Waiter, There's a Horse in My Wine [Paperback]

Jennifer Chotzi Rosen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2004

Collection of informative and irreverent columns from one of America's foremost wine critics. Screw caps, liquor laws, glassware, sommeliers, spitting and, yes, alcohol are covered along with grapes, countries and appellations. Connoisseurs, neophytes and beer-swillers alike will find themselves laughing, pondering and armed with everything they need to impress friends, terrify enemies and stop wine snobs in their tracks.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Those who can overlook this book's über-cheesy title and awful cartoon cover art (featuring a horse lounging in a cup of wine) will be treated to an entertaining collection of columns from Rosen, a wine journalist with an irreverent sense of humor. Witticisms crowd every page of this compilation, which is littered with column names like "Don't Blame the Grape" and "When Good Wines Go Bad." Rosen's "mission" is to snuff out wine snobbery and make understanding vino easy, even for the neophyte imbiber. She freely lampoons the types of highbrow topics industry insiders like the Wine Spectator routinely cover (this publication is jokingly renamed Wine Expectorator and Wine Emasculator by turns) in a bid to underscore the absurd exclusivity of such an old boy's club wine cognoscenti. Many of these selections are part travelogue, part populist rant, and it is great fun to join Rosen as she crisscrosses the globe as an "embedded journalist," exposing wine fact and fallacy at every turn. (When addressing "Front label tricks," for instance, Rosen points out that label laws vary, so much so that a 1997 Sonoma Zinfandel doesn't have to consist of 100% Zinfandel grapes or be 100% from Sonoma.) The book's corny illustrations add little to the text, but readers will find a great deal of practical information for choosing everyday table wines nestled amongst Rosen's tantalizing tales of tasting and testing "in the field."
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"Consistently hilarious. A seamless blend of entertainment and instruction." -- Tim Moriarty, Wine Enthusiast, October 2004

"Fun to read. Sassy, useful, literate and squarely anti-snob, Jennifer Rosen writes the best damn wine column out there." -- After Hours, August, 2004

Combining wine education with humor...Rosen deftly juggles silliness and solid information for readers at all levels of wine knowledge. -- Wine Enthusiast, Feb, 2005

Hilarious...slightly wicked sense of humour. Read it for fun and be subtly educated and inspired to enhance your wine-experience. -- Vinodiversity - Australia, January 2005

The kind of rare read that deserves to be bought, kept, gifted and splattered with the very beverage it exalts. -- Style Gourmet, January, 2005

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Dauphin Press (December 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0976317001
• ISBN-13: 978-0976317005
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #416,734 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I write the weekly wine column for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver. You can read it by subscribing to my e-newsletter: www.corkjester.com. 40,000 other people do!

I write for a bunch of other mags and rags, do TV and radio and my favorite role is wine edutainer, with topics ranging from Secrets of Blind Tasting -- to Wine and, um, Secs.

My new book, The Cork Jester's Guide to Wine is just out. My last book, Waiter, There's a Horse in My Wine, won the 2005 Gourmand World Cookbook Award for Wine Literature.

Other accolades include the 2005 James Beard Award for Internet Writing and 2003 finalist for Jacob's Creek International Best Drinks Writer award.

I'm an Advanced Sommelier with the International Wine Guild, Distinguished Member of the Confrerie Saint-Etienne d'Alsace, Honorary Member of the Mystic Knights of the Vine, and Dishonorable Member of the Circle of Wine Writers.

Look for my upcoming wine game: Cork Jester's Wine Teasers. For more info and pics, go to: www.corkjester.com.

Cheers!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Go for it!, January 1, 2005

By 

Jean-Noel Fourmeaux (Napa, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Waiter, There's a Horse in My Wine (Paperback)

What a book! "If Pinot Noir is a poet who whispers in your ear by firelight, Grenache wears a black leather jacket and picks you up on a Harley"...Get it? Now you know which one would be best for your mood tonight. The beauty is that you discover why the wines are different while having fun.

If you think a wine book has to be intimidating and super-technical, don't buy this one. It's about learning and discovering the world of wine without pain. The anecdotes, the self-deprecating attitude, remarkable humor and superb writing make this book an absolute must for everybody who is not a snob. BUY it. You will savor it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great gift!, January 28, 2005

By 

James Taylor (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Waiter, There's a Horse in My Wine (Paperback)

I was given this book by a dear friend who knows my tastes, both in wine and writing, and also knows that I can be a harsh critic of both. Now, after reading only about half of the delightfully literate chapters of Ms. Rosen's book, each of them as informative as they are funny, I'm here at Amazon buying copies for other friends. This woman knows her wine and the wine industry and is a wonderfully witty iconoclast, bucking tradition where it deserves to be bucked. Beginner or expert, you'll love this refreshing and wise take on wines and wine enjoyment.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just plain fun to read, June 12, 2005

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Waiter, There's a Horse in My Wine (Paperback)

Waiter, There's a Horse In My Wine is a chuckle-inducing collection of writings by internationally-acclaimed wine writer and educator Jennifer Rosen. Written with especial tongue-in-cheek humor, Waiter, There's a Horse in my Wine shows the reader how to deal with wine snobs, impress friends, and give enemies pause! Cartoonish black-and-white illustrations add a charming touch to this delightful guide; regardless of whether one is a connoisseur of wine or hardly ever drinks it, Waiter, There's a Horse In My Wine is just plain fun to read.