Wine Fundamentals

Rating:
Summary: Wine Fundamentals and MUCH MORE
Review: How many times have you wondered what wine to choose for your meal, for your friends, or for the special holiday around the corner? This sacramental drink has kept its magical qualities bringing up questions, starting arguments, and ... finding happy solutions in the clinking of two wine glasses!
If you are curious to find out what this wine mystery is all about, you will enjoy the high quality DVD Wine Fundamentals. After watching the DVD with my friend we would definitely say that it is Wine Fundamentals and MUCH MORE, offering in an attractive way knowledge and expertise referring to all aspects of wine - starting from the history, going through the making and the types of wine, the secrets of wine tasting and the smart tips for ordering wine, the intriguing wine terminology and the wine friendly recipes.
The professionals who created the DVD take you on a special trip which can be defined both as educational and entertaining. We surprisingly found out that our wine questions were answered to the brim, and also, our next choice and tasting of wine was completely different! Now we can savor the educated enjoyment and appreciation of wine as all of us should.
C h e e r s!

Rating:
Summary: Wine Fundamentals and MUCH MORE
Review: How many times have you wondered what wine to choose for your meal, for your friends, or for the special holiday around the corner? This sacramental drink has kept its magical qualities bringing up questions, starting arguments, and ... finding happy solutions in the clinking of two wine glasses!
If you are curious to find out what this wine mystery is all about, you will enjoy the high quality DVD Wine Fundamentals. After watching the DVD with my friend we would definitely say that it is Wine Fundamentals and MUCH MORE, offering in an attractive way knowledge and expertise referring to all aspects of wine - starting from the history, going through the making and the types of wine, the secrets of wine tasting and the smart tips for ordering wine, the intriguing wine terminology and the wine friendly recipes.
The professionals who created the DVD take you on a special trip which can be defined both as educational and entertaining. We surprisingly found out that our wine questions were answered to the brim, and also, our next choice and tasting of wine was completely different! Now we can savor the educated enjoyment and appreciation of wine as all of us should.
C h e e r s!

Rating:
Summary: solid basic advice presented in a pleasant way
Review: I ordered this DVD a bit suspiciously because I didn't know nothing about who made it and I had disappointments before about life style/educational DVDs. Many times such DVDs can be unprofessional and amateur like. However, this one was an excellent surprise. It delivered exactly what I wanted: solid basic advice from experts filmed in relevant and appealing locations. There is a narrator, with whom the viewer can identify because he doesn't know much about wine, but he goes on an expedition asking the right questions to experts. A Wine Master, a Wine spectator Wine Maker of the year, Chefs, owners of wine stores, etc. These people explain in a non-overwhelming way the types and sub-types of wine, the categories, the labels, the common terms, how to taste wine (filmed in detail). It is also full of practical advice including advice from restaurant owners about how to order wine in a restaurant, how to choose it in a wine store, most common terms to describe wine to your friends, etc. There are plenty of Italians and French talking about their wines. The locations include restaurants, vyneards, and wine stores. It will be a good use of money if you want to know the fundamentals and have solid advice without being overwhelmed with information. After viewing this DVD I went to a wine tasting event to test my knowledge amidst professionals /long-term wine lovers, and felt very happy about the amount of knowledge I was able to acquire just by watching a simple DVD.

Rating:
Summary: Not helpful for beginners; inaccurate for experts
Review: Sadly, this DVD isn't a great introduction to wine. Instead of providing a good, solid introduction to the subject, it makes all kinds of mistakes, leading beginners down useless, boring detours. Tainted by a weirdly Eurocentric approach to the subject, you can spend minutes hearing about different Bordelais appelations [yawn] - which is of course useless if you have no idea what grapes are in those wines or whether or not you'd actually like them. And as far as grape varieties go [not varietals, as they say on this DVD], would you agree that Gamay is worth talking about but not Zinfandel? As an American wine drinker, I sure don't. Zin isn't even mentioned except in passing [in reference to white zinfandel... yuck].

Worse yet are the persistent mistakes made in the presentation: for example, the presenter insists on saying "meritage" as if were a French word [it's not], and one graphic actually refers to "cabarnet [sic] savignon [sic]."

Oddly, though, it seems like this isn't an outright ripoff, but merely an only halfway competent DVD thrown together by some Californians with good intentions. It's a shame it's so amateurish.

If and when Jancis Robinson's wine DVD returns to print, it's probably a much better idea to start with that.

Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your time or money
Review: This DVD is not worth your time. It is so overly simplistic that it's insulting and obvious that it is the result of someone's desire to travel, take nice local video shots, get paid and write it all off. The ego's from chefs to sommeliers to the useless woman who is your "guide" through Quick Tips to ordering wines - they really don't have much to say and it all detracts from much of what you really want to know that it is annoying at best. The glossary is a joke and should not be allowed to be included as an extra feature, and the quick tips for ordering wine is as useful as an ashtray on a motorcycle. There are no real guidelines here - just repetitve suggestions without any explanation as to why certain wines work with certain foods. It's a shame that Tim Hanni MW, lent his name and credibility to this project! Oh yes - the DVD ROM feature also does not work - it just flashes up a screen repeating that you need a DVD ROM drive to use these features - funny enough - that's exactly what I viewed this DVD on.

If you are looking for a wine-related DVD that has real information, but is not quite so "nice, and oooh - look - they're in Burgundy today..." find a used copy of OZ Clarks DVD - it's hard to find now but blows this useless silver platter off the map!