Secrets of the Sommeliers

Secrets of the Sommeliers
Author: Rajat Parr
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2010-10-19
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 158008298X

A fascinating exploration of the inside world of sommeliers, sharing their unique perspectives, extensive expertise, and best stories. Rajat Parr’s profound knowledge of wines, deep relationships with producers, and renowned tasting abilities have made him a legend in the business. As wine director for the Mina Group, Parr presides over the lists at some of the country’s top restaurants. In Secrets of the Sommeliers, Parr and journalist Jordan Mackay present a fascinating portrait of the world’s top wine professionals and their trade. The authors interviewed the elite of the sommelier community, and their colleagues’ insights, recommendations, and entertaining stories are woven throughout, along with Parr’s own takes on his profession and favorite winemakers and wines. Along the way, the authors give an immersion course in tasting and serving wine; share strategies for securing hard-to-find bottles at a good price and identifying value sweetspots among the many regions; and teach readers how to make inspired food pairings. Winner - 2011 James Beard Cookbook Award - Beverage Category

The Sommelier's Atlas of Taste

The Sommelier's Atlas of Taste
Author: Rajat Parr
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2018-10-23
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 0399578242

Winner of the prestigious André Simon Drink Book Award The first definitive reference book to describe, region-by-region, how the great wines of Europe should taste. This will be the go-to guide for aspiring sommeliers, wine aficionados who want to improve their blind tasting skills, and amateur enthusiasts looking for a straightforward and visceral way to understand and describe wine. In this seminal addition to the wine canon, noted experts Rajat Parr and Jordan Mackay share everything they've learned in their decades of tasting wine. The result is the most in-depth study of the world's greatest wine regions ever published. There are books that describe the geography of wine regions. And there are books that describe the way basic wines and grapes should taste. But there are no books that describe the intricacies of the way wines from various subregions, soils, and appellations should taste. Now, for the first time ever, you can learn about the differences between wines from the 7 grand crus and 40 premier crus of Chablis, or the terroirs in Barolo, Champagne, and Bordeaux. Paying attention to styles, winemakers, soils, and the most cutting-edge of trends, this book explains how to understand the wines of the world not in the classical way, but in the modern way--appellation by appellation, soil by soil, technique by technique--making it an essential reference and instant classic.

Tasting Victory

Tasting Victory
Author: Gerard Basset
Publisher: Unbound Publishing
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2020-03-19
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1783528613

This the memoir of Gerard Basset, OBE, the greatest wine professional of his generation. A school dropout, Gerard had to come to England to discover his passion. He threw himself into learning everything he could about wine, immersing himself in the world of Michelin star restaurants and beginning the steep climb to the top of the career ladder. Tasting Victory charts his business successes: co-founding and selling the innovative Hotel du Vin chain and founding, with his wife Nina, the much-loved Hotel TerraVina. It recounts in detail just how he managed to earn his unprecedented sequence of qualifications; Gerard is the first and only individual to hold the famously difficult Master of Wine qualification simultaneously with that of Master Sommelier and MBA in Wine Business. But it is his pursuit of the most important award of all that forms the core of this book – how, at his seventh attempt, and after a training regime that would shame most Olympic athletes, the fifty-three-year-old Gerard Basset was finally crowned the Best Sommelier of the World, and acknowledged as the greatest sommelier of his generation. Gerard's memoir is not only the story of how a champion is made, but also a record of how fine dining and hospitality changed in England, going from stale and unexciting to the world-leading sector it is today. Above all, it’s a book about succeeding against great odds: in typical fashion it was when he was diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus that Gerard responded by deciding to write Tasting Victory, which he completed shortly before his death in January 2019.

Passion for Pinot

Passion for Pinot
Author:
Publisher: Random House Digital, Inc.
Total Pages: 164
Release: 2009-03-01
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 1580089860

A portrait of the most fashionable grape in the wine world, pairing vivid narrative and stunning photography to showcase top Pinot producers in California and Oregon.

Wine Secrets

Wine Secrets
Author: Marnie Old
Publisher: Quirk Books
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2010-08-01
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 1594744815

Inside Tips from Top Wine Experts Michael Mondavi, Jacques Pépin, Gina Gallo, and Kevin Zraly are just four of the contributors to Wine Secrets—a compilation of tips and tricks from today’s top wine experts, with advice on everything from buying and tasting to cooking and pairing. Readers will discover: • How to find the best wines by sticking to the classics • How to judge whether a wine is “good” • How to act like you know what you’re doing when ordering wine • How to guesstimate wine style from packaging clues • How to taste wine like a pro • And much, much more!

