Comments on: Great Wine Made Simple: Straight Talk from a Master Sommelier

By: richard ryan

richard ryan — Tue, 10 May 2011 11:59:09 +0000

53 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

At last - The wine book I've been looking for., November 29, 2000

richard ryan (Connecticut) -

This review is from: Great Wine Made Simple: Straight Talk from a Master Sommelier (Hardcover)

I have been in the wine business for many years, and have read all the standard texts. This is a great one. The "flavor map" and the new world/old world distinction will help anyone select good wine whether from the neighborhood store or from a resturant. Ms. Immer removes much of the mystique and snobbishness that often is associated with wine, and presents the subject simply and honestly. Her knowledge and enthusiasm is evident on every page.

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By: drdebs

drdebs — Tue, 10 May 2011 11:48:57 +0000

73 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

Want to increase your enjoyment and knowledge of wine?, January 8, 2001

drdebs (CA United States) -

This review is from: Great Wine Made Simple: Straight Talk from a Master Sommelier (Hardcover)

If so, you should seriously consider buying this book for yourself, and for any friends who might have the same goal. I have enjoyed wine for a number of years, but have not ventured forth much from the cabernet-merlot-chardonnay rut because it all seemed so overwhelming. You go to the wine store and signs give wines different points from different people for wines you've never heard of and can't pronounce.

Enter Andrea Immer, the sassy and straightforward Master Sommelier! Immer makes wine approachable, fun, and stimulating. Through a variety of different techniques (comparison tasting, old world wines vs. new world wines, flavor maps, and varietal information) Immer will open up your wine world and give you the confidence to sally forth to your local wine shop and ask for a Gruner Veltliner (she also tells you how to pronounce it!)to go with your chicken dinner. She also totally demystifies the restaurant wine list and tells you how to make good and economical choices from it.

There is no pretention at all in this book. Ms. Immer is not a wine snob, nor does she make wine into some obscure chemical and gastronomical science. She knows her stuff so well she can make is simple for you, me and everybody else who would like to buy a $10 bottle of wine and find it is reasonably tasty.

By the way, friends much more expert than myself have confessed that they bought the book and found a great deal of information that was helpful to them, too, so this book is not just for wine beginners.

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By: "lizzharmon"

"lizzharmon" — Tue, 10 May 2011 11:20:45 +0000

144 of 149 people found the following review helpful:

A Wine-Oh Book for us Wine-Don't-Knows, November 1, 2000

"lizzharmon" (Tampa, FL United States) -

This review is from: Great Wine Made Simple: Straight Talk from a Master Sommelier (Hardcover)

This book is about the fifth or sixth book on this subject I have purchased in recent years. It's the first one that speaks to me like the novice I am. It's direct, it's easy reading, it's simple to follow, and it tells you what you need to know to be comfortable ordering wine in a restaurant, or buying it in a store. It's not full of high-brow rhetoric thrown in to impress the reader. It's entry level stuff -- information that you don't have to be a connoisseur to understand. For me, since I like wine but have no interest in becoming some sort of wine snob, this book gave me exactly what I needed to have a handle on what I'm buying. As far as what wine goes with what, and how it is served, it's all in there. If you want to get up to speed in layman's terms, this is the book to get. I thank Immer for writing it. A sommelier I'm not; I'm just a consumer who wanted a basic understanding of the subject, and I got it from this book... finally.

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