The Saucy Sisters' Guide to Wine [Paperback]

Barbara Nowak (Author), Beverley Wichman (Author)

Book Description

Series: Saucy Sisters | Publication Date: March 2, 2004

Finally, here is the ultimate guide for today's primary wine buyers: women. Written by wine divas Barbara Nowak and Beverly Wichman, this fun, accessible book serves up their advice on wine- from selecting to serving to sipping and appreciating-in an upbeat way. Includes:

€ How to create a personal wine cellar for $140 or less
€ The perfect wine pairing for food and special occasions
€ How to impress a date (and the sommelier) when ordering from a wine list
€ How to host a wine party

Laced with funny stories, tips, and historical anecdotes, this book reveals everything a girl needs to know about the world's all-time favorite elixir.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The rich and complicated world of wines need no longer intimidate the novice female drinker, according to this playful guide by sisters Nowak and Wichman. As the leading wine purchasers in the United States, women owe it to themselves to become "wine divas"—not only to impress the men in their lives (coworkers, loves, or sommeliers—and most of the latter are male)—but to confidently pick affordable wines they will enjoy. This comprehensive romp through wine lingo and wine-making aims far beyond pairing foods or selecting appropriate glassware, although it offers suggestions on those topics too. Instead, the book pours out tips on figuring out what varieties of wine will personally appeal and which to select when entertaining or at a restaurant. The sisters mix up normally hoity-toity talk with irreverent comparisons between choosing wine and men, or pairings based on sexual appetite (longing for a "quickie?" Try an Australian heurige). They distill the basics into hokey pick-up lines like "I’ve got a soft, supple body, just like that Riesling you’re drinking," and add anecdotes on the history of wine and women (Do you know how that sharp widow Clicquot revolutionized champagne making?). Still they offer practical advice not likely found in most wine guides, like how to build a personal wine cellar for under $150, scientifically calculate how many bottles to buy for a party and pronounce Beerenauslese (German dessert wines made from sweet, slightly overripe grapes). Readers (even the male kind) who don’t mind the flirty prattle will find this guide both amusing and worthwhile.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Barbara Nowak is a regular contributor to the popular show Today at Home on the Home and Garden network.

Beverly Wichman is a business professional.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: NAL Trade (March 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451209893
• ISBN-13: 978-0451209894
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,628,743 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Hi! I'm Barbara, first-born of the Saucy Sisters. (Everyone asks which one of us is older - so I'll get that out of the way right off.) I must have been pretty bossy to my sister Beverly because, early on, she tried to distance herself. And, frankly, that was fine with me.

Don't get me wrong: we loved each other. We just didn't want to spend a lot of time in each other's company. We had separate sets of friends, separate activities and even went to different high schools.

Then college put physical distance between us. I went to Beaver College (now called Arcadia University) outside Philadelphia. I didn't exactly put my best academic foot forward at Beaver. But it was a memorable four years that netted me a diploma and friends who remain an important part of my life to this day.

After college I headed straight to the nation's capital with my political science degree in tow. I ended up at a high-powered Washington lobby organization taking influential media types out to 4-star restaurants for 3-martini lunches. (Or was it 3-star restaurants for 4-martini lunches?) I also ended up meeting Paul Nowak, who would become my husband a couple years down the road.


Sisters Become Best Friends

Right after her college graduation, Beverly arrived in Washington, D.C. to work for the CIA. And that's when the two of us finally became real friends. We can actually identify the moment it happened.

For some long ago forgotten reason, we had decided to shop together in Georgetown. After several exhausting hours of bargain hunting and costume changes, we needed a break. We headed straight to the bar at Clyde's.

We each ordered a glass of Chablis (which, in those days, meant any white swill they might have behind the bar). As we reviewed the day's events and our completely senseless purchases, we began to realize how much fun we were having together. Almost simultaneously, we turned to each other and said, "I like you!" Chalk it up to the wine if you want, but we've been best friends ever since.


Following Each Other Around the Country

Beverly and I always had separate careers. Mine was in public relations and marketing. Over the years, we followed each other around the country. We went from D.C. to Houston (with a stint for Beverly in Oklahoma City) to Los Angeles (where Beverly had thirteen addresses) to Nashville.

