This guide shows readers how to visit France for a day, a weekend or a holiday, how to stay somewhere comfortable, sample mouth-watering cuisine, visit elegant chateaux and vineyards. How to taste, talk, learn and buy good wine, very cheaply, with the added bonus of beautiful surroundings. How to meet the winemakers themselves, and how to negotiate the hypermarket wine section with grace and ease.

Award-winning sommelier Chris Morrison believes that your wine decisions should be driven by your own sense of taste - and by the way you like to eat, drink and live. In This Is Not A Wine Guide he helps readers develop the confidence to choose, purchase, serve, share and ultimately even collect wine without feeling the need to rely on the 'old rules' involving notes, scores, jargon and reviews. Morrison answers the question all of us ponder when faced with choosing wine from a wine list or from the bottleshop shelf: 'Where do I start?' This Is Not A Wine Guide tackles the fundamentals and then moves from the bottle forwards: into the reasons you choose it, open it and drink it; with what company, under what circumstances, in what glasses - and with what food. Because this is a wine book for people who also love food. For Morrison, food and its taste and textures represent the narrative that can unlock wine - 'wine doesn't make sense without food'. This Is Not A Wine Guide is packed with information and advice to help you get the most out of your wine experience, whether it's cracking a bottle for a barbecue, navigating a wine list in a restaurant, wondering what to serve with kimchi, or what to do when the cork crumbles.

Americans learned how to make wine successfully about two hundred years ago, after failing for more than two hundred years. Thomas Pinney takes an engaging approach to the history of American wine by telling its story through the lives of 13 people who played significant roles in building an industry that now extends to every state. While some names - such as Mondavi and Gallo - will be familiar, others are less well known. These include the wealthy Nicholas Longworth, who produced the first popular American wine; the German immigrant George Husmann, who championed the native Norton grape in Missouri and supplied rootstock to save French vineyards from phylloxera; Frank Schoonmaker, who championed the varietal concept over wines with misleading names; and, Maynard Amerine, who helped make UC Davis a world-class winemaking school.

This book covers the basics of making wine and how and what various types differ. The author shows you how to train your palate so that you are able judge the relative qualities of the wine you produce. It includes 55 recipes as well as instructions for racking, processing and maturing.

After reading this intriguing book, a glass of wine will be more than hints of blackberries or truffles on the palate. Written by the author of the popular, award-winning website DrVino.com, "Wine Politics" exposes a little-known but extremely influential aspect of the wine business - the politics behind it. Tyler Colman systematically explains how politics affects what we can buy, how much it costs, how it tastes, what appears on labels, and more. He offers an insightful comparative view of wine-making in Napa and Bordeaux, tracing the different paths American and French wines take as they travel from vineyard to dining room table. Colman also explores globalization in the wine business and illuminates the role of behind-the-scenes players such as governments, distributors, and prominent critics who wield enormous clout. Throughout, "Wine Politics" reveals just how deeply politics matters - right down to the taste of the wine in your glass tonight.

An indispensable book for every wine lover, from some of the world's greatest experts. Where do wine grapes come from and how are they related to each other? What is the historical background of each grape variety? Where are they grown? What sort of wines do they make and, most importantly, what do they taste like? Using the most cutting-edge DNA analysis and detailing almost 1,400 distinct grape varieties, as well as myriad correct (and highlighting almost as many incorrect) synonyms, this particularly beautiful book includes revelatory grape family trees, and a rich variety of illustrations from Viala and Vermorel's seminal ampelography with century-old illustrations. Combining Jancis Robinson's world view, nose for good writing and good wines with Julia Harding's expertise and attention to detail plus Dr Vouillamoz's unique level of scholarship, Wine Grapes offers essential and original information in greater depth and breadth than has ever been available before. A book for wine students, wine experts and wine lovers everywhere. AWARDS Best Wine, Beer and Spirits Book and winner of the Jane Grigson award, IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals) Awards 2014 A wine book of the year, 2013, The Times, London Faiveley International Wine Book of the Year 2013, Roederer Awards Best Viticulture Book 2013, OIV Awards Best Drink Book 2012, Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards Best Beverage Book 2012, James Beard Awards Best Drink Book 2012, Andre Simon Awards Hall of Fame for Best Wine Book 2012, Gourmand World Cookbook Awards Best Drinks Book 2012, Wine & Spirits magazine One of the V&A's '100 books essential for preserving humanity'

Winner of the André Simon Drinks Book of the Year Award 2017. Winner of the IACP award in Wine, Beer & Spirits 2018.

A stunning box set, complete with seven vintage maps in a pull-out drawer.

Based on six years of on-the-ground research and unprecedented access to actual Champagne growers, Champagne is the first book to actually describe producers and wines based on their terroir – enlightening readers by showing them exactly where, how, and by whom these great wines are made.

