Wine For Dummies [Paperback]

McCarthy (Author), Mary Ewing-Mulligan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 9, 2006

Wine enthusiasts and novices, raise your glasses! The #1 wine book has been extensively updated! If you’re a connoisseur, Wine For Dummies, Fourth Edition will get you up to speed on what’s in and show you how to take your hobby to the next level. If you’re new to the world of wine, it will clue you in on what you’ve been missing and show you how to get started. It begins with the basic types of wine, how wines are made, and more. Then it gets down to specifics:

• How to handle snooty wine clerks, navigate restaurant wine lists, decipher cryptic wine labels, and dislodge stubborn corks
• How to sniff and taste wine
• How to store and pour wine and pair it with food
• Four white wine styles: fresh, unoaked; earthy; aromatic; rich, oaky
• Four red wine styles: soft, fruity, and relatively light-bodied; mild-mannered, medium-bodied; spicy; powerful, full-bodied, and tannic
• What’s happening in the “Old World” of wine, including France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, and Greece
• What’s how (and what’s not) in the New World of Wine, including Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, and South Africa
• U.S. wines from California, Oregon, Washington, and New York
• Bubbling beauties and medieval sweets: champagne, sparkling wines, sherry, port, and other exotic dessert wines

Authors Ed McCarthy, CWE, who is a regular contributor to Wine Enthusiast and The Wine Journal and Mary Ewing-Mulligan, MW, who owns the International Wine Center in New York, have co-authored six wine books in the For Dummies series. In an easy-to-understand, unpretentious style that’s as refreshing as a glass of Chardonnay on a summer day, they provide practical information to help you enjoy wine, including:

• Real Deal symbols that alert you to good wines that are low in price compared to other wines of similar type, style, or quality
• A Vintage Wine Chart with specifics on numerous wines
• Info on ordering wine from out of state, collecting wine, and more

Wine For Dummies, Fourth Edition is not just a great resource and reference, it’s a good read. It’s full-bodied, yet light…rich, yet crisp…robust, yet refreshing….

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

The plain-English guide that demystifies wine

Choose good, affordable wines from the United States, Europe, Chile, Australia, and elsewhere

This down-to-earth guide cuts through wine snobbery and tells you what's in, what's out, and what's new in wine. This update of the bestselling For Dummies classic covers everything from established and emerging wine regions to pairing wine with food to collecting wine. Here's to fun, relaxed wine exploration and enjoyment!

Praise for Wine For Dummies, 3rd Edition

"Crammed with useful, accurate information."
—Wine Enthusiast

"This book is . . . for everyone who loves wine or wants to know more about it."
—Robert Mondavi, Chairman Emeritus, Robert Mondavi Winery

"Complete . . . and agreeably relaxed."
—New York Times

"Mary and Ed help people to trust their own tastes and enjoyment of wine."
—Jess Jackson, Proprietor, Kendall-Jackson; Jackson Family Farms

Discover how to

• Understand grape varieties and wine styles
• Decipher wine lists and wine labels
• Get real deals on great wines
• Select, store, open, pour, and enjoy wine
• Choose wines that please your palate

About the Author

Ed McCarthy and Mary Ewing-Mulligan are two wine lovers who met at an Italian wine tasting in New York City’s Chinatown and subsequently merged their wine cellars and wine libraries when they married. They have since coauthored six wine books in the Wine For Dummies series (including two of their favorites, French Wine For Dummies and Italian Wine For Dummies) as well as their latest book, Wine Style (Wiley); taught hundreds of wine classes together; visited nearly every wine region in the world; run five marathons; and raised eleven cats. Along the way, they have amassed more than half a century of professional wine experience between them.
Mary is president of International Wine Center, a New York City wine school that offers credentialed wine education for wine professionals and serious wine lovers. As U.S. director of the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET®), the world’s leading wine educational organization, she works to make the courses she offers in New York available in more and more parts of the United States. She is also the long-standing wine columnist of the NY Daily News. Mary’s most impressive credential is that she’s the first female Master of Wine (MW) in the United States, and one of only 22 MW’s in North America (with 251 worldwide).
Ed, a New Yorker, graduated from City University of NY with a master’s degree in psychology. He taught high school English in another life, while working part-time in wine shops to satisfy his passion for wine and to subsidize his growing wine cellar. That cellar is especially heavy in his favorite wines — Bordeaux, Barolo, and Champagne. Besides co-authoring six wine books in the For Dummies series with Mary, Ed went solo as author of Champagne For Dummies, a topic on which he’s especially expert.
Ed and Mary also share wine columns in Nation’s Restaurant News and in Beverage Media, a trade publication. They are each columnists for the online wine magazine, WineReviewOnline.com. Ed and Mary are both accredited as Certified Wine Educators (CWE).
When they aren’t writing, teaching, or visiting wine regions, Mary and Ed maintain a busy schedule of speaking, judging at professional wine competitions, and tasting as many new wines as possible. They admit to leading thoroughly unbalanced lives in which their only non-wine pursuits are hiking in the Berkshires and the Italian Alps. At home, they wind down to the tunes of U2, K.D. Lang, Bob Dylan, and Neil Young in the company of their feline roommates Dolcetto, Black & Whitey, Ponzi, and Pinot.

