Wine Tasting: A Professional Handbook (Food Science and Technology) [Hardcover]

Ronald S. Jackson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 012379076X | ISBN-13: 978-0123790767 | Publication Date: February 15, 2002 | Edition: 1

One of the most respected professionals in the wine industry-Ron Jackson, author of Wine Science (now in its second edition)- covers all practical and theoretical aspects of wine tasting in his new book. It details the basic techniques used by professionals to sense all visual, gustatory, and olfactory wine properties (sight, taste, and smell). It also describes the physiologic, psychologic, and physicochemical origins of sensory perception and discusses wine types to illustrate the characteristic features that distinguish the majority of wines.

A large portion of the book is dedicated to the practical concerns of preparing and performing wine assessments. Readers are instructed in how to differentiate between the various types of wine tastings (each requiring its own design, tasting sheets, training, skill measurement, and analysis). Included is a general overview of the types and sources of wine quality and how wine is most appropriately paired with food. Special features include a flow chart of wine tasting steps, details of errors to avoid, procedures for training and testing sensory skills, sample tasting sheets, original data from 14+ years of training tasters, and numerous tables, charts, and figures.


Key Features
* Modern treatment of all relevant data relative to wine tasting, both professional and personal
* Separates the practical and more technical and theoretical aspects of wine tasting, allowing easy access to people of different interests
* Stresses the explanation and significance of each step in the tasting process, as well as errors to be avoided
* Outlines procedure in the training and testing of sensory skill (professional and personal)
Presents sample tastings designed to teach tasters specific varietal, regional and stylistic types of wines
* Provides examples of tasting results and means for analysis
* Discusses the evolution of cuisine and wines association with food
* Outlines the diversity of wines and the sensory experiences expected with each
* Outlines the nature and origins of wine quality

Illustrative Material:
* Flow Chart of Wine Tasting Steps
* Examples of Tasting Sheets: Hedonic (hierarchy and numerical ranking), Wine Appreciation (blank and complete examples), Quality assessment (general, sparkling, artistic ranking), Sensory Analysis (quality and aroma specific)
* Fragrance Chart (with colored icons)
* Off-odor Chart (with colored icons)
* Color transparency representing standardized wine color terms)
* Color illustrations representing the appearance of wines of different ages
* Warming-cooling chart for bottles of wine (air and ice water)
* Table of aroma descriptors for the major grape varieties (red and white)
* Chart of the warming rate of wine in a glass
* Figure showing the influence of alcohol content on 'tears' formation
* Taster variability to the major tastant and odorants in wine

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This volume details the practical and theoretical aspects of critical wine tasting, in the context of human sensory perception, from the techniques used by professionals to assess wine properties and quality, to the physiological, psychological and physiochemical origins of sensory perception...Numerous tables, charts and figures throughout this volume provide excellent illustrative material to support the detailed information presented in text. In conclusion, this comprehensive volume is highly recommended to any individuals involved in wine tasting, from professional tasters and those who train tasters and design tastings, to amateur wine connoisseurs, who want unbiased information on how to maximize their perception and appreciation of wine."
- Carbohydrate Polymers (2005)

"This book by Dr. Jackson is very entertaining and informative to read. He has succeeded in writing a wine tasting book that would appeal to the experienced wine aficionado as well as to a faculty member teaching a beginning wine sensory or wine tasting class...This author enjoyed this book and would recommend it. In fact I am seriously contemplating using it in my Wine Sensory Evaluation course."
- H. Heymann, Department of Viticulture and Enology, University of California- Davis, September 2004)


"...very entertaining and informative to read. ...would appeal to the experienced wine aficionado as well as the faculty member teaching a beginning wine sensory or wine tasting class."
-FOOD QUALITY AND PREFERENCE (2003)

"...a solid text that offers practical information on the sensations of wine for many types of readers. Extensive use of diagrams, tables, charts, and illustrations enhances the volume...a useful book that will find a number of audiences. It deserves a place in many academic collections not for what it has to tell us about wine, but about human physiological responses to the seduction of the liquid. Recommended."
-E STREAMS (June 2003)

