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Drink This: Wine Made Simple
 
 
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Drink This: Wine Made Simple [Hardcover]

Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl (Author)
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)

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Book Description

November 24, 2009
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.

Frequently Bought Together

Drink This: Wine Made Simple + The Wine Bible + Great Wine Made Simple: Straight Talk from a Master Sommelier
Price For All Three: $47.24

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  • The Wine Bible $11.38

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Editorial Reviews

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 everyone else with this helpful, funny and accessible guide to determining your favorite wines." —Andrew Zimmern

"Dara Grumdahl is right about absolutely everything. If she calls me up at four in the morning, says 'Get dressed, get some money—and a gun—you'll need it where we're eating,' I don't ask any questions. I just go." —Anthony Bourdain

"Dara Moskowitz's writing comes across immediately; it also gets under your skin. Whether writing about restaurants, food, wine, travel, art, literature, music, architecture—or all of those things in a single piece—she is always writing about a milieu, the manners, expectations, fears, and desires of a particular place and time. She is alluring and instructive; as much as Pauline Kael or Lester Bangs. Her work shows what a critic can do and what she can be." —Greil Marcus

"Straight-forward, clearly organized and ambitiously witty, [Drink This]  makes reading about wine fundamentals interesting again. Includes many "conversations" with bigwigs in the industry, provocative sidebars, and a clever "what's to love/hate" approach to major grapes. —Epicurious.com

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1 edition (November 24, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0345511654
  • ISBN-13: 978-0345511652
  • Product Dimensions: 5.7 x 1.1 x 9.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #155,477 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

14 Reviews
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 (9)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:
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2 star:
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Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (14 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Makes for a fun party, December 16, 2009
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This review is from: Drink This: Wine Made Simple (Hardcover)
Years ago Dara wrote a food column with step-by-step instructions for learning the concept of "dry". Several friends and I had a blast (aided by 6 bottles of wine and as many beers) as we compared wines, beers, cheeses, fruits and crackers to get an in-depth understanding of dry. At the time, we wished Dara would do more of this type of writing. Now she has. I assembled my friends together again and we started with the Zinfandel chapter. As one friend said after the Zinfandel was gone, "I could have learned this in a class, but this was much more fun." It was also educational. By following Dara's instructions, I finally can taste pepper, cinnamon or blackberries in wine. We are already planning our next wine tasting party. Read This.
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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant and entertaining "cut-the-crap" approach to learning about, buying and drinking wine., December 9, 2009
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This review is from: Drink This: Wine Made Simple (Hardcover)
Unlike so many wine books -- which usually give lots of current vintage recommendations, but don't really help you to understand how to understand your own preferences -- this book gives you a foundation from which to build your personal wine knowledge. Even if you've been piecing it together on your own for years, this little tome puts it all together in one place, and presents a logical, practical and fun method for exploring. The novel "tasting marker" idea is one I've never heard of, but it works beautifully. The insights into history and wine production are invaluable, and it's all presented in the author's signature cheeky style. (There are more than a few laugh-out-loud moments in each chapter.) When I was first drinking wine 20 years ago, I acquired several wine books, which are mostly worthless now because the recommendations in them are dated. This is a timeless wine book that will be just as relevant and informative in 20 years as it is right now.
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16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars the perfect first book about wine, December 4, 2009
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Drink This: Wine Made Simple (Hardcover)
I bought this book for myself and then went out the next day and bought three more for gifts. It's a perfect first book about wine. It answers all kinds of questions like "is it ever okay to put ice in your wine" in a clear and non-condescending way, plus it gives you a good explanation of some major types of wine. But mostly I appreciate how it helps you be able to explain what you love about wine, what flavors you enjoy, not what someone else dictates. It's also witty and fun to read. Moskowitz is a restaurant reviewer in Minneapolis and her writing is always a pleasure. I would probably read anything she wrote. Thank god her first book is about wine and not lutefisk (look it up).
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