The Pleasures of Wine

Rating:
Summary: A Fun, Charming and Informed Read
Review: I enjoyed this book.... Reading it was like having a conversation with the author across the table. Only someone who knows his subject well can write about it as simply and engagingly as this. There are no percentages, maps, or endless, boring tasting notes. The author doesn't rank wines and tell the reader what to drink or when. But after reading his discussions of wines - from California to Burgundy and from Germany to Chile, almost always in the context of food or travel - I felt better informed in making my own choices and now get more pleasure from them. I enjoyed (and learned from) Asher's discussion of how the chef and the sommelier of a good restaurant work together to make sure the wines on the list match the food on the plate and now know what it means when a bottle is "corked" (and how to recognize it). The chapters are short and fun to read. I felt entertained even as I was getting a fresh perspective on a subject I thought I already knew well.



Rating:
Summary: The very best wine writer there is, period
Review: The best collection yet of the erudite, entertaining, cheerful, informed, graceful, friendly, gentle, many-layered essays of a wonderful writer who happens to often write about wine. Yet the feat of Asher's essays is that they are NEVER snuffy proclamations about bouquet and pseudo-rankings; these essays are about men and women, soil and climate, science and history, stories and fascinations, nations and cultures; his work chases after how wine elevates and enlivens our lives. Like the best novels, Asher's essays are about people and their curious adventures; the fact that Asher's work makes you want to read while sipping an excellent pinot noir or a fat happy shiraz or a burly cabernet is value added, and then some. This is a very fine American writer at work on a subject he loves dearly and knows everything about; he is that unique writer on wine who can and should be read by everyone and anyone, winehead or no.