Let Me Tell You About Wine - A beginner's guide to understanding and enjoying wine

by Oz Clarke

You don’t need to know all about wine regions or how wine is made to choose wine with confidence. If you like the sound of intense, blackcurranty reds or aromatic whites, this book will tell you how to find these flavours in the wines you buy, regardless of whether the wine is labelled by grape variety or by country.

Drinking wine is all about enjoyment. In this new digital edition, Oz explains how to get maximum enjoyment out of every bottle you buy, from dealing with broken corks, to learning basic tasting techniques, spotting faulty wine, and matching food and wine, whether at home or in a restaurant. In Oz’s down-to-earth guide to all the world’s major wine regions you’ll find everything you need to know to navigate your way round a wine shop or wine website. Oz explores grape varieties, flavours and styles, giving equal consideration to classic wine regions – such as Bordeaux and Chianti – and the newer wine-producing countries such as New Zealand, Australia, Chile and Argentina. Do vintages matter? Are the wines good value for money? Oz tells you everything you really need to know. Gradually building your knowledge with expert tips, information boxes and wines to try, this is a complete guide for the beginner wine enthusiast.

Author Information
A former leading West End actor, Oz Clarke is one of the world's best known wine experts, whose formidable reputation is based on his extensive wine knowledge and accessible, no-nonsense approach. Known for his phenomenal palate, irreverent style, accurate predictions and enthusiasm for life in general, Oz is Britain's most popular wine writer.

Genres: Wine, Nonfiction, Food, Reference

536 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2009

Reviews

[Brian Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant guide to wine for a beginner as well as a more informed wine enthusiast I especially enjoyed the country-by-country articles in Part 3. There's some specific suggestions made in those articles too, which is helpful. This book is well worth the price. It's one to keep on hand for general reference purposes.

[Ilva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ļoti laba grāmata iesācējiem.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy, fun survey/intro to wine

[Rob Slaven · Rating 5 out of 5]

As usual I received this book for the purposes of review; this time from NetGalley. Also as usual I will give my candid opinions below.

Usually what I would do next is give the positives and negatives of the book. In this case it's difficult to be sure since everything I say can either be interpreted as positive or negative. Therefore, I resort to bulletpoints.

* This one is most assuredly positive. The book is just filled with all manner of photos, maps, diagrams and every other imaginable visual aid.

* The book is meticulously detailed. This is no beginner's guide; I've seen textbooks in Organic Chemistry that contained less information. For each wine you get enough information that you could practically grow the grapes yourself.

* In addition to the depth of knowledge, the book's scope is amazingly broad. It tells you not only how to choose a wine but where it was grown, what weather conditions it prefers and all the way to how to get the cork out.

In summary, you really only need one book on wine and this is that book. If there's something about wine that's not in this book then you don't need to know it.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good on ya', Oz! I'm working on scripts for a series of short wine education videos for work and this has been a fantastic reference for getting back to the basics.

I love that he introduces wine as a series of flavor profiles. The focus on a common set of flavors takes the mystery out of what's in the glass. Clark provides the foundation of what we should look for in a wine's aroma, bouquet, texture.

The regional descriptions are as clear and succinct as they could be, given the tangled web of country, state and district appellation laws and classification systems.

The section on matching food and wine offers a brief but excellent template for considering flavors and wine styles.

All in all, a big thumb's up for a comprehensive and engaging guide to exploring wine. Purty pictures, too. The opening shot of Lake Wanaka in Central Otago about broke my heart. Mr. Clark definitely has an affinity for Aotearoa and its gorgeous wines!

[Ivy Weston · Rating 5 out of 5]

My husband, who spent many years in the restaurant business, tries to educate me about wine. The problem is that because we're usually drinking wine when he is trying to educate me, most of it goes in one ear and out the other. So this book for me was very helpful. It breaks down, in a very non-pompous, non-pretentious, non-wine-snobby kind of way, the different types of wine, regions, etc. for those who enjoy wine but don't know dick about it. It's a lovely book too, and would be great for displaying on the coffee table if you're into that sort of thing. If you read it while you're sober, you'll get the most out of it.

[Lindsey Duncan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a clear, straightforward and informative overview of the basic principles of wine drinking. There is little here of how the wines are made or the long-term history of viticulture: instead, this book focuses on understanding flavors and how to find and appreciate them. The discussion of the various grapes was particularly valuable to me; another useful aspect was the way Clarke outlined the naming and labeling of wines. A bit of the snob shows - he obviously feels red wines are of superior consideration. But I found this a good guide for all levels; it's laid out in a way that provides a framework for further information.

[V · Rating 3 out of 5]

A customer brought this in for trade and the timing was excellent since Matt and I have been enjoying James Mays' forced tutelage at Oz's hands on BBC America. Read it and am now more on James' side.

[Angel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have posted my full review of this on my blog, The Itinerant Librarian. Feel free to click the link to read it.

Link to reviewhere.

[Rebecca Emin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great beginners guide to wine, written in Oz Clarke's typically clear and honest style. The text is easy to understand and concise. This is a useful reference book which also contains great pictures.

I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Artsalnov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Оз очень толковый! Особенно для такого чайника в вине как я)
Эта книга просто обязана стать настольной для тех, кто постоянно собирает посиделки с друзьями и винишком, да!

Теперь осталось найти что-то такое же достойное, но уже про мир виски!

[Mike_msc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Интересно написанный обзор сортов винограда и винодельческих регионов. Из минусов - недостаточно авторских оценок и комментариев, тем более, что там, где они встречаются, они являются украшением книги: ёмко и кратко, с юмором и субьективностью, так, как и нужно.

[Phil · Rating 2 out of 5]

Only so-so. Too basic even for the beginner - there are better books out there.

[Burcu · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a good start for learning wine or it can be a useful source for people who just wants a practical guide about wine.

[Darren Lipomi · Rating 2 out of 5]

The section about grapes and the section about locations will not amuse you unless you have some foundation. I found the center section about the winemaking process the most interesting.