The Wine Savant: A Guide to the New Wine Culture

The Wine Savant: A Guide to the New Wine Culture
Author: Michael Steinberger
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2013-12-02
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 0393241564

“Entertaining and edifying. . . . [Steinberger] deftly shows how any and all of us can be savvier about wine.”—Bill Ward, Minneapolis Star Tribune Today’s dynamic wine culture calls for a different kind of wine book. The Wine Savant is just that: punchy, polemical, and brimming with insights to educate and entertain beginning wine drinkers and seasoned oenophiles alike. Never has the wine world had so much to offer, and never have smart decisions about value, quality, grape, and season been so difficult to make. In The Wine Savant, Michael Steinberger tramps through the world of contemporary wine—from three-buck Chuck and bucket-list Bordeaux to bottle speculators and biodynamic wineries—to give the inside scoop on the key concerns facing the new generation of wine lovers: • Why is California suddenly cool again? • What’s really the difference between a 95-point wine and a 94-point wine? • Why is Burgundy ascendant and Bordeaux suddenly so passé? • What’s a biodynamic wine, what’s a natural wine, and should you care? • Do food and wine pairings still matter? Featuring expert buying guides—including the New Kings of California and the World’s Great $25-and-Under Bottles—and tips on tough-to-pair cuisines like Indian and Japanese, The Wine Savant is the perfect guide to today’s often-bewildering realm of choice: ferociously opinionated and committed body and soul to enjoying every glass.

Representing Wine – Sensory Perceptions, Communication and Cultures

Representing Wine – Sensory Perceptions, Communication and Cultures
Author: Rosario Caballero
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2019-10-21
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027261911

Wine culture is a complex phenomenon of increasing importance in modern society, and it combines the joys of wine appreciation with the frustrations of trying to verbally communicate sensory impressions. While wine appreciation is traditionally characterized as joyously convivial in its social dimension, sensory impressions remain eminently private. This contrast explains why the language used to represent wine, or winespeak, is the object of increasing crossdisciplinary interest. This book analyzes the many different forms / many of the different forms of representing wine in present-day society, with a special emphasis on winespeak, starting from the premise that such study demands a genre approach to the many different communities involved in the wine world: producers/ critics/ merchants/ consumers. By combining the methodologies of Cognitive Linguistics and discourse analysis, the authors analyze extensive real-life corpora of wine reviews and multimodal artifacts (labels, advertisements, documentaries) to reflect on the many inherent difficulties but also to highlight the rich and creative figurative strategies employed to compensate for the absence of a proper wine jargon of a more unambiguous nature.

Godforsaken Grapes

Godforsaken Grapes
Author: Jason Wilson
Publisher: ABRAMS
Total Pages: 356
Release: 2018-04-24
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 1683352106

There are nearly 1,400 known varieties of wine grapes in the world—from altesse to zierfandler—but 80 percent of the wine we drink is made from only 20 grapes. In Godforsaken Grapes, Jason Wilson looks at how that came to be and embarks on a journey to discover what we miss. Stemming from his own growing obsession, Wilson moves far beyond the “noble grapes,” hunting down obscure and underappreciated wines from Switzerland, Austria, Portugal, France, Italy, the United States, and beyond. In the process, he looks at why these wines fell out of favor (or never gained it in the first place), what it means to be obscure, and how geopolitics, economics, and fashion have changed what we drink. A combination of travel memoir and epicurean adventure, Godforsaken Grapes is an entertaining love letter to wine.

Secrets of Wine (52 Brilliant Ideas)

Secrets of Wine (52 Brilliant Ideas)
Author: Giles Kime
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2007-07-03
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 1440622876

52 tips for becoming a wine connoisseur. For absolute beginners and seasoned connoisseurs alike, Secrets of Wine enlightens readers on the flavors and choices that await them. From powering up the palate to learning which glasses are a must, discover the art of the freethinking drinker-and get ready for a guided tour of the amazing world of enjoying wine. - Idea #7: Glass act - Idea #25: A user's guide to sommeliers - Idea #28: California dreaming - Idea #31: Que Syrah, Syrah

Hello, Wine

Hello, Wine
Author: Melanie Wagner
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2013-10-29
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 1452129673

This breezy-to-read but super-informative guidebook is a stylish primer for any newcomer to the endlessly fascinating world of wine. Master Sommelier Melanie Wagner's down-to-earth tone and comprehensive knowledge make learning about wine fun and approachable. Twelve chapters explore every aspect of wine—from how it is made to how to drink it—and provide helpful descriptions of grape varietals and recommendations that can be taken to the wine store. Featured alongside these many encouraging lessons and suggestions are 60 whimsical and informative color illustrations. With insights ranging from what makes a wine exceptional, palate-building, and enjoying wine with others, this is the perfect self-purchase or gift for anyone who wants a great wine resource.