Champagne is one of the most iconic, sought-after wines in the world, beloved by serious wine collectors as well as everyday wine drinkers. However, it is also one of the most misunderstood wines out there – obscured by a multimillion-pound marketing industry that makes it difficult for consumers to honestly judge value and understand what they’re drinking.

Included in the stunning box set are the Louis Larmat vinicultural maps – the only detailed wine maps of the region, which were commissioned by the French government in the mid-1940s and have never appeared in print in English.

Wine critic and writer Steve Heimoff, inspired by Robert Benson's "Great Winemakers of California" (1977), traversed the state of California to record lively and informative conversations with more than two dozen winemakers and grape growers who represent today's leaders and visionaries. While Benson's book captured a wine industry on the brink of exponential growth and recognition, Heimoff surveys a multibillion-dollar business with a global reputation and new issues to face. Heimoff has followed this industry for more than twenty-five years, visiting all parts of the state and monitoring changing styles and trends, and his interviews provide an oral history of contemporary California winemaking. He reveals the personalities, intellects, philosophies, and passions of the individual winemakers, as well as their opinions on recent high-alcohol vintages, globalization, and the 'cult' wine phenomenon. Through this intimate and engaging book, wine lovers can sit in on the back and forth as Heimoff and his vintner subjects talk informally about their favorite subject: wine. The interviewees include: John Alban, Mark Aubert, Heidi Peterson Barrett, Andy Beckstoffer, Greg Brewer, Merry Edwards, Elias Fernandez, Gina Gallo, Rolando Herrera, Genevieve Janssens, Kathy Joseph, Greg La Follette, Adam and Dianna Lee, Dan Morgan Lee, Bob Levy, Rick Longoria, Javier Tapia Meza, Gary, Jeff, and Mark Pisoni, Kent Rosenblum, Ted Seghesio, Doug Shafer, Justin Smith, Tony Soter, Brian Talley, Michael Terrien, Randy Ullom, Margo van Staaveren, and Bill Wathan.

As the global wine industry reinvents itself for twenty firstOCocentury palates, Washington is poised to become as important and influential as California on the world stage. National and international attention has brought interest in the stateOCOs wines to an all-time high. Yet, in just the past few years, a tidal wave of change has rolled over the stateOCOs wine industry. To keep wine enthusiasts thoroughly up to date, Paul Gregutt has now completely revised and expanded his critically acclaimed guide to WashingtonOCOs best grapes, vineyards, wines, winemakers, and wineries. With twice as many winery and vineyard profiles, updated tasting notes, and new recommended producers for each grape variety, this edition of "Washington Wines and Wineries" will continue to be the definitive reference on the subject."

Robert V. Camuto's interest in wine turned into a passion when he moved to France and began digging into local soils and cellars. Corkscrewed recounts Camuto's journey through France's myriad regions-and how the journey brought about a profound change in everything he believed about wine. The world of great wines was once dominated by great Bordeaux chateaux. As those chateaux were bought up by moguls and international corporations, the heart of French winemaking moved into the realm of small producers, whose wines reflect the stunning diversity of regional environment, soil, and culture-terroir. In this book we follow Camuto across France as he works harvesting grapes in Alsace, learns about wine and bombs in Corsica, and eats and drinks his way through the world's greatest bacchanalia in Burgundy. Along the route he discovers a new generation of winemakers who have rejected chemicals, additives, and technologically altered wines. His book charts an odyssey into this new world of French wine, a world of biodynamic winegrowing, herbal treatments, lunar cycles, and grape varieties long ago dismissed as "difficult." A celebration of the diversity that makes French wine more than a mere commodity, Camuto's work is a delightful look beyond the supermarket to the various flavors offered by the true vintners of France.

Sure, drinking wine is all fun and good times, but learning about it isn't always as easy. With Grasping the Grape, Maryse Chevriere seeks to be like that friend from school you went to for help because they took the best notes in class (complete with visuals). Featuring profiles of more than 30 of the world's most prominent grapes, this guide to wine gives you the quick download on all the essentials: What the variety tastes like, where it's grown, what wines it's known for, what to drink it with, how to describe it and which other grapes to explore if you're a fan. Because when it comes down to it, learning the grapes is the best way to start your journey into wine.

In Grasping the Grape, you'll also find information on key beginner wine drinking topics like how to become a better shopper and FAQs about rosé, as well as a handy plan of action for food and wine pairing, and a drinking game to help you become a sharper taster. If you weren't grasping for a glass of wine before, you will be after this.

