Customer Reviews

The Cork Jester's Guide to Wine: An Entertaining Companion for Tasting It, Ordering It and Enjoying It

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Either if you are a Novice or a Seasoned wine enthusiast you will find this book to be most delightful. A truly excellent reference covering everything there is to know about wines and how to best enjoy then. You will find useful information on how to choose a wine for your own or to bring to a friend house according to the occasion, how to order a bottle from a restaurant menu, how to store wine in your house, which glassware to use with an specific wine, and even how to cook with wine.

Additionally you will learn the correct vocabulary in order to impress your friends and understand the terms used by the "experts". In all this book will give you the confidence and the knowledge that will allow you to enjoy the wine experience even more.

Absolutely a must have, you won't be disappointed.

Superbly entertaining; you didn't know more ink could be spilled on wine, but I guess there is always a new insight to add to the cellar. Rosen has really uncorked on this one. It's actually a shame she has to confine her brilliance to a book instead of the encyclopedia she truly needs. Perhaps one day.

I am translating choice morsels of this into actual purchases (now that I finally have space for a cellar). Thanks for the confidence.

This is the easiest and funniest writer about wine west of the Hudson! She has been hanging around grapes and writing for the Rocky Mountain News longer than most wine writers and has stomped on grapes and a few inflated heads of others who talk and write about wine. This is a 200 page booklet that will satisfy those just beginning and even those who think they are aficionados! An example of her wit and not taking any of the business of wine too seriously is her chapter (I think all are articles which have appeared in the News) on dessert wines: "Just Desserts, Cressing The Bellybutton." You may think this review sounds like I know Jennifer Rosen, but I have never met her. But, I have been in the high-end restaurant business in Chicago and Florida for 25 years, and know a good thing when I read it!

Award-winning wine writer Jennifer Rosen presents The Cork Jester's Guide To Wine: An Entertaining Companion For Tasting It, Ordering It, and Enjoying It, a thoroughly accessible guide to the joy of savoring fine wine for readers of all culinary backgrounds. From how to recognize and distinguish the basic characteristics of wine, to important considerations when storing wine, to how to read and recognize what the nuances of the label say about a potential wine choice and much more, The Cork Jester's Guide To Wine offers savvy advice with wry insights topped off with chuckle-inducing tidbits. An excellent and enthusiastically recommended giftbook for wine lovers of all seasons.

Jennifer Rosen has outdone herself with her latest iteration on wines and unraveling the mystique surrounding them. In my opinion, it is even better and more humorous than her first book. I find myself referring to it again and again. Well worth the cost.

Jennifer Rosen's latest book is wonderful . . . unless you prefer your wine writing to be stilted, boring, stuffy, and hidebound. She writes much more about the experience of wine than trying to pin it down with odd and obscure flavour and scent descriptions. That, plus her off-the-wall sense of humour make this one of my favourite wine books.

Lord knows there are a ton of books about wine. I know, I think I've read every single one. Most are equal parts esoteric and dull. That's what makes Jennifer Rosen's new book so amazing. It manages to take a topic that others have sucked the fun right out of and address it in the manner in which it should be addressed...with levity!

You will laugh and you will learn. Jennifer, bravo! You have provided the wine consuming public, from beginners to sommeliers, an absolutely terrific resource.

Another very funny, and knowledgeable, book on wine in a very crowded field of far too many mediocre wine books, mostly cluttered with cutsy girlie books on what is a wine, etc., and isn't a rosé cute, ad nauseum. Ol' Jen here, or rather in snowy Colorado, really knows her grapes and the wine made from them, and isn't modest about describing just what's what. Way to go, Jennifer. Keep up the good work (ethic) and flamboyant language. Some of us appreciate a well-turned phrase as much as a well-turned ankle.

Bernard Klem
(author of the forthcoming book WineSpeak)

I am very flattered to be the Neanderthal she cites in her introduction so I have my bias. I have been reading her columns since they began. She taught me not be afraid to try new wines and to find wines that I like, which is the point of drinking wine. But she keeps my interest - week after week and through two books - with her incredibly witty, funny and instructive style. She's that teacher you had whose class you looked forward to because she made it fun and interesting. Her irreverence for wine snobbery equals her reverence for the wine. Her latest book has all the wit and wisdom in a very organized flow from front to back. You'll learn, but most importantly, you'll leave her pages unafraid of wine. I highly recommend the book and the column.

Jen Rosen hit a home run (or maybe the metaphor should be "vinted a first-growth Bordeaux") with this book. I used to recommend "Wine for Dummies" to my wine classes and budding oenophile friends as their first wine book - it's an easy read and comprehensive. No more - I'll probably be buying "Cork Jester" for them now, because this is one that you really want all your wine friends to read. The subtitle says it all, and the word "Entertaining" should be bold, underlined, and in all caps. I laughed out loud in a few places, and laughed silently on just about every page.
But it's not all comedy; Rosen knows her stuff and slips in a great education about topics as diverse as the different types of acid in wine, whether musCAT is musKY (and what real musk is), and the results of her own scientific trials on how to get red wine out of white carpet. In other words, interesting, relevant wine topics that aren't found in "Wine for Dummies." Read this book and you'll be excited and knowledgeable about that wonderful nectar, not to mention in a great mood after lots of good laughs.