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Rating: 
Summary: The Most Comprehensive Guide to All The World's Wines
Review: By using no less than thirty six of the word's foremost wine experts,Forrestal has orchestrated a truly worldwide perspective of an industry that has transcended the old, traditional regional boundaries and provincial bias.Unfortunately many wine reviewers and periodicals,etc. merely favor their own regional perspectives for reasons of marketing rivalry,antiquated notions of regional superiority-and,most often a reluctance to accept new changes in the industry. That James Halliday endorsed this effort in his foreword to this work,by itself, convinced me of its worth and objectivity.It provides an essential reference and updated guide to data and critical reviews of any part of the world where wine making now takes place. It provides an insight into how this industry has become a part of the new worldwide economy and how winemakers now share and exchange their talents, skills and technological expertise. The old regional snobberies are now proven irrelevant with new and greater quality wines emerging across the planet.Many of the old and false paradigms of both price and quality are now being shattered, and all oenophiles,whether new or highly experienced,need to continuously update their education to merely keep pace with new technologies,changes in market preferences,and newly-emerging sources of excellence in winemaking.I, for one, want my knowledge of wines to exceed the partial perspectives of one major wine rating(and price affecting) magazine interested in selling advertising and peddling cigars,indulging Hollywood and pseudo-society snobbery than objectivity; I also want to transcend the petty regional favoritisms whether it be Francophiles,Californians,the local state wine board,chamber of commerce or whoever.Many reviewers and periodicals show this in subtle ways by their condescending recognition of "emerging"sources of quality wine (but infer"--but they ain't there quite yet.").Countries like Chile and New Zealand have moved quite beyond Great wines are now made across the world;it's time our publications recognize this.
Rating:
Summary: Everything you want to know about wines
Review: I have always enjoyed drinking wine but I have never had the necessary
background and information about how to distinguish a good wine from a bad
one, which are the most famous wine regions in the world and what are the
most famous wine denominations. That was before my friend gave me this book
as a gift and I must say it was exactly what I needed. It helped me understand about the different types of grapes and wines,
their specific characteristics, how to taste a wine, which wines are to be
consumed younger and which ones are to be left for aging. I also found out
about the influence of the soil on the vine's growing, the harvest time for
each type of wine, etc. I think this book is a good start for someone who would like to be
initiated in the amazing world of wines and also for those who already know
well wines. This book is very detailed and discusses every wine region of the world
(Europe, South Africa, Australia, new Zealand, South America, etc.), mentioning its wine producers, the history of the area, the climate and in
certain parts it also gives suggestions about specific food that can be
combined with the wine of the area. Regions like France, South Africa, Germany, USA, Australia, are very
detailed presented, with maps and informations about every single producer
in the area. If you want to take a vacation and visit some wine areas, this
book is everything you need.
Unfortunately, regions like Eastern Europe don't offer so much
information, despite the fact that they have a big potential, but are not
historically so well known. This is not something to read once and then put it aside. It is meant to
be kept within easy reach and read from it every time you taste a new wine
and want to find more about its origin and history. Knowing all these
things, it will make you understand better its personality and perhaps you
will enjoy it more. I'm sure you will like the experience of reading from this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty pictures, bad CD.
Review: The book is a wonderful coffee table book with many pretty pictures, weighing better than 5 lbs. The accompanying CD is more or less useless as a wine guide or a wine record. The text is illegible. Very frustrating to work with.
Rating:
Summary: Global Grape
Review: The fact is unbelievable to most, and maybe a little consternating to some, but every spot on the globe that calls itself a state has some bastion of wine making. Most get little to zero print. There is a world of wine out there. It's at 6,000 feet on a perched periphery surrounding Mexico City. It's rooted in common ground at Tel Aviv and Beirut. It sustains in the heat of arid East Africa. Wine is a shared international trait without a single abstention. "Wine is rooted in history, and it has a dynamic relationship to both those cultures who have drunk it for a millennia and those who have enjoyed it for less than 100 years," writes Steve Charters MW, in THE GLOBAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WINE, a new book now offered to North America by The Wine Appreciation Guild, and a work that is stunning in scope. GLOBAL touches on every wine-producing region on earth, something no one has ever had the temerity to try. The book doesn't stop there, it takes the reader back to the supposed accidental discovery of wine in Europe, into the vineyards of the old missions of the New World, and finally to the sterile gray of the modern lab. Sound impossible? Editor Peter Forrestal convinced 36 of the world's best wine minds from Europe, the U.S., Australia, Canada and New Zealand to pick up their collective pens and put the wine world down on paper. The book is a massive accomplishment and a most comprehensive and fascinating experience. GLOBAL is a pleasure to wrap your head around. In GLOBAL's line up of wine authors, the U.S. is well represented by author and journalist Rebecca Chapa, Catherine Fallis MS, the fifth woman in the world to earn the title Master Sommelier, and Dr. Patrick Farrell MW, one of only a handful of masters of wine in the U.S.
The regional section of the book delineates the major wine producers and their history, the respective regional wine making methods and the distinction of each wine unique to the winemaker and the climatic character of the region. A complete and concise colored map accompanies most regions. National and regional wine laws are reviewed in detail. A `Wine Reference Table', 100 pages of select wines from each country, their flavorful qualities, and a pairing of wines to complimentary food, and a glossary of wine jargon fill out the final pages of the book.
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