Each year our team travels to every wine-growing area of Spain to taste and review new varieties, labels and vintages. As a result, each year's edition contains fresh information about the most important up-and-coming names in the business. The 2018 guide is no different. Whatever your budget, Penin Guide To Spanish Wine 2018 is the ultimate work of reference for those who wish to delve into the darkly seductive world of Spanish wine. This fantastic compilation also explores wine-growing, taking into account regional environmental factors such as soil, climate and grape variety. Instructing readers on the basics of wine tasting, with advice on the best way to store and appreciate wine, this is an invaluable guide for both professionals and enthusiastic amateurs.

'Sooner or later, nearly everyone who cares about wine and food comes to Sonoma' - so begins this lively excursion to a spectacular region that has become known internationally as a Locavore's paradise. Part memoir, part vivid reportage, "Field Days" chronicles the renaissance in farming organically and eating locally that is unfolding in Northern California. Jonah Raskin tells of the year he spent on Oak Hill Farm - working the fields, selling produce at farmers' markets, and following it to restaurants. He also goes behind the scenes at Whole Foods. In this luminous account of his experiences, Raskin introduces a dynamic cast of characters - farmers, chefs, winemakers, farm workers, and environmentalists. They include such luminaries as: Warren Weber at Star Route Farm, the oldest certified organic farm in Marin County; Bob Cannard, who has supplied Chez Panisse with vegetables for decades; Sharon Grossi, the owner of the largest organic farm in Sonoma; and, Craig Stoll, the founder and executive chef at Delfina in San Francisco. Raskin also offers portraits of renowned historical figures, including Luther Burbank, Jack London, and M.F.K. Fisher. "Field Days" is a heartfelt celebration of the farm-to-table movement and its cultural reverberations.

Each year our team travels to every wine-growing area of Spain to taste and review new varieties, labels and vintages. As a result, each year's edition contains fresh information about the most important up-and-coming names in the business. The 2017 guide is no different. Whatever your budget, Guia Penin is the ultimate work of reference for those who wish to delve into the darkly seductive world of Spanish wine. This fantastic compilation also explores wine-growing, taking into account regional environmental factors such as soil, climate and grape variety. Instructing readers on the basics of wine tasting, with advice on the best way to store and appreciate wine, this is an invaluable guide for both professionals and enthusiastic amateurs.

After reading this intriguing book, a glass of wine will be more than hints of blackberries or truffles on the palate. Written by the author of the popular, award-winning website DrVino.com, "Wine Politics" exposes a little-known but extremely influential aspect of the wine business - the politics behind it. Tyler Colman systematically explains how politics affects what we can buy, how much it costs, how it tastes, what appears on labels, and more. He offers an insightful comparative view of wine-making in Napa and Bordeaux, tracing the different paths American and French wines take as they travel from vineyard to dining room table. Colman also explores globalization in the wine business and illuminates the role of behind-the-scenes players such as governments, distributors, and prominent critics who wield enormous clout. Throughout, "Wine Politics" reveals just how deeply politics matters - right down to the taste of the wine in your glass tonight.

Featuring more than two hundred in-depth winery profiles, this definitive guide is the best single source of information on world-renowned pinot noirs from California and Oregon. Drawing on his encyclopedic knowledge of a grape variety considered by many to produce the ultimate food wine, John Winthrop Haeger offers this expanded, updated companion volume to his award-winning "North American Pinot Noir. "Here, with three times the number of winery profiles, he focuses exclusively on what he calls the Pacific Pinot Zone, stretching from the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon to Santa Barbara in California and extending up to thirty miles inland. An introductory essay provides an indispensable view of pinot noir in the United States--including the dramatic effect that the movie "Sideways "has had on its sales and production.
"Pacific Pinot Noir" features:
* Detailed descriptive tasting notes and selected vertical tastings
* At-a-glance graphics conveying information on tasting rooms, prices, and production for each winery
* Regional maps showing key viticultural areas
* Contact information for each winery

In comparative tastings, wines from California's Central Coast rival those from such renowned regions as Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Napa, yet they also offer superb value. This is the first comprehensive guide to one of the world's most dynamic and beautiful wine regions-and the setting for the award-winning movie "Sideways." An excellent, one-stop resource for touring and tasting at convenient wineries located from Monterey to Santa Barbara, the guide is organized into county-by-county alphabetical listings for this up-and-coming region.
"Wines and Wineries of California's Central Coast "includes:
* Profiles of nearly 300 wineries personally visited by the author
* Profiles of individual vintners
* 5 maps
* Winery ratings, plus author and winemaker recommendations
* Visitors' and contact information for each winery
* Discussions of regional wine history and terroir
* Descriptions of designated American Viticultural Areas and grape varietals

Acclaimed importer and wine guru Terry Theise, long known for his top-notch portfolio and his illustrious writing, now offers this opinionated, idiosyncratic, and beautifully written testament to wine. What constitutes beauty in wine, and how do we appreciate it? What role does wine play in a soulful, sensual life? Can wines of place survive in a world of globalized styles and 100-point scoring systems? In his highly approachable style, Theise describes how wine can be a portal to aesthetic, emotional, even mystical experience - and he frankly asserts that these experiences are most likely to be inspired by wines from artisan producers. Along the way, Theise tells us a little about how he got where he is today, explores the meaning of wine in the lives of vintners he has known, and praises particular grape varieties. "Reading between the Wines" is a passionate tribute to wine - and to what it can say to us once we learn to listen.

