Hello guys whats a good book to get started on wine?

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Sun Jun 07, 2009 11:56 am

I'm a new member of this forum - Ive only been drinking wine for about a year (I'm still in uni) now

I really love drinking wine (Mostly reds - I have not had much experience with white) and I wanted to know more about wine.

Can you guys recommend a good book to get me started? I bought The big red wine book (last years one - not the current release).

Anyone got any tips on which winemakers are good (for say, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz)? (By good I mean good to drink but also not hideously expensive as I am on a student budget)

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 9:19 am

Buy this years Big Red Wine Book - it's got a tonne of inexpensive but good wines. Think of it as a $20 investment that'll pay bigger returns.

Bick · Post by **Bick** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 9:49 am

I'd have to disagree with that. If you want to get into wine, a wine review book is not the place to start to my mind - these just say which wine a particular reviewer likes, and teaches you nothing about wine per se. If you want to get into wine, I'd have thought you want to learn about the countries that make it, the grapes grown, how one region varies from anaother, which are the classic wines, what to look for in a wine, how wine is labelled diferently around the world, etc, etc. Get one of the wine encyclopedias, such as the Larousse one (sp?). Or, a good cheap one is Oz Clarke's Introduction to Wine - its excellent and very nicely presented.

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 9:56 am

Well, I can see your point Bick, but I didn't read hungus' post they same way you did. I thought he/she was looking for an inexpensive way to explore wines and liked Reds in particular. I think at the beginning it is very helpful to drink some good wines before getting into the nuances and complexities that surround it

So, in essence, I have to disagree with you disagreeing with me

Anyway, hungus can make his/her own mind up, so it seems a moot point really. IMVVHO :wink:

DaveB · Post by **DaveB** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 10:00 am

I'd get Rob Gedde's "A good nose and great legs"

http://www.agoodnoseandgreatlegs.com.au/

Gives a good overview of Australian regions and wine styles, how to taste wine, etc, etc

If you want something that takes in the rest of the world look at Andrew Jefford's or Jancis Robinsons wine course books......but for now I'd stick with something Australian

Gary W · Post by **Gary W** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 11:12 am

Red and White by Max Allen. It's the best introductory book to wine ever.
GW

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 2:48 pm

Thanks guys - I will be going to my local bookstore to have a browse to see which ones would be the best one to get started on

Andy · Post by **Andy** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 10:16 pm

Gary W wrote:Red and White by Max Allen. It's the best introductory book to wine ever.
GW

Could not agree more here. Hungus - get onto this. It was released a bit over 10 years ago and is as good as ever. I occasionally still pull out the part of pinot noir just for the joy of re-reading it.

Best of luck learning about wine - it can become an all consuming passion......

Daryl Douglas · Post by **Daryl Douglas** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 1:24 am

Bick wrote:I'd have to disagree with that. If you want to get into wine, a wine review book is not the place to start to my mind - these just say which wine a particular reviewer likes, and teaches you nothing about wine per se. If you want to get into wine, I'd have thought you want to learn about the countries that make it, the grapes grown, how one region varies from anaother, which are the classic wines, what to look for in a wine, how wine is labelled diferently around the world, etc, etc. Get one of the wine encyclopedias, such as the Larousse one (sp?). Or, a good cheap one is Oz Clarke's Introduction to Wine - its excellent and very nicely presented.

That reads a bit like.....contradictory......sort of PFFFTTT, I've read these technical tomes so I know more about wine than the reviewers who probably taste at least 100s more per year than I do. Understand your educational approach though.

Len Evans' 1990 tome is instructive to the point that some of the wineries mentioned still survive, even if in name only after the corporate stupidity that followed its publication.

daz

DaveB · Post by **DaveB** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 8:16 am

Andy wrote:
Gary W wrote:Red and White by Max Allen. It's the best introductory book to wine ever.
GW

Could not agree more here. Hungus - get onto this. It was released a bit over 10 years ago and is as good as ever. I occasionally still pull out the part of pinot noir just for the joy of re-reading it.

Best of luck learning about wine - it can become an all consuming passion......

