Wine

Rating:
Summary: great european wine text, great value
Review: At 960 pages, this book is on par with the Oxford Companion to Wine in terms of the sheer volume of information presented. However, because it is structured like a textbook instead of an encyclopedic reference, it is better for people who want to spend some time reading and learning about wine, as opposed to quickly looking up the definition to any wine term imaginable.

Like most other Konemann books that I've seen, it's filled with 1000's of beautiful color photos, and is an amazing value.... It starts with 150 pages about the history of wine, viticulture and winemaking, then goes into detailed country-by-country analyses of wine regions, local histories, geography, geology, climate, grapes, regulations, wine styles and notable producers. It even goes so far as to show labels and give Robert Parker-style star ratings to producers. The maps are especially good.

I agree with other reviewers that it is very Euro-centric. There are as many pages devoted to German-speaking countries as there are to the Americas and Australia combined. There are even 44 pages on South Africa versus 24 on California. (Even so, it has much better maps of the California AVA's than the Oxford Companion.) It almost seems as if they tacked 100 extra pages onto an excellent book called "European Wine" and changed the title so it would sell better in the US. A supplementary book on new world wines would be useful.

As for being pretensious, well, I think the book is targeted at educated adults.... It starts with the basics and presents a huge amount of information in a clear, logical manner that is appropriate for an intelligent reader with little or no wine background. I also have the Oxford Companion to Wine, Oxford Companion to the Wines of North America, and the CIA's Exploring Wine, and I find myself reading Konemann's the most because of the well-organized format, the depth of information, and the excellent maps and photos.

Rating:
Summary: Informative, but not for a novice
Review: Domine's _Wine_ is a fabulous resource for finding information about wines, wine regions, and wine history that is not commonly found in most wine books. As an example, I have recently purchased wines from Roero (in Piedmont) and Minervois (in the Languedoc). Only in Domine's book could I find detailed information about these styles of wine, including the grapes used, the expected characteristics of the wine, etc., as well as the relationship of these regions to other wine growing areas. For every conceivable wine, Domine devotes at least a paragraph or two.

However, while the book is an incredibly useful resource, and the pictures are spectacular, I would certainly not recommend the book for a wine novice, contrary to the publisher's suggestion. The book is hard to read and lacks fluidity, perhaps because it suffers in translation. Also, for the wine novice the information would be simply too overwhelming. Fortunately, I cut my teeth on wine with _Wine for Dummies_, and have since expanded my library on the subject to include _Great Wine Made Simple_ and other books that give an easy-to-follow yet detailed introduction to wine. I would advise picking up Domine's Wine only after achieving a certain comfort level with wine and feeling free to be more adventurous with it.

One last comment I must make about the book is that Domine seems to give American wine short shrift, as if he really looks down his nose at American winemaking. Compare the portion of the book devoted to American wine relative to France or Italy, and the bias seems obvious. Granted, American wine still has a way to go before it is truly on par with classic old world wines (at least in my opinion), but it seems there is more written on the Languedoc alone in France than on all of California wine. Given the dramatic impact California wine has had on the international palate and winemaking styles the world over, more attention must be paid it. Perhaps so little is said because California wine cannot be readily broken down geographically as can European wine, but perhaps a better approach for the New World, California in particular, might have been to organize by varietal, and then compare and contrast the varietals from different regions. Particularly since the real world of wine is organized this way (i.e., Old World by geography, New World by varietal), I think the book should have followed suit.

These objections aside, I think the book is a great resource, and it sure looks nice on my coffee table!

Rating:
Summary: so much for its fancy look
Review: i thought a lot of returning this book. partial at best and pretentious. look for better hoices out there--oxford companion to wine...

Rating:
Summary: Enormously Valuable for all Wine Drinkers
Review: Talk about a TOME! Weighing in at almost 1000 massive pages, this isn't just a coffee table book, it's a dining room table book. Its large format and wealth of pages ensures that just about every topic you could be interested in will be well covered here. Not only are there articles and descriptions, but there are also full color photos, well done maps, diagrams, and graphs as well.

The first set of pages talk about wine in general - how it's made, its history, its colors and scents. Then the book dives head-first into the main wine regions. It begins with and dedicates hundreds of pages to France. Every area gets the royal treatment, from the Loire Valley to Champagne to the Rhone. Want to know what the Crus are, or what Chablis is all about? The pictures of the vineyards and maps of the climate help bring the explanations to life.

Soon we move on to other European regions - Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal. Eastern Europe, South Africa, and even Asia get their due. However, despite this English edition being released in 2001, there were hardly any pages at all on North America, South America, and Australia and New Zealand! These wine regions are very prolific, create many high quality wines, and yet are glossed over. Maybe they simply ran out of binding and couldn't fit in any more pages without going to a second volume. Hopefully this is something they can remedy in the near future.

Even so, this is incredibly fun reading for all levels of wine drinkers. The maps and graphics make it easy for newcomers to understand, while the in depth information ensures that even the most experienced of wine drinkers will find something new and fascinating within its pages.

Rating:
Summary: The Jeroboam of Wineguides
Review: This is a big book. If you don't get to read it, you can always use it as an occasional table!

If you want a book that is bound to impress through size alone, this is it! With this on your coffee table no one will ever doubt your wine credentials.

And if you do choose to open the book up you will find it stuffed full of gorgeous photographs and illustrations. Interspersed with these is a wealth of information about wine. How to grow and make it, how to buy it, how to drink and enjoy it, and how to impress your friends by boring them to death with all this information.

So now I am off to pick myself up a naughty little teasing Australian, something young and stroppy, brimming with cherries, firm on the tongue and full bodied, with aromas of rose and dark chocolate. If she's in the mood we might share a bottle of plonk together over dinner, and then who knows............