Which Wine When offers brilliant wine matches to the food we eat every day.

This is for anyone who knows their sourdough from their sliced white but still finds themselves standing in the wine aisle making panicked decisions about what to drink based on special offers, a vague memory or a nice-looking label.

Now you’ll be able to look up dish or style of cooking and find three recommendations – and if the shop doesn’t have what you want, Bert and Claire give you the words to ask for the type of wine you’re looking for. From take aways and snacks to Sunday lunches, home cooking classics, cheese and desserts, these expert wine matches are fun, affordable and simple enough you can pop to a supermarket or local wine shop.

Whether you’re ordering a curry, taking a bottle to a friends, going out for dinner, or vegging out on the sofa with a bowl of pasta, Which Wine When will turn even the most down-to-earth meal into a magical combination of what’s on your plate and what’s in your glass.

Writing in the immediate aftermath of World War II, wine merchant, gentleman soldier and cricketer Ian Maxwell Campbell casts an affectionate and occasionally wistful look back at the Golden Age of wine, when Bordeaux was affordable, Burgundy's finest vintages tended towards cannibalism and other wines could be... well, surprisingly attractive. Among the tales of convivial drinking and anecdotes involving Winston Churchill and WG Grace, the author paints a vivid picture of a pre-war (and pre-phylloxera) wine world whose horizons were about to expand beyond all imagining. Wayward Tendrils of the Vine, though, is much more than a collection of reminiscences. As Neal Martin points out in his Introduction: "The title alone is a perfect allegory for how we learn about wine, how knowledge grows organically over time, never knowing what the next bottle will teach us, how it might alter preconceptions or where it might lead." The Classic Editions breathe new life into some of the finest wine-related titles written in the English language over the last 150 years. Although these books are very much products of their time - a time when the world of fine wine was confined mostly to the frontiers of France and the Iberian Peninsula and a First Growth Bordeaux or Grand Cru Burgundy wouldn't be beyond the average purse - together they recapture a world of convivial, enthusiastic amateurs and larger-than-life characters whose love of fine vintages mirrored that of life itself.

Gerald Asher, who served as "GourmetOCO"s wine editor for thirty years, has drawn together this selection of his essays, published in Gourmet and elsewhere, for the collective insight they give into why a wine should always be an expression of a place and a time. Guiding the reader through twenty-seven diverse wine regions in France, Italy, Spain, Germany, and California, he shows how every wine worth drinking is a reflection of its "terroir"OCoin the broadest sense of that untranslatable word. In evocative reminiscences of wines, winemakers, and the meals he has had with them, he weaves together climate, terrain, and local history, sharing his knowledge and experience so skillfully that we learn as we are entertained and come to understand, gradually, that the meaning and pleasure of a wine lie always in the context of its origin and in the concurrence of where, how, and with whom we enjoy it."

In 1998, Gary and Rosemary Barletta purchased seven acres of land on the eastern shore of Cayuga Lake. Descending to the west from the state route that runs along on the ridge overlooking the lake, the land was fertile, rich with shalestone and limestone bedrock, and exposed to moderating air currents from the lake. It was the perfect place to establish a vineyard, and the Barlettas immediately began to plant their vines and build the winery about which they had dreamed for years.

The Barlettas' story, as John C. Hartsock tells it, is a window onto the world of contemporary craft winemaking, from the harsh realities of business plans, vineyard pests, and brutal weather to the excitement of producing the first vintage, greeting enthusiastic visitors on a vineyard tour, and winning a gold medal from the American Wine Society for a Cabernet Franc. Above all, Seasons of a Finger Lakes Winery describes the connection forged among the vintner, the vine, and terroir. This ancient bond, when tended across the cycle of seasons, results in excellent wines and the satisfaction, on the part of the winemaker and the wine enthusiast, of tasting a perfect harvest in a single glass.

Today, Long Point Winery sits on seventy-two acres (eight of which are under cultivation with vinifera grapes) and produces sixteen varieties of wine, a number of which are estate wines made from grapes grown on their property. With interest in winemaking continuing to grow, the Barlettas' experience of making award-winning wines offers both practical advice for anyone running (or thinking of running) their own winery, whether in the Finger Lakes or elsewhere, as well as insights into the challenges and joys of pursuing a dream.