Essential Winetasting: The Complete Practical Winetasting Course

Description

This new edition of Essential Winetasting has 20% more pages and has been substantially rewritten and updated, and there are numerous new illustrations. The maps have been completely revised and they all have up-to-date statistics for the 2014 vintage. The nine practical Tastings have been redesigned, each now with an initial advice panel on preparatory reading from the book, plus a subsequent quiz panel as a reinforcement. The See Also boxes remain, on almost every spread, as a cross reference system for the whole volume, a uniquely powerful learning tool. At the more advanced tasting level there is a completely new and detailed Quality Calibration Tasting on perceiving and recognizing quality, and a comprehensive section on Blind Tasting in all its forms. Additional new material covers Organic, Biodynamic and Natural Wines; Alcohol; Wine Gadgets; and Wine at Home and On the Table. Above all the book offers a particularly clear and precise means of teaching yourself how to taste and how to get more out of your wine, whatever your level. BEFORE THE BOTTLE INTRODUCTION 1. You and your senses Sight Smell Taste and tasting Words and qualities Values 2. Viticulture and vinification In the vineyard The grape Dry white winemaking Climate change Red winemaking Sweet white winemaking Organics, biodynamics; natural wines Oak Winemakers IN THE BOTTLE 3. Naming wines Names and labels 4. White grapes and their wines 5. Red grapes and their wines 6. Sparkling and fortified wines Sparkling wines Sherry Port Madeira IN THE GLASS 7. The tastings How to use the tastings Practicalities Basic tastes and wine structure Tasting 1. Style and quality in dry whites Wine and temperature Tasting 2. Terroir and quality in dry whites Closures Tasting 3. Dry whites: old world vs new world Tasting technique summary Making notes Tasting 4. Sparkling wines: style and quality Decanting Tasting 5. Style and tannin in reds Gadgets Tasting 6. Terroir and quality in reds Wines and age Terroir Tasting 7. Reds: old world vs new world Wine faults Tasting 8. Medium-dry and sweet whites Wine nonsense Tasting 9. Sherry, Madeira and port Alcohol Tasting 10. Calibrating quality: length Scores ... the anarchy of numbers Aromas, complexity, time Bubbles Blind tasting Looking back: answers Summary of the tasting course and further reading 8. Wine and food Two glasses – always compare Wine service at home REFERENCE 9. Maps Maps and fact boxes Glossary of tasting terms Acknowledgements About the author Picture credits