Amazon.com Review
Perhaps if Oz Clarke had his way, Baskin-Robbins would manufacture 15 flavors. Not that "vanilla" even comes close to describing the style of the prolific
London Daily Telegraph wine correspondent, James Beard and Julia Child Awards winner, and author of the perennially updated
Oz Clarke's Pocket Wine Guide. Any wine writer who routinely refers to champagne as "fizz" and value-priced bottles as "gluggers" is a wine novice's friend, right?
Welcome to Introducing Wine, Clarke's contribution to the overcrowded wine primer field. Subtitled "A Complete Guide for the Modern Wine Drinker," this 3-chapter, 144-page glossy tome liberally sprinkled with color photos is designed for the reader looking beyond a wine shop's old reliables. Part I deals with wine flavors: Oz's aforementioned 15, ranging from "juicy, fruity" to "ripe and toasty." Part II takes on wine enjoyment--buying, storing, opening, serving--while Part III serves as a grapey gazetteer of the world's wine regions.
It's a delicate job Introducing Wine in such confined space, but Oz is a good host: witty, learned, and only occasionally schmoozily vague. A "buying" discussion flits about, touching on e-tailing, futures, and mixed-case discounts for half a page; other paragraphs sparkle with wine descriptors both enchanting ("face cream" and "beeswax") and confounding ("damsons" and "lanolin"). Clarke's capable of both enlightenment (warnings include such terms as "reserve" or "superieur") and overkill: if your retailer sells more Lucky Strikes than Lynch-Bages, you needn't Oz to tell you it's a "bad wine shop." Copious opinions, too, can raise eyebrows or shrug shoulders: Pinot Gris "always" exhibits a hint of honey? Zinfandel is California's "all-purpose" grape? Easier to swallow is Oz's assertion that French vin de table can be "pretty much anything that won't kill you." Helpful in Part III are the Quick Guide sidebars explaining regional jargon and suggesting wines, although recommendations from California and the Pacific Northwest are uninspired--a rare Introducing Wine instance where plain vanilla mixes into Oz Clarke's jamocha almond crunch. --Tony Mason
When it comes to a beverage suitable for vegetarians to enjoy at mealtime, what could be more appropriate than wine? It's an ancient drink, its health benefits have been know since biblical times, it contains no animal products, and it's nearly universally available to adults. British oenophile Oz Clarke has produced a new primer on wine that combines some of the best approaches from previous books into a highly useful reference.
Oz Clarke's Introducing Wine groups all wines into fifteen categories that define each one's major characteristics. Well-structured tables organize additional data for easy accessibility. Shunning the high-flown language of many books for the wine novice, Clarke teaches practical, useful terms and techniques that demystify without sacrificing pleasure. His approach benefits further from a nonexclusionary stance that embraces equally all the world's wines, not just those from France, Italy, and California.
Mark KnoblauchCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
