budget.

Shunning yesterday's 100-point scales and lectures on "bouquet," Great Wine Made Simple explains wine in commonsense terms. Featuring a core curriculum of the six grapes that comprise 80 percent of today's top-selling wines, along with a complete flavor map that explains what tastes you can expect from climates around the globe, Great Wine Made Simple uses easy and fun tasting lessons to help you identify what you like and learn how to spot it on a menu or shelf.

Immer reveals the secret weapons of wine experts and explains how to decipher those enigmatic labels. In her fresh, encouraging tones, she provides enlightening exercises (such as "milk tasting" for understanding variations in wine texture) and vocabulary sessions. On a mission to empower the everyday wine buyer, with Great Wine Made Simple Immer creates a refreshing new way to choose the perfect wine for every palate and occasion.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #279306 in Books
• Published on: 2000-10-31
• Released on: 2000-10-31
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

From Amazon.com
About one-third of the way through Andrea Immer's Great Wine Made Simple, the author recounts an anecdote that could serve as the book's theme--alligator, rabbit, and squab were all introduced to her the same way: "Tastes like chicken." And as demonstrated by Immer, who went from debentures to de Rothschild when she quit Morgan Stanley to eventually oversee the 50,000-bottle cellar at Manhattan's famed Windows on the World, the leap from pigeon to Pichon-Lalande is analogous: teaching novice wine drinkers what to expect is what her book, aptly subtitled "Straight Talk from a Master Sommelier", is all about.

With emphasis on her "Big Six" varietals--Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Merlot, Pinot Noir, and Cabernet Sauvignon--this "Immer-sion" class of tastings lets amateur sippers differentiate the typical qualities of each, while illustrating wine terms such as dry, crisp, oaky, and tannic. Practical advice abounds; one chapter devotes itself to finding useful info on a wine label while avoiding "Stupid Label Tricks," those bits of puffery or unfamiliar flavors (how many have actually tasted lychee or red currant?) that can be confusing the average buyer. And her "Flavor Map" concept--dividing the wine world into three climate zones--eschews memorization in favor of some rudimentary geography.

Throughout, her pronunciation guides are accurate and personable ("If you're pronouncing 'Riesling' right you have to smile."); and she provides a great postgraduate curriculum of buying strategies, including the pros and cons of wine shops versus your nearest Costco; and a consumer advisory about restaurant's "award-winning wine lists." --Tony Mason

Review
"Andrea Immer makes wine education simple and fun. One of America's best
sommeliers has written one of the year's best wine books!"
--Robert G. Mondavi

"Without doubt the finest introduction to wine tasting and food and wine pairing I have read.  This book is an excellent addition to the libraries of both professionals and aficionados."
--Frederick Dame, M.S., President, Court of Master Sommeliers

"Well organized, succinct, clear, and precise are the adjectives that best describe this Cartesian book on wines. Great Wine Made Simple will educate you without boring you and will lead you joyfully and expertly through the intricate world of the master sommelier."
--Claudine Pépin and Jacques Pépin

From the Back Cover
"Andrea Immer makes wine education simple and fun. One of America's best
sommeliers has written one of the year's best wine books!"
--Robert G. Mondavi

"Without doubt the finest introduction to wine tasting and food and wine pairing I have read.  This book is an excellent addition to the libraries of both professionals and aficionados."
--Frederick Dame, M.S., President, Court of Master Sommeliers

"Well organized, succinct, clear, and precise are the adjectives that best describe this Cartesian book on wines. Great Wine Made Simple will educate you without boring you and will lead you joyfully and expertly through the intricate world of the master sommelier."
--Claudine Pépin and Jacques Pépin

Customer Reviews

Masterful Insight For All
The other reviewers here have been most eloquent in describing the varied merits of Ms. Immer's book, so I can only add this bit of simple advice for the "skimmers" of such reviews:

A master and lover of her craft, Ms. Immer (in clear, captivating text) lays the foundation for a true understanding of wine, one that we all can learn from.

If you want point ratings and "Dummies" categories, please skip this volume. BUT if you want to understand and celebrate the wine you that you taste, enjoy and purchase, and if you want to embark on a lifelong journey of wine appreciation (regardless of your prior experience) then by all means purchase this fine book.

It is a wonderful companion for any true wine enthusiast.

Money well-spent!
I took several books out of our library about wine (books by Oz Clarke, Kevin Zraly and some other master sommelier). This book was not one of them. I bought Andrea Immer's book because I was dissatisfied with the other books and I read great reviews about it on Amazon. Let me tell you... this book has exceeded my expectations! The best part of the book is that it helps wine novices place a taste with a word typically used to describe wine. For example, she helps you set up a wine tasting so that you can learn to identify "oaky","sweet","cripy","tannic" etc. It's fun to go to a wine bar armed with this information because you will learn your own tastes and preferences and select wines that match what you like. It's a great gift!

The best wine book I've read!
Since catching the wine bug a few years ago, I've read five or six books that survey the world of wine. This one is my clear favorite. No one else does a better job of teaching you what to expect when you open up a bottle from a region or varietal you've never tried before. While most books provide lists of grapes and regions and expect you to memorize the style of wines made from each, Ms. Immer presents a system for predicting how a wine will taste based solely on information on the label and basic geographical knowledge. Her "Flavor Map" approach is innovative, intuitive, and highly accurate. I also thoroughly enjoy the tasting exercises, which offer a hands-on way to compare and contrast different styles. This is homework I can deal with!

My only critique is that I would have liked to see more space devoted to grapes beyond the so-called Big Six. But this book is so good, I can't bring myself to take off a star for that.