Product Details

• Paperback: 410 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies; 4th edition (October 9, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470045795
• ISBN-13: 978-0470045794
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 0.9 x 9.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #75,682 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #9 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Drinks & Beverages > Wine > Buying Guides
  • #64 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Drinks & Beverages > Wine > Wine & Winemaking

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally! A book on WHY wine snobs DO some of that stuff! January 8, 1997

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

If your idea of a good wine means that it doesn't have ascrew top, but you genuinely want to learn more about thecorked types, this is the book for you! This books takes much of the mystery out of WHY wine snobs do some of that silly looking stuff while at the same time pointing out which of those things are worth the effort and which aren't.

Additionally, it turned out to be an invaluable reference for starting to look at the shelves in the local liquor store. The time prior to reading this book, I picked wines based on who had the prettiest label - while I did get one really good wine out of that batch, it wasn't a very dependable method. The next trip, I took a list I had made from this book and have been MUCH happier with the results.

In the end, this is an excellent reference book and a does a great job of demystifying the rites and ritual of wine. I highly recommend it!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Start Here June 29, 1998

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

Wine For Dummies is an excellent beginners textbook on the subject. It covers a broad range of topics and concerns that the complete novice will have no problem understanding. After reading this book thoroughly, one can immediatley feel comfortable ordering and discussing a variety of wine types. Two really important points the book makes concerning the seemingly mysterious world of wine are: 1)No one in the world knows everthing about wine. 2)I am my own best judge of wine quality.

This book is a great springboard to more in-depth reading about the whole wine industry.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book! June 17, 1997

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

I live in N.E. MN and although I study wines, I never knew how to pronounce those names! Wine for dummies provides a pronunciation guide that is easy to follow (and accurate!) Thanks for making me appear more "than a dummy!"

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Just What the Doctor Ordered March 9, 2008

By Ralph White

Format:Paperback

You will actually learn a lot from this entry in the "...for Dummies" series. It lacks the rigor and scholarship of most of the "...for Dummies" books, but you'll know more when you finish it than you did before you started. You'll learn that most wine flavors are actually aromas, you'll learn about tannins, what is in balance in a "balanced" wine, what oak barrels do, and even what malolactic fermentation is (it's what makes Chardonnay "buttery.") You'll definitely learn what grapes are used to make our familiar wines, and you'll learn technical terms, like "extract," and "foxy." You'll learn the difference between "fermented" in oak, versus "aged" in oak. And you'll learn all about corkscrews. Unfortunately, the authors' efforts to lighten the subject with humor completely fails; it seems slapstick after the interesting material they cover. One of the authors' primary messages is that wine is a matter of taste, and we should all have the confidence to make up our own minds. They help us with the vocabulary we'll need to communicate our conclusions to others, and they convey their affection for their specialty. You may roll your eyeballs when they gush over France and French wines, but we actually do owe the French our gratitude for its contribution to viniculture. Read "Wine for Dummies" to fill in the gaps in your knowledge, and skip the jokes.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent January 26, 1998

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

Very good book. Describes many aspects of the world of wine in a way that doesn't require previous knowledge. Also, not the least bit pretentious or arrogant. For anyone interested in wine, this is a great start.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but.... April 2, 2012

By seashell824

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is an interesting book. It contains a lot of useful information regarding wine. However, I think it contains way too much information. I should have listened to some of the other reviewers. This isn't the book I was hoping it would be. It goes into such extensive detail about everything, from the type of wine glasses I should be drinking from to the names of grapes and their subspecies. I was hoping for a more curtailed version, something that would get more to the point. I am very disappointed. I will keep the book as a reference, but I don't know if I really retained anything from this book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great for beginners January 19, 2009

By KGN

Format:Paperback

A great book for someone looking to learn more about wine and how to appreciate it. Presents information in a non-snobby way and is easy to follow. Just what I was looking for!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book for Learning About Wine May 8, 2007

By C. Johnson

Format:Paperback

This is a really excellent book. I would consider it the second best wine book out there. The first being Windows on the World Complete Wine Course: 2007 Edition (Windows on the World Complete Wine Course). I suggest buying both to gain a thorough knowledge of wine.