The Wine Bible [Paperback]

Karen MacNeil (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2000

THE MOST COMPLETE WINE BOOK EVER. A must for anyone who loves wine, whether they are a pro or an amateur. Thorough, authoritative, and entertaining. (Robert Mondavi, founder and chairman emeritus of the Robert Mondavi Family of Wines)

"The most informative and entertaining book I've ever seen on the subject." (Danny Meyer, co-author of The Union Square Cafe Cookbook)

The essentials: The romance and intrigue of Burgundy of sauvignon blanc and the surprising elegance of Spain's top Riojas. Italy, one of wine's most enchanting and ancient homelands. What makes a great wine great? The reason behind Champagne's bubbles. The precise and food-friendly wines of Germany. California, wine's Camelot. The lip-smackingly good wines of Australia. The complexities of Port revealed. How a vineyard profoundly affects a wine's character.

Plus, matching wine with food - and mood. The secrets of professional wine tasters and how to expand your wine-tasting vocabulary. And everything else you need to know to buy, store, serve, and enjoy the world's most captivating beverage.

The shimmering elegance of Veuve Clicquot, affordable luxury in a glass, page 185.

Ravishing, elegant, and rich, Petrus in Ingrid Bergman in red satin, page 156.

Some wines are like people... they get better as they get older, pg. 64.

Sherry, the world's most misunderstood and underappreciated wine, page 437.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Though it drinks deep of its subject, Karen MacNeil's Wine Bible deftly avoids two traps many wine books fall into: talking down to wine novices or talking up to more experienced enophiles. The book avoids these traps through MacNeil's obvious, and infectious, love of her subject, which comes out in almost every sentence of the book, and which lets her talk about wine in a way that combines the good teacher, the trusted friend, and the expert sommelier. As director of the wine program at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley, California, MacNeil is one of the world's true experts on wine. After reading a chapter on the Burgenland, for example, you've learned about the region's sweet wines while feeling like you're actually there, toasting a glass of Cuvee Suss with the author. It is this passion that leads to describing an Italian riservas as "mesmerizing" and a Cabernet Sauvignon as having "texture like cashmere."

The Wine Bible is broken into countries, hitting all of the major wine producers and most of the minor ones. Each section gives detailed descriptions of the country's wines (with chapters on individual regions when necessary), highlighting specific wine producers and individual wines, as well as talking about local foods, customs, and other tidbits that add to the reading experience. MacNeil begins her journey through the world's wine with an invaluable section on "Mastering Wine," which lets a reader get ready before uncorking separate sections. --A.J. Rathbun

Review

"A dazzling, comprehensive, modern guide to wine, free of elitism and pedantry. This thoroughly successful work sets a new standard and makes wine more accessible and user-friendly than it has ever been before."
—Anthony Dias Blue, wine and spirits editor, Bon Appétit (Bon Appétit)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 910 pages
• Publisher: Workman Publishing Company; First Edition edition (February 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1563054345
• ISBN-13: 978-1563054341
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.9 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (144 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,817 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #2 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Drinks & Beverages > Wine > Wine & Winemaking
  • #6 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Drinks & Beverages > Spirits
  • #10 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Reference

More About the Author

For the last 30 years, Karen has been a writer, consultant, and educator whose articles on wine and food have been published in more than 50 United States magazines and newspapers including The New York Times, Food & Wine, Saveur, and Town & Country. She is the author of the award-winning book, The Wine Bible, a best-selling wine book in the United States that has sold more than 450,000 copies since it was released. Ten years in the making, The Wine Bible has been called the most comprehensive and authoritative book on wine written by an American author.
Karen is the host of Emmy-award winning Wine, Food & Friends with Karen MacNeil, the first television series on wine in the United States. This thirteen-part series reached a national audience on PBS. In 2006 her companion book, Wine, Food & Friends, was released.
An educator at heart, Karen is the creator and Chairman of the Rudd Center for Professional Wine Studies at the Culinary Institute of America in the Napa Valley. The multi-million dollar wine center has been called the 'Harvard of wine education.' In 2007, she launched the Napa Valley Wine Educators Academy, a global education initiative that attracts wine instructors from all over the world to the Napa Valley for a week of intensive study. She acts as the Academy's creator and director.
Karen conducts wine seminars nationwide for individuals and corporations including Oracle, American Express, Lexus, Merrill Lynch, General Electric, Time Inc., NBC, Viking, and J.P. Morgan. She is also a wine consultant for Singapore Airlines and Sunset Magazine.
In March 2008, Karen launched her website on erobertparker.com, where she provides online wine education, food and wine pairing strategies, and video interviews and tastings with the icons of the wine industry.
In 2004, Karen MacNeil received the highest honor awarded to a wine professional in the United States when the James Beard Foundation named her Outstanding Wine and Spirits Professional of the Year. The following year, she was named 2005 Wine Educator of the Year by the European Wine Council. Past recipients of the Council's awards have included journalist Morley Safer (60 Minutes), filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, and winemaker Robert Mondavi. In 2007, Karen was honored with the Wine Literary Award by the Wine Appreciation Guild for her substantial contribution to the literature of wine, joining laureates such as Hugh Johnson, Robert M. Parker, Jr., and Jancis Robinson. The International Wine & Spirit Competition recognized Karen as 'the voice that has most effectively communicated wine or spirits to the public in the past year' by awarding her The 2008 Vinitaly Trophy for Communicator of the Year. In a profile featured in Time Magazine in 2004, Karen was named America's "Missionary of the Vine." She holds an Advanced Certified Wine Professional Degree.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

233 of 243 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Your second wine book June 28, 2003

By Eric J. Lyman VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

The spine on my worn copy of the Wine Bible is cracked and its pages are dog-eared, even though I think the book has several notable shortcomings. As I write this, I find myself in the unusual position of criticizing the thick volume even though I turn to it for information on a regular basis.

