| 
Great products at great prices
At Atlanta Wine Racks we carry a great selection of wine racks and wine accessories at prices to fit any budget. We search high and low to bring our customers the best selection of wine products at the best prices available.
Your privacy matters
Your privacy is important to us, which is why we have teamed with Amazon.com to bring you the most secure ordering environment on the internet.
Read what Atlanta Wine Racks customers say
"I searched the internet for hours before finding your site and that's all I needed. I found gifts for 2 family members and a my 2 couple friends who are wine enthusiasts and came in well under budget. The items arrived in perfect condition in 2 days and I was even able to use my existing Amazon account to order. I will definitely order again!"
-Francine L., Midvale UT
"My son just built a bar in his basement and needed a wine rack to keep under the counter. Your site had just what I needed and the customer service was fast and polite. I know he'll get many great years of use out of this. Thanks!"
-Don M., Chicago IL
| |  | Beginners Guides to Wine | Home » » » Simon & Schuster's Beginner's Guide to Understanding Wine | | | | | | | Description: | | Appealing to the amateur wine lover as well as the aspiring professional taster, The Simon & Schuster Beginner's Guide to Understanding Wine is written to be eminently readable. Michael Schuster's expertise is combined with a well-developed sense of humor, which allows him to avoid -- and have fun with -- the snobbery and occasional absurdity of tasting and understanding wine. This beautiful and accessible guide progresses in three sections. The first explores the techniques of wine tasting -- from knowing what to look for to describing and recording a judgment. Readers are encouraged to experiment and develop their own tasting methods. The second section discusses the major grapes and their wines. The author explains how to discern between wines considered to be "classic" and those that are not, what to expect from the different grapes and their blends, and the different wine-producing areas. He suggests specific wines to taste for comparison and as examples of style and quality. He tops off this section with a chapter covering fortified wines, Cognac, Armagnac, and malt whisky. The final section of the book is devoted to the practicalities of wine and wine drinking: handling, serving and decanting, storage, and record-keeping. An extensive, original index provides an at-a-glance identification chart of the grapes used in all the major wine names. The Simon & Schuster Beginner's Guide to Understanding Wine is a friendly, lavishly illustrated introduction to the fundamentals of wine appreciation. | | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Michael Schuster | | Paperback:
| 140 pages | | Publisher:
| Fireside | | Publication Date:
| January 15, 1991 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 0671728938 | | Package Length:
| 10.5 inches | | Package Width:
| 8.4 inches | | Package Height:
| 0.6 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.2 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 2 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 2 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 found the following review helpful:
 Instant ticket from neophyte to knowledgeableJan 10, 2002
By Bob Carpenter
This is the best introduction to wine appreciation that I've seen. Schuster begins with tasting (well, actually with glassware and looking), which defines the terms you see in most wine reviews (such as concentration, acidity, body, tannin, balance, finish, nose, etc.) and shows you how to apply them by suggesting a series of relatively inexpensive comparative tastings (including of non-wine items like lemon or sugar or coffee). There follows a grape-by-grape breakdown of white and red wine varieties, including a description of typical instances of the varietal for different geographical regions in terms you just learned. Included along with the wine profiles is a description of the wine-making process and variations, including champagne, fortified wines such as port, and even brandy. This book is written for absolute beginners, but it's not an "easy read". The information is packed densely, and there are many invaluable practical "exercises". It reads more like an undergraduate intro textbook than like a breezy magazine article. Think of it as a wine equivalent of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and you'll be in the right ballpark. More than any other book, this one changed my perspecitve and took me from a struggling beginner level to where I can engage in wine discussions with experts. I found this book far more thorough than Hugh Johnson's pocket book, How to Enjoy Your Wine. If I was shopping for such a book now, I'd have to consider Jancis Robinson's "How to Taste", because she's one of my favorite wine writers; but I haven't read it. After this book, I'd suggest getting Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson's World Atlas of Wine, and the Jancis Robinson edited Oxford Companion to Wine.
8 of 13 found the following review helpful:
 Not a beginner's guideDec 28, 1999
If you have little or no knowledge of wine, this is not the book for you. The author oscillates between the basic information and over-your-head wine snobbery. Start with something simpler and move to this book later.
| | |
|
