Customer Reviews

Windows on the World Complete Wine Course: 25th Anniversary Edition (Kevin Zraly's Complete Wine Course)

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Windows on the World Complete Wine Course: 25th Anniversary Edition is the number one book to learn about wine. It's a complete, readable guide to wine regions, grape varietals, wine pairing, and much much more. You'll learn about all the major wine regions, their typical grape varietals, and distinguishing characteristics.

Throughout the book specific, easily available, and affordable wines are profiled by winery. Special sections take this further: wine tasting "courses" of flights of different wines to compare; 101 favorite wines; and wines to begin a wine cellar.

Now, in it's 25 Anniversary edition it's been enlarged further with new sections on Austria, Hungary, and Greece. The wine lists have been updated and enlarged, and sections Chile, Argentina, and New Zealand have been expanded given their influence in the world of wine today.

I've completed two levels of the excellent Wine and Spirit Education Trust's wine programs. I'm amazed that Kevin Zraly's Windows on the World is just as thorough and is basically the intermediate level - in a book. I refer back to it often, and give it as gifts to friends who want to increase their appreciation of wine.

This is a great introduction for anyone new to wine, as I was. This is not intended to be the most complete reference for all wine, but is instead a colorful, focused, entertaining overview of wine today. Each chapter focuses on a different region or type of wine, providing background information on each wine area, the author's favorite wineries/producers from the area, a sample tasting (he picks several wines for you to try and also suggests alternatives if you can't find those particular bottles) and a quiz at the end to help you retain some of that information. A great book for any wine lover!

I just finished reading the book last night and I was blown away by how much I learned from it. Zraly's style of writing is very easy to understand as well as fun to read. The book covers the main wine growing regions of the world, as well as the wines grown in each region, types of grapes, some interesting anecdotes and what wines to pair with what food. I truly think Zraly went the extra mile on this book to make sure that just about every question a beginner to wine might have is answered. After reading the book, every time you walk down the wine aisle of your local grocery shop, you will have a very good grasp of the endless brands, and types of wines that are available today. I was truly impressed by the information in this book and the way it was presented. I strongly recommend this book to anyone that wants to learn about this wonderful subject. If the book worth 3 times as much, I would still say it's a bargain considering how much restaurant wine courses cost. Buy it and you wont be dissapointed.

I have been reading this regularly published book for over ten years. Zraly makes the fundamentals of wine easy to understand and fun to read. His writing is lively and entertaining and his worldwide knowledge of wine is astounding. As an aside, I was very happy to hear that Zraly was not at Windows on the World at the time of the terrorist attack, but the wonderful restaurant lost many great employees. Windows on the World incorporated wine into dining in ways no other restaurant could match, and Zraly's expertise was the reason.

Kevin's book is great in that it is short and concise, yet at the same time covers practically every wine making region and wine type and also offers recommendations for wine/food combinations and good vintage years. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars was because of the fact it was published in the early 80's...it's a little outdated on recommending good vintage years (at least for my pocketbook). It also has a chapter for selecting wines for a restaurant...great if you're a restauranteur, but not very useful if you buy wine for personal consumption. Other than that, highly recommended.

I had a previous edition of Kevin Zraly's book that was recommended to me by a gentleman who was the regional buyer of wine for a large, national chain of high end steak-house restaurants. This is a wonderful book for people just getting into wine, as well as your "above average" fans of wine. Just this weekend, I purchased 2 copies as gifts for friends. The book is sophisticated yet personal and approachable. The only better gift would have been to actually buy bottles of wine!! Enjoy!

Kevin Zraly wrote the book I wish I'd written. Good solid information on how to make sense of wine labels (which makes buying wine a whole lot easier) and good, thumbnail sketches of the world's wine growing regions.

Not quite as fufilling from an aeshtetic viewpoint, for example not quite enough information about viticultural practices and how they affect the quality of wine. All in all, however, a great jumping off point for the novice.

If you are just starting out in the wine world, let Kevin Zraly tag along via "The Windows on the World Wine Course" and you won't go wrong. His light approach and expert analysis of all aspects of the wine world are a reassuring voice amid the din of conflicting advice out there in the wine racks.

Zraly, well-known for his superior knowledge in matching wine with food, keeps his book informative, but not overwhelming. The book is written in a breezy and easily read format, with plenty of white space on each page to keep the text, sidebars, margin info, and graphics from overwhelming the reader. And for those who like to know interesting facts about wine, each page has tidbits written in the margins that when dropped correctly during your next wine tasting will bring out the "Oohs" and "Aahs" in the guests.

The only negative to the book is that it can't have it all ways. It is clearly a beginner to intermediate book, and while it is derived from the class in wine that Zraly actually teaches around the country, it lacks the ability to serve as a comprehensive reference. For this reason, I would team this book with Karen MacNeil's "The Wine Bible" - a very comprehensive, yet still easy to understand resource.

I purchased this book in a zealous effort to expand upon my somewhat above-average (e.g. "Most-Wines-Are-Meant-To-Be-Drunk-Young" and "Never-Buy-A-Bottle-With-A-Screw-Cap") knowledge of wine. After reading this massive tome, I realized how little I actually know.

It's an understatement to say that Kevin Zraly covered a lot of ground when penning this compact wine primer. Zraly managed to address (at some level) almost all aspects of wine history, production, and tasting. Considering the depth and breath of material, this was an incredible accomplishment.

Zraly did his best to keep the text lively. However, his enthusiasm for the subject is sometimes quashed by the sheer amount of information he had to cram in. Therefore, when reading this book, one should expect a very "textbook" feel. If you're interested in committing the information to memory, I would suggest reading chapters in short bursts and shooting back a healthy dose of Ginko Biloba.

For anyone interested in wine (on any level), I think this is an excellent investment. In my experience, there is no better single-book resource on wine. (Also, it's a steal, as the restaurant-taught course regularly retails for $500.)

If you would consider yourself a beginner when it comes to wine, and your goal is to know the general wine types and pick out good values with food, this may not be the best book for you. Better is Andrea Robinson's (I believe Zraly's former employee's) "Great Wine Made Simple", which assumes no prior knowledge, is far more welcoming and less pretentious, and I feel provides a better general framework for thinking about the major types of wine and differences between wines.

Robinson's book is aimed at the casual reader who wants to go beyond ordering beer, Pinot Grigios, and Merlots, or picking out bottles based on how pretty the label looks - who wants to know how to pick out a good bottle for the money that they like and that matches the food. Zraly's is aimed at someone who wants the first stage of a traditional wine education much as someone might take a few courses toward a master's degree - learning about forensic wine tasting, wine paradigms regardless of price, etc. Very different target audience. Far more people fall into the first camp, but for some reason, far more books are aimed at the second group.

What I don't like: a) the lack of any tastings outside of the US and Western Europe, b) the focus on old standby wines (Chardonnays for whites, etc.), c) the specificity and expense of the bottles in the tastings (meaning unless you live in a huge city you may be doing a lot of special orders). I do like the wealth of information presented - the tests, etc. - in this book, and I have learned from it, however. I like it because I've already piqued my interest and want to learn more. But I wouldn't recommend it to most people new to learning about wine because it's too far removed from their experience and interests.