My biggest complaint is that I feel the book doesn't really know what it wants to be. On the one hand, it is a comprehensive reference book that in many areas goes into more depth than other general wine books. But it falls short as a reference book because it lacks the scope of books like The World Atlas of Wine or The Global Encyclopedia of Wine, which cover more up-and-coming wine producing countries, more specific producers and, especially in the case of The World Atlas of Wine, are enhanced by beautiful photographs and maps. Though the Wine Bible is substantial (it weighs in at a hefty 910 pages) its design is more compact than the other books I mentioned, and so might make a better travel companion for someone visiting multiple wine producing regions in a single trip. But the lack of good maps makes a supplemental book necessary.

Additionally, the book can feel like a disjointed collection of articles that ought to have been better integrated before publication. Often, the same information (referring to multiple or confusing names for grape varieties or regions, or quality standards in specific countries) is referred to parenthetically several times, often in quick succession -- something unnecessary, especially given the book's excellent glossary.

But despite these criticisms, I find myself referring to the book repeatedly. Part of the reason for that is author Karen MacNeil's pleasing and unpretentious writing style, which somehow manages to please wine lovers of many different levels of knowledge. Ms. MacNeil's passion for wine comes through in the text and her knowledge of the subject is extremely impressive, with her descriptions often compensating for a lack of quality photos. And though I would like to see more wine producing areas covered by the book, the regions she does address are covered extremely comprehensively. The quality of information is also very even: before travels to these areas I have read the book's sections on South Africa, the Mosel, Loire, Ribera del Duero, Languedoc, as well as everything on my adopted home country, and could not detect any ebb in Ms. Mac Neil's enthusiasm or knowledge.

After some thought, I settled on four stars for this review, despite the complaints I have. The book is just too useful and too skillfully written for fewer stars. The next addition, I feel sure, will earn five on my improvised scale.

Once you have moved beyond the most basic level in wine knowledge, this is an important book to have. If you can buy only one book on the subject, this is not the one I would suggest -- The World Atlas of Wine gets my vote for that honor -- but if you were to limit your collection to two books, then I think this is a serious candidate for that second position. Once you've got that much covered, I'd lean toward a book that focuses on your favorite wine producing region or another specific aspect of the subject, like tasting or wine production.

95 of 98 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent introduction to wine... September 4, 2002

By Tarik J. Ghbeish

Format:Paperback

A great book for a beginner. This book doesn't rate wines, it teaches you about how they are made, what flavors each grape is known for, what regions grow each type of grape and so on. Immensely useful information. I have used this as

* a learning tool,
* a reference when I'm curious about a wine I've found
* to settle arguments with family over wine labeling
* a reference to decide which wines may be worth trying from a specific region.

As a reference, the book is not encyclopedic, but it doesn't attempt to be either. The book is a bible in the sense that it gives you a good solid overview of a wine region, it's styles of wines, and some of it's representative producers if you want to start trying out the regions wines.

It is quick to point out that the ultimate judge of a wine is the drinker, and you shouldn't be shy to decide you do or don't like a wine despite it's reputation. I like that and believe it is a good approach.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars For all who love wine... November 7, 2002

By Daniel L Edelen TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Utterly fascinating and comprehensive, The Wine Bible is just the right length to provide even the most discriminating oenophile with all the facts needed to quench his thirst. It is difficult to imagine a better overview of all the wine areas of the world. Certainly there are more scholarly tomes, but MacNeil's ebullient and zestful writing style is utterly charming and never wearying, her descriptions of specific wines so lively you can almost taste them. I wanted to rush out and buy all her recommendations.

The layout of the book starts with the basics of how wine is made, what factors make great wine, how to taste, the major grapes and their characters, and other fundamentals. It then proceeds into an extensive look at the countries that produce wine. Each country section breaks down the major wine producing areas within the country, going into great detail to highlight the unique qualities of those areas that bring their wine to life. The country sections also include travel notes, comments about the local food, wineries to visit, and more. At the end of each growing area section, MacNeil includes specific wines of note.

This format makes the subject quite approachable, but also leads to the only complaint I have (and it is not enough to take away anything from the book.) Because of the length (900+ pages), the book is written sectionally. Given the scope, MacNeil wrote it in a manner than lends each section to being self-contained. Because of this, when reading several country sections, MacNeil repeats herself many times, often explaining a concept in a later chapter that she had explained earlier. This is done for clarity sake, especially if the book is being used as a reference. For a complete readthrough, though, one can simply skip over what had already been explained previously.

If you have a passing knowledge of wine and wish to go to the next level (or simply need an approachable, yet complete reference), I can think of no better place to start than The Wine Bible. MacNeil's love of wine certainly comes through and makes this reference a gripping read, one of the few references you'll find hard to put down.