Product Description

Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher, authors of The Wall Street Journal's popular "Tastings" column, have now completely updated and expanded their uniquely user-friendly guide to finding and savoring the world's best wine. As in the first edition, Dottie and John-as they are known to their fans-offer practical, knowledgeable tips to guide you through the bewildering rows of bottles found in wine stores and groceries. They help expand your wine interests to include more than the familiar Chardonnay or Merlot you've been drinking for years by starting with a simple exercise: buy two similar wines, put them in paper bags, and taste them. When you have decided which wine you prefer, you've taken the first step.

The thorough revision of the original book not only includes updated assessments of wines from the previous edition but also adds ratings for dozens of new selections, covering rosé Champagnes, for example, and extending the Sauvignon Blanc section to cover wines from New Zealand.

Drawing on questions from readers and fans, they have expanded the practical advice that helps make them so widely read: new chapters include tips on how to impress the boss, what to do about wine headaches, and how to accept the Blue Nun in your past; and new passages address everything from cork etiquette to great kosher wines.

As always, the book features recommendations for excellent wines in all price ranges, from familiar Cabernets and Zinfandels to less well-known but easily accessible Gewürztraminers and Barolos. The authors give helpful tips on finding and choosing a wine store, hosting your own wine-tasting party, and learning to navigate a restaurant's wine list.

Dottie and John's passion for wine will inspire you to sample types and labels you might never have thought (or had the nerve) to try. Their anecdotes and down-to-earth style will keep you turning the pages. Whether you are a curious novice or a connoisseur, this enhanced edition is an ideal choice for expanding your wine knowledge and taste.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1041936 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-10
• Released on: 2002-09-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 345 pages

Review
Praise for the first edition of The Wall Street Journal Guide to Wine:

"A refreshingly unintimidating, warm-spirited, and opinionated book."
--New York magazine

"Such a friendly manner about it that you immediately want to pour one of the book's suggested wines and start enjoying, reading, and expanding your wine horizons."
--Atlanta Wine Report

"Hands-down the most readable wine book of the year."
--Charleston Gazette

"Unusually pleasant reading. They never talk down to the reader."
--Los Angeles Times

"Like sitting around home among friends sipping and schmoozing. Put this one on your holiday list."
--Miami Herald

"A fun read that any wine lover will enjoy."
--Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel

"You might not think, from the title, that it would be so anti-snooty, but it is. A fun, practical read."
--Dayton Daily News

From the Back Cover
Praise for the first edition of The Wall Street Journal Guide to Wine:

"A refreshingly unintimidating, warm-spirited, and opinionated book."
--New York magazine

"Such a friendly manner about it that you immediately want to pour one of the book's suggested wines and start enjoying, reading, and expanding your wine horizons."
--Atlanta Wine Report

"Hands-down the most readable wine book of the year."
--Charleston Gazette

"Unusually pleasant reading. They never talk down to the reader."
--Los Angeles Times

"Like sitting around home among friends sipping and schmoozing. Put this one on your holiday list."
--Miami Herald

"A fun read that any wine lover will enjoy."
--Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel

"You might not think, from the title, that it would be so anti-snooty, but it is. A fun, practical read."
--Dayton Daily News

About the Author
DOROTHY J. GAITER has been a reporter, editor, and columnist at The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Miami Herald. JOHN BRECHER was page one editor of The Wall Street Journal from 1992 to 2000. They currently write the weekly "Tastings" column for The Wall Street Journal. They live in New York City with their two daughters, Media and Zoe.

Customer Reviews

Informative but extremely pretentious
This book contains a good amount of information about many different styles of wines, from red burgundy to rose to vintage champagne. Each chapter is devoted to a different style, and contains a description of the idiosyncracies of each style, along with a short list of recommendations. Less usefully, it contains personal anecdotes about the authors' experiences with the wines.

It is in these anecdotes that the authors' pretentiousness comes out. They meanly point out and make fun of the mistakes their acquaintances make while ordering wine at fancy restaurants. They halfheartedly reassure the reader that is OK to hunt for affordable wines, while at the same time subtly poking fun at people who prefer wines they consider inferior. Reading the book, I get the impression that the only people they respect are CEOs of large financial corporations and accounting firms, because every other one of their "wine anecdotes" involves a corporate male with a lot of money.

In short: the authors know a lot about wine, but they fail in their attempts at hiding just how much they look down on what they consider to be bad wine.

Fabulous introduction to the world of wine
This is one of those wine books that is fun-to-read. It helps making the intimidating subject of wine appreciation much less scary. Gaiter and Brecher bring a few decades of wine tasting experience and the perspective of years of happy partnership to the book.

This book is not a reference book like many others in this genre. Rather, it is more of a user's guide to different wines that brings the joy of tasting and exploring wines to the reader. The book offers lots of good, common-sense advice on "simple" tasting procedures, on how to buy wine, on how to taste and enjoy wine, and other topics. It also offers a healthy perspective on wine rituals, skewering some of the more pretentious in the process.

One of the things that we enjoyed about this book is that it offers a broad perspective on what to expect with different wine varietals. It covers everything from Barbera (from the Piedmont region of Italy) to Zinfandel, the "native" grape of California. These varietal sections have been improved in the second edition (we've read both versions) and now includes one on sauvignon blanc which has always been one of our favorite white wines.

Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys wine or would like to enjoy wine.

A wine guide between friends
It is hard to imagine a more down-to-earth wine book than "The Wall Street Journal Guide to Wine" by John Brecher and Dottie Gaiter. Long the authors of the popular "Tastings" in the aforementioned newspaper, John and Dottie dispense what I can best call "grandmotherly" advice on wines - joyful, nonjudgmental, wise, and wonderfully helpful. They make wine newbies feel welcome, but provide enough down-home wisdom that even aficionados will come away satisfied.

What they bring to their column every Friday in the Journal translates to their latest book (an update of their 1999 version.) The same approachable writing style and sheer pleasure they so masterfully embue in their wine tastings follows in the book. And rarely do authors manage to pierce the literary plane and become real people, but John and Dottie come off in their book as those fun next-door neighbors every one of us has known at some time in our life.

The book could not be more simple in its layout. The authors discuss popular white grape varietals, then reds, and some other specific types of wines (like Sauternes, Champagne, etc.) Most chapters consist of a specific grape varietal discussion, recommended wines of that varietal, and a page or two of general wine tips. This pattern repeats throughout the book (with few exceptions) and covers about thirty grapes/types of wine.

This book is not meant to be encyclopedic in nature. John and Dottie simply ask you to come along and enjoy a glass of wine with them, dispensing simple, but usable advice on how to enjoy the trip. Some might downgrade the rating for being so simplistic, but a readthrough would dissuade this. Other references are available that cover the specifics missing from this book. But as the authors are more interested in evangelizing wine drinking - and specifically the mere enjoyment of wine in a stress-free setting - you won't (and don't) need to know the intricacies of French Bordeaux or the details of the difficulties of truly knowing what's in that bottle of Chilean red. (Consider Karen MacNeil's "The Wine Bible" in that case, particularly if you are new to wine.)

The only lack of the book is that it recycles some anecdotes from the "Tastings" columns, but this is more than made up for by the sheer joy John and Dottie bring to the subject of wine.

You can't go wrong with "The Wall Street Journal Guide to Wine". It's truly about as escapist as a book on wine can be, while providing helpful wisdom that goes down as pleasingly as a chilled Oregon Pinot Gris on a sunny summer day.