Another treatise on wine.
599500
Poor editing and TMI about wine and cooking in Ms. Kelley's Six Months in Montana were easily overlooked because of the charming story line. Mistletoe in Montana has very little to redeem the work. Poor editing throughout the book and words omitted from several sentences make for annoying reading. Entire sections of several chapters were cut and pasted from the first book and again, the reader is bombarded with details of the social life of the rich and famous. While there were fewer cooking instructions in this book, wine bottles were opened so frequently that I began to wonder if Ms. Kelley is sponsored by the wine industry.
4434027
Great resource on wines from South Africa with good information on its origins. Historical information is provided as well as details on the latest developments.
4306133
it's really an updated version of oishinbo but emphasis on the wine. However, i learned more about food & wine reading oishinbo as it is so spot on[the most amazing part is that the info was written in the 80s & way ahead of its time as it is still true today]. This novel rambles about the wine but it's again is repetitive in what makes it a good wine & the imagery is somewhat stupid & hokey.

In oishinbo wine, it states that a lot of wine & sake by big beweries are processed by coal filtering which makes every wine taste the same. Consistency=artificial=fake. So I wonder when this series will bring this fact about reasonable price wines??
2017929
This book was recommended by a person at the Wolersheim Winery in Wisconsin. It is great! It is a must have.
4914764
More information and history than you can imagine. Very easy and well written. I would recommend this book for anyone who enjoys wine or in the industry.
1766603
It's a pocket reference with good, better, and best on each page.  Black and white photos of bottles, so they're easier to locate.  Can't speak to the authenticity of it's reviews.  As I'm not going out to buy every wine on the shelf.  It's a gift and I've wrote all I really know about it.
1296386
Great little introductory book for sensory analysis of wine.
4952565
I did not like it much in terms of wine knowledge but liked the humor, writer has tried to induced in the wine-talk.
254841
Nice read for one time. Writer sticks to his agenda of wine talk and how to take it forward with a group. may be i was expecting a little more from this book. A nice book for those who would like tips on how to talk about wine.
820719
Learned some new and interesting things. Good for someone with basic to intermediate knowledge.  There is always things to learn about wine.
94019
By Bill Marsano.  James Conaway bids fair to be called the Boswell of Napa Valley, biographer-historian not only of Napa as one of the worlds great vineyards but of the people and powers who revere or rule it and, he greatly fears, will one day ruin it. Conaway began what must now be called his Napa Triptych with "Napa: The Story of an American Eden" in 1990 and followed it in 2002 with "The Far Side of Eden: New Money, Old Land, and the Battle for Napa Valley," both of which tracked the increasing commercialization of Californias demi-eden. He now concludes with Last Light, in which the battle again pits Big Money against Little People. The former, as is customary, think immense wealth entitles them to do whatever they want and will not hesitate to beat you to death with lawyers to make the point. The latter--preservationists, conservationists, ecologists and advocates of neighborly small-town lifevainly hope for laws to be upheld and the public respected. Fat chance. The issue comes down to this: ordinary folk want to retain the decades-old legal definition of a winery (i.e., a place where wine is made) and powerful interests want to expand it into a plunderland of intensive commercial development for anything and everything to do with profiting from wine. They want more tasting rooms, more tourists, more restaurants, more motels (including a dog motel), more event spaces and more facilities for selling direct to the consumer, which is ever so much more profitable than shipping the stuff all over the country through innumerable distributors and retailers, each of whom takes his cut. The Little People were worried about more noise and traffic, increased pollution, water supply and purity, deforestation and heaps of building waste from the construction of hillside ranchettes where city people can pretend to be a part of the very quality of life they're destroying. Conaway is clearly on the side of Small, no question, but hes too honest to load the dice; in any event he doesnt need to. All those lawyers and vintners and developers and trade associations, aided and abetted by compliant and/or spineless public officials make the issues clear and the outcome inevitable. After all, were talking about a place where only a few years ago arrogance reached such a pitch that one of the leading industry titans tried to change the name of Black Mountain to reflect the name of the vineyard he owned on its slopes.--Bill Marsano is a veteran writer and editor; a James Beard award winner, he was also the wine-and-spirits editor of United Airlines Hemispheres magazine.
195991
My study of philosophy ended at approximately the time that my love for wine came fully into bloom. I appreciate both, though wine the more so, as it comforts and befriends whereas philosophy is concerned merely with proving the unprovable. It is, however, a great mental pleasure to indulge now and again in the kind of speculative thought and deep reasoning that characterizes the best of philosophical speculation. And what better companion to such literally heady work than a glass of something wonderful and thought-provoking.

Roger Scruton knows whereof he speaks, which is not to imply that he is always, or even usually, correct. But he does posit some compelling thoughts and relativities. For the non-philosopher, this book requires some chipping away at the high-browed facade to get to "the good stuff." But it's there. A true thinker is rare these days and takes a bit of getting used to. Yet, his huge streak of hedonism, his excellent wine knowledge, especially of lesser known and under-appreciated wines, his love of travel and music and human experience in general all give value to the reader. While this book will be a bit much, a bit dense to many, the mere attempt at digesting it will benefit either or both, the wino or the philosopher.
4386355
An interesting read but more for wine novices than oenophiles. That should not be considered a criticism as one author was the writer while the other was seriously interested in wine. Still this book is useful for people wanting to visit Minnesota wineries and learning more about cold climate wine making problems.
It also addresses the comparative cost of wine from other than the top regions and suggests you support these efforts as the quality is improving. Having just returned from Spain, this is true all around the world where good wine is forcing out bad. It is not how it compares to a California or French wine but how serious an effort it is.
2169302
This monograph offers a unique approach to wine tasting based on an analytical discourse on the elements associated with wine quality. The book takes each major component of wine quality including ripeness, concentration, balance, complexity, and wine finish among others, and relates them to various winemaking, descriptive, as well as some philosophical details. Essential stuff for the enthusiast. It is not a guide on the basic mechanics of wine tasting nor a tasting survey of wine styles, which can be found in countless other books. Perrotti-Brown is a Master of Wine and is the editor in chief as well as a critic for Robert Parkers Wine Advocate.
1184382
The book provides useful additional nformation and Parkers reviews.  However, it is no where near as comprehensive as the Clive Coates book. And it is very much coloured by Parkers personal wine preferences, whch favours wine with greater concentration. It is the world according to Parker. And it is now out of date.  This being said, it was a useful addition to my Burgundy library.  I like to read several points of view when considering a wine purchase. It would not have been my 1st Burgundy book purchase.  The Coates book is still the seminal work. Great Domaines of Burgundy was and would be my #2 purchase. I bought the Parker book at a used book price.
2270903
Maybe I was hoping for something different, but in general this is not a book of depth.  Each 2-4 page essay is well-written in a literary, yet unpretentious style.  If you're looking for a wine book to read in 5 minute spurts, this is it.  But you don't get much more than a few names, descriptors or anecdotes with each section.  It's a shallow if entertaining approach.

Probably more to the point is that a significant proportion of the book is devoted to famous "name" wines.  If you're reading in the hope of learning about something new to try, the author's vignettes on great Bordeaux vintages aren't of much use.  This sort of wine writing is anachronistic as these are collector's wines for those with great wealth.  Contemporary wine writing is best when focused on regions, styles or producers that are generally available.

Thus, I think the author spends too much time fawning over the unattainable--which required the help of wealthy friends for him to experience in the first place.  The sections discussing more obscure wines are far more useful to the curious reader, and fortunately this is most of the book.
3764993
Jim is a brilliant fountain of viticultural information. Great read. Excellent information! Thanks, Jim!