From Booklist
Miller's no-nonsense approach should appeal to anyone who has ever been intimidated by the mystique often surrounding the selection of wine to share with friends or to accompany a specific dinner menu. Guiding readers through the basics of wine making, Miller presents the facts along with illustrative vignettes that add vitality to the text. The writing is agreeably free of confusing jargon, though esoteric techniques are mentioned. Miller offers a concise explanation of how traditional champagne cellars employ "riddling" to remove sediment from bottles. Types of wines are described in some detail, as are wine-producing regions. A highly readable primer with sensible recommendations for storing, aging, tasting, and serving fine wines. Alice Joyce
From the Back Cover
The Gift of Wine is a practical, detailed, accessible, and informative introduction to wine for anyone caught up in the lure of the grape - from beginners to advanced oenophiles.Gloria Bley Miller here turns her passion for research and information to mankind's oldest and noblest beverage. Beginning with the unique interplay between Nature and the winemaker in the making of good wine, Miller goes on to discuss wine types (sparkling, fortified, and the like), the geography of wine (covering France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United States, Australia, and other countries), and full chapters on identification, buying, storing, serving, and - above all! - tasting.Appendices provide such wine essentials as a vocabulary of tasting terms, a list of grape varieties, a full glossary, and more. Just about every conceivable question relating to wine is answered in The Gift of Wine. (6 1/4 X 9 1/4, 420 pages, maps, illustrations, charts)