"Wine Tasting is without question the finest book addressed to wine sensory technology that I have ever seen during my 41 years in wine. Being an academic, I am particularly impressed by the scientific support which Dr. Jackson provides for explaining human evaluation and interpretation of various wine aromas, flavors, virtues and vagaries. His text is, however, not beyond the comprehension and understanding of people who are not formally trained in the enological sciences. This book will also become a standard reference for the 325 students which study in my 4th-year Wine Appreciation class at Purdue University every semester. As a judge at several wine competitions across the U.S. every year, and as Chairman of the Indy International, one of the largest, I will make it a point that my fellow judges have the opportunity to learn of this essential work. Wine Tasting advances the state of the art."
-Richard P. Vine, Purdue University, Indiana, U.S.A., Wine Consultant to American Airlines

"The author should be commended for undertaking to write on this subject matter. Bringing the science of sensory evaluation to the wine industry is needed and the author has provided an extensive amount of information, some very solid reference material, all presented in a text that is easy to read. There are numerous tables and figures, referenced with both current as well as some important historical information. Information about the origins of the much maligned Davis wine scorecard is welcomed, especially for one of us (HS) who was one of the subjects while the scorecard was being developed. We expect that all winemakers will find this text informative and possibly will take some exception; none the less, much benefit will be derived from reading the text in its entirety, but probably not in one sitting!
The author also discusses the relationship of wine writers and the science of sensory evaluation, a topic that gets relatively little coverage, yet it needs more discussion if the industry is to make the transition from a cottage industry to a packaged goods business.
Sensory professionals also will benefit from this text and it should be part of the required reading for students in both enology and sensory evaluation.
-Joel Sidel and Herbert Stone, Tragon Corp, California, U.S.A., authors of Sensory Evaluation Practises 2E


"As a whole, the book is a generous package of information, thus updating and providing a scienctific background for sensory research on wine."
-Hely Tuorila, Department of Food Technology, University of Helsinki

Book Description

From the best-sellig author of Wine Science, 1st & 2nd edition!

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 295 pages
• Publisher: Academic Press; 1 edition (February 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 012379076X
• ISBN-13: 978-0123790767
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,837,717 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wine tasting for the advanced wine taster, March 21, 2002

By 

Bernard Klem (Stamford CT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wine Tasting: A Professional Handbook (Food Science and Technology) (Hardcover)

An amazing work which should be praised to the heavens by those advanced wine tasters who want to better understand what it is they're seeing, smelling, tasting and feeling. And why. Not a book for beginners, this is a carefully structured work of high calibre, right up there with the other landmark winetasting works by Amerine, Baldy, Broadbent, Noble and Peynaud. Every serious wine library should have a copy.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book, January 12, 2009

By 

Gattofriulano (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Wine Tasting: A Professional Handbook (Food Science and Technology) (Hardcover)

Well written, clear, extremely informative and escapes all the affectation that you often see when people start to talk or write about wine. Maybe too detailed for most people looking for an introductory book on wine tasting, but if you are curious about the methodology and science behind, this is a great resource.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing book for all tasters..., June 4, 2010

By 

T. Owen "little brown smurf" (oaktown) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Wine Tasting, Second Edition: A Professional Handbook (Food Science and Technology) (Hardcover)

I am in the coffee business and spend all my days roasting and tasting coffee samples, or traveling to coffee-producing origins. And I actually prefer beer to wine (I'm a home brewer too). I say that as a preface to this: Wine Tasting by Ronald Jackson is the best book on sensory analysis I have ever read. It's a dry read, but that is why it works. It dismisses the romance of sensory experience in favor of a more empirical approach. In that way, it makes me actually appreciate what I am trying to do with coffee cupping on a daily basis, and understand how the tasting process can be fraught with errors. It also confronts the myth of super tasters and the huge egos you find in this kind of business, and helps me organize my methods of tasting to get the best results. So whatever the beverage, get this book!!!