Wine Appreciation Freeway Guide: Understanding, Ordering & Enjoying

by Robin Stark

Wish you knew more about wine so you could buy and order with confidence? Want to be able to participate in discussions about wine with friends or colleagues? This dynamic and entertaining audio program was especially created to give you the essential wine knowledge you need to feel comfortable in any situation and to enhance your everyday enjoyment of wine. Full of practical knowledge and easy tips, The Freeway Guide to Wine Appreciation is the fun and easy way to master the principles of wine enjoyment.

This powerful 80 minute program

-Teach you how to buy and order wine with confidence
-Explain all the wine terminology you will need for any situation
-Educate you about the different wine regions of the world
-Make you more comfortable with wine in social situations
-Show you how to enjoy wine more

Genres: Nonfiction

Audio CD

First published October 9, 2007

Reviews

[Jason Koivu]

Most of this tells you what many intro-to-wine-for-noobs guides are saying these days: the taste of wine is subjective, so drink what you like. And I actually did learn a little bit about wine, more specifically corks, "corked wine" and what it all means: Bacteria grows on the cork and screws the flavor, so they store the bottles on their sides and thus the alcohol stays in contact with the cork and prevents bacteria! Once wine traditionalists give up use of the cork, my cork knowledge will become obsolete. But until then, bring on the pub quiz!

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was very brief & I wished it went a little deeper, but it did give me quite a bit of info - did you know that white wine isn't necessarily made of white grapes? Some are made of red grapes but have had the skins & seeds removed! I found out I am definitely not a mature wine drinker, as I like Merlot, which is apparently more fruity than the best wine grapes and are used mostly to blend with other wines to tone them down. Doesn't matter - I still like it!

[Simon Bullock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Super quick and dirty overview of wine. A great place to start for those looking to learn more about wine, but certainly not a sufficient place to end your wine learning journey. The book uses some fun, and possibly gimmicky methods, to strip away any pretentiousness associated with wine. The book is successful in communicating the range of topics to learn, but stops there. If you've never read a wine book before, this is an ok place to start, but be sure to move on to some of the many other great resources out there.

[Jenny Jaramillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This audio book provides fundamental wine education with regard to tasting, varietals, selection, and purchasing. Robin presents the information in an upbeat and engaging way. I never got bored and I will be able to use this education to improve my selections and dialogue with other wine aficionados!

[Daniel Witteman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to it at work and it got me excited to go home and pull some corks. It presents a wealth of information in a fun and easy to follow manner. Listening made me want to explore more with wine and expand my palate. I'm already planning a second play through to learn a little more.

[Vanessa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very basic but great for killing time on the road.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Pretty good guide if you are not familiar with wine. Although I consider myself a novice, most of this info was repetitive to me. But it was a quick listen audiobook free from my library.

[Danielle Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this quick book about wine.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dense audiobook that's a nice into wine for the novice.

[Karina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Talk about a big bang for my buck(s)!

As someone in my early 20's and just getting my feet wet with wine I absolutely LOVED this CD. It's jam packed with information and though there are cheesy sound effects as some have mentioned I feel it really helped make the learning process fun and entertaining.

The CD has a plethora of tracks making it easy to brush up on particular subjects when necessary i.e. wine tasting, grape varieties, regions, tannins, oxidation, types of wines etc.

Overall I think this is a great investment for individuals that have an interest in wine. My friends directed me to a website where I payed about $13 for the CD.

[Steven Dzwonczyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went through this audio book twice because it was so full of information. I'm going to keep it on my MP3 player and listen a time or two more.

This is very good. I've been drinking wine for some 20 years and although I could tell you what I like, I couldn't adequately describe it or tell you why these wines appeal to me. This guide gives you all the essentials in an easy-to-understand format.

The production is a bit corny, but it is an effective teaching tool. I highly recommend spending a couple of hours listening to this one.

[Alyssa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of information, so I'm listening to certain sections several times to drill in things I wish I knew when I started going regularly to wine tastings a few years ago. It's pretty short (1 hr, 19 min.) and makes for a good commute listen or for when you don't have a lot of time at work to listen to a book. Don't be put off by the weird laugh track near the beginning.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The tips were pretty useful, and for how short it was, it still had quite a bit of information in it. However, the website she is talking about, freewayguides.com, doesn't seem to be running anymore. I wish I had access to those documents she's referencing. I also wish it was longer and a bit more comprehensive, though I guess that means it's time for another book.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of information in less than 2 hours. I listened to it twice! I wish it went more in depth into picking wines and discussing sweetness levels, but it was still a good resource. I went out and bought a Pinot noir that I never would have tried before the book.

[Mandie Pendola · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for a tiny bit of information but I wasn't super impressed

[Sal Coraccio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice easy overview - a quick read that I'm looking forward to repeating.

[Shel · Rating 4 out of 5]

It turned out to be such a fun book to listen to, even my kids liked it.

[Eric Schechter · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great use of 80 minutes. Not only taught me a number of things, but was fun listening to. Not a lecture, but interaction. I'll listen to this again.