Customer Reviews

Spanish Wine: A Pocket Guide

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Back when I started Catavino, I realized that I better find some good information on the subject. Starting with Spanish wine, I did a quick search on Amazon to find what information was available. Unfortunately, what I found was several outdated books along with a few new releases. Type in "Wine" into Amazon and you'll get ten million results, but type in "Spanish wine" or "Portuguese wine" and you'll yield only a handful. "What's up?", I thought. I couldn't imagine how this could be correct when Spain is the third largest producer of wine in the world. However, upon a second glance one book caught my eye, it was a newly published book called "Let's open a Bottle" by Brian Murdock, who it turned out not only lives in Madrid but just so happens to be working on a Spanish winepocket guide. Hence, I contacted Brian to get a copy of his book and the rest is history.

I've had the pleasure of meeting with him a few times, and I have to say, I admire what he is doing. When I first read the books, my first thought was that they seemed a bit pedestrian and maybe not "geeky" enough. But then I thought about the fact that there isn't any good information available on the subject in an easy to understand manner. So, with that in mind, I not only read the books again, but also had my wife read them as well. She loved their easy to understand vocabulary and attention to detail which influenced my second read as I viewed them through the eyes of someone just discovering the world of wine. Therefore, I recommend both of these books to you and hope you take time to check them out. If your planning on traveling to Spain to taste wine, or if your just browsing the shelves back home at your local wine shop and need a hand in picking a wine, I think these might be of some help.

A must read!

Any interested in Spanish culture or wines will relish SPANISH WINE: A POCKET GUIDE. It lists wine regions by wine types for quick look-up, offers plenty of maps and illustration, reviews all major and many minor wine regions, and adds the history and winery listings essential to any comprehensive coverage. Over 1,600 wines are listed and over 500 wineries mentioned, making this the perfect take-along tote for any journey, whether it be to Spain or to a well-stocked wine shop.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

It appears the author published this guide himself, which might have been necessary due to the folksy conversdational style in which it was written. An uninformed reader would likely lack confidence in the superficial evaluations of the recognized wine regions and the numerous producers. However, Murdock's solidly positive comments on those wines I have actually sampled so far match my own opinions, which leads me to believe his evaluations are really quite sound. The book is easy to use and should allow me to discover additional wines I might enjoy, which is the main reason why one buys this kind of guide. There can be no doubt that Spanish wines represent great value and provide interesting taste and style variances from the better publicized California, French, Italian, and Australian varietals. On the whole, this guide is a very goof value.

Murdock's new book Spanish Wine: A Pocket Guide is entertaining and filled with easy to follow information. Continuing on from his first wonderful book, Let's Open a Bottle: My Journey Through the Spanish Wine Revolution (which I read last summer), he shares from his personal experiences in Spain and this time intermixed with hundreds of Spanish wines and vineyards. Murdock has an easy going style with his enthusiasm for spanish wine and all things Spain shining through. This guide has me looking forward to many Spanish wine buys and having friends over to share in the celebration. Better yet looking forward to planning a trip to Spain for vineyard touring and wine tasting as shared in Murdock's fun guide!

I have read Mr. Murdock's two books on Spanish wines. His first book Lets Open a Bottle was excellent. This book, Spanish Wine: A Pocket Guide, is more informative and has more in-depth knowledge. He keeps the reader glued to the pages with his writing style and personal comments. He blends the wines with the culture and foods of the many regions in a very easy reading style. A long time Bordeaux and Rhone wine lover, I started buying a few selected Spanish wines in the last three years. I agree with the quality of many of his selections. Brian has expanded my horizons of Spanish wines with this book. I have bought several of his recommendations and was very please with the results. He is right on target with the price-quality ratio, and explores little known Spanish wine regions that offer excellent wines at incredible values. I hope that he continues writing and publishes another book on Spanish wines in the near future.

just too "all over the place."

too little discussion of actual wines, and too much on regions.

especially too little info on particular wines available in u.s.

There are some informative bits about the various wine regions but the reviews on the individual wines are shallow.

The author had merely collated information from various sources without actually having tasted the wines. The inclusion of various websites of the wineries is a telling sign.

For wines which the author seemed to have tasted, one feels that he does not have a demanding/discerning palate. Wines which are easy drinking but without much character are rated quite well.

The author seemed to be limited by his wine-drinking budget and most of the higher end wines have very shallow descriptions. Vega Sicilia's "Unico", which the author mis-spelt as "Unica", is described as "unique but ...hard to come by" and Torres' "Mas la Plana" is merely described as "legendary".

Serious wine drinkers looking for a proper wine guide should look elsewhere.

I have been to Spain a couple of times and this book is pretty informative and accurate from my experience.

My wife and I are headed to Spain this September and are planning to take time to visit some vinyards and wineries. We already have a general guide to Spain but thought we might find one just for wine -- and found this wonderful book.

It really is a great guide - has good introductions to the regions and reviews quite a lot wines (briefly naturally). Many of the vineries have websites listed, which is quite helpful as we have been able to look and see which ones offer tours, their hours, etc. And maps are there too, though I was at first really concerned when I first saw the small size of the map in the first chaper. Luckily, the publisher has a reference below each map to go to the back of the book where the maps are much larger, and easy to view. The author writes in a very easy-going, really conversational style, which makes going through it quite enjoyable. Some quides I've bought (on wine or not) can be very dry and technical - this book is not like that at all - you'll enjoy reading it.

As an aside, I first found this book when I typed in "spanish wine" on a search engine - there were quite a few listings for it but one that I went to had a podcast interview with the author. We highly recommend that you listen to it as its really a very interesting interview(actually, it helped us decide to buy this book). It will give you a good understanding of this book as well as the author and his other book too(which we have not read yet). The site is under the name of a company called Catavino.

Anyway, whether you are familiar with Spanish wine or not, we are sure you'll enjoy this book and recommend it.