It turned out that Nashville was our land of opportunity. When we first arrived, the city was a desolate culinary outpost, but it was about to become a hotbed of restaurant activity. And we recognized our calling. We belonged on the radio to herald this feeding frenzy.


Saucy Sisters on the Radio

Faster than you can say "Shoney's All-You-Can-Eat Breakfast Bar," we landed our own radio show and officially became the Saucy Sisters. As an extension of our food and beverage show we wrote a couple books: Cook It Right and The Best Places to Eat in Nashville (which, by the way, did not include Shoney's). We also wrote newspaper stories on food and became familiar sights to TV audiences as we dressed in sometimes ridiculous outfits (lederhosen and mermaid costumes) for our on-air restaurant reviews.


Becoming Winos

One evening over dinner in New York with one of our frequent radio guests, we were enjoying a quite lusty Châteauneuf-du-Pape and engaging in some serious bad-girl chitchat. Suddenly our guest turned to us and said, "You should write a girl's guide to wine!"

The idea became our first wine book, The Saucy Sisters Guide to Wine: What Every Girl Should Know Before She Uncorks. When the book was published by Penguin, we embarked on a national, 30-city, 13,000 mile book signing/wine tasting tour in a purple van we called our Grapemobile. Three months of extreme togetherness might have been our undoing had the van not been stocked from top to bottom with cases of wine.

With one wine book under our belts, we were asked by Adams Media to write another one, which turned into The Everything Wine Book. And, now, we've just released #3: The Saucy Sisters Guide to Wine - What Every Girl Should Know Before She Unscrews.

To launch the book, we gathered 127 women and set a World Record for "most women unscrewing bottles of wine simultaneously."

Needless to say, the research never ends. At Saucy Sisters World Headquarters - currently on the third floor of my house in Franklin, Tennessee - we sample countless wines in search of the very best one (which always turns out to be the "next" one.) When I'm not writing, recording, rewriting, cooking or editing, I act as full-time Concierge to Rocky (yellow Lab) and Daisy (little black dog) and Noelle (kitty who showed up in our garage on Christmas night). And that's just the way we all like it!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Twisted Sisters reviews Saucy Sisters, April 14, 2004

By 

Linda Levy (Nashville, TN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Saucy Sisters' Guide to Wine (Paperback)

This book is so entertaining that you don't realize how much you are learning. I wish all my schoolbooks could have been written with so much humor and pizazz,I would have learned a lot more
and had a lot more fun doing it. Every paragraph makes you laugh, learn and easily comprehend a very complicated subject matter.

The writing is superb, the content complete, they thought of everything, even answers to questions most people wouldn't even think of asking. This book has all the right elements - plot, drama, humor, history, and sex, assembled in a way that makes it easy to digest and enjoyable to read. Keep it handy for reference, and to liven up a party.

I plan to keep several on hand to give as gifts to my friends who enjoy books and wine as much as I do. As with all good books I hated to finish it - knowing how really hard it is to find a REALLY good read. It makes me hungry for more - what's next, Sisters?

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Saucy Sisters Guide to Wine is a must read!, April 12, 2004

By 

Mary R. Foster (Brentwood, TN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Saucy Sisters' Guide to Wine (Paperback)

I loved this book!! The humorous style in this book is entertaining but does not detract from the valuable information in it. My husband liked it also (so it is a book for men as well). The Saucy Sisters take the mystique out of wine selections and etiquette, without removing the romance associated with enjoying a good (not necessarily expensive) bottle of wine with that special person! Buy this book and be able to converse intelligently with that wine snob that you dread seeing at parties!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Saucy Sisters Guide To Wine, April 1, 2004

By 

"snowak23" (Bradenton, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Saucy Sisters' Guide to Wine (Paperback)

Well done! Informative and enjoyable from beginning to end. I bought 10 of these for relatives, girlfriends, and my daughter in college. They are all delighted with the book. It has become a favorite birthday, wedding shower, and thank you for being a friend gift ( along with a bottle of wine, of course).