I find Max's book a bit light on and flippant...takes some of the w$#%k out of wine though I guess.

Bick · Post by **Bick** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 9:34 am

Daryl Douglas wrote:That reads a bit like.....contradictory......sort of PFFFTTT, I've read these technical tomes so I know more about wine than the reviewers who probably taste at least 100s more per year than I do.

Huh? You completely lost me there. They're not technical tomes, they're just books about wine. I don't think anyone who read them would think they knew more about wines than a reviewer. I think someone hoping to learn about wine might enjoy reading them, and learn more about wine as a result. Not sure where the contradiction lies, but maybe I'm missing something or misunderstand your post.

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 11:42 am

Well, to be fair Bick, you kinda lost me when you disagreed with me recommending a book when no one else had bothered to respond at the time

I just thought I'd get the ball rolling. You can recommend a book without any disagreement being necessary. I think more than one response is good.

Rawshack · Post by **Rawshack** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 11:59 am

Bick wrote:I'd have to disagree with that. If you want to get into wine, a wine review book is not the place to start to my mind - these just say which wine a particular reviewer likes, and teaches you nothing about wine per se. If you want to get into wine, I'd have thought you want to learn about the countries that make it, the grapes grown, how one region varies from anaother, which are the classic wines, what to look for in a wine, how wine is labelled diferently around the world, etc, etc. Get one of the wine encyclopedias, such as the Larousse one (sp?). Or, a good cheap one is Oz Clarke's Introduction to Wine - its excellent and very nicely presented.

Agree completely Bick. For me, Jancis Robinsons Wine Course is an excellent introduction to wine that I still use as a reference. It has sections on viticulture, viniculture, grape varieties, regions etc and I found it a great help when I started out with wine. It's not perfect, but one of the best books from one of the most respected and authoritive voices in the industry.

I'd avoid the wine atlas to start; it helps to have some knowledge before you battle that beast

http://www.amazon.com/Jancis-Robinsons- ... 598&sr=8-2

rooman · Post by **rooman** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 2:39 pm

If you want to get a good feel for which are the better produced wines in Australia, I would highly recommend Campbell Mathisons book "Why the French Hate Us". He doesn't try to review all 2500 odd wineries in Australia. Rather he cherry picks those that are most worth investigating. I really wish I had read this 10 years ago when I start to increase the rate at which I cellared wines. Some would not have gone in and many I knew little about would have been tracked down. It is also a great rollicking read.

If you are new to the topic, there are some truely great boutique wineries that you will wish one day you had discovered years and years earlier. This is particularly important because many really great wines need 10-12 years in the cellar before they emerge as something spectular.

Rawshack · Post by **Rawshack** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 3:05 pm

jeremy wrote:Well, to be fair Bick, you kinda lost me when you disagreed with me recommending a book when no one else had bothered to respond at the time I just thought I'd get the ball rolling. You can recommend a book without any disagreement being necessary. I think more than one response is good.

Jeremy, I was going to disagree with you, then changed my mind completely and agreed with you. I jumped ship again, and then came back to your point of view.

Still with me? Good.

Right, in terms of the books, while I initially agreed with Bick, I was also going to add how much value I got from Matt Skinners Juice when I started out - going to the local wine shop and seeing if any of his recommendations were there then getting them home and trying them out was great. I love his enthusiasm and passion for wine and while his style of writing psses me off beyond belief, I owe him a great amount for my continuing love of wine. From him I started to learn what I liked, as well as new varieties/regions and that good wine could be affordable.

Now, onto whether Bick should have disagreed, well, this is a tough one. I regularly frequent a soccer forum for my beloved Sunderland AFC, and well frankly, sometimes it's like the 7th layer of hell on there and posting is not for the faint hearted. Think that Ronaldo would be a great signing for the club? More than likely someone will call you a fudge munching moron for even entertaining the idea.

So, should Bick have disagreed and just made his own recommendation? Who knows, but this is the world where everyone has an opinion and there's little in the way of recourse. Everyone gets the be the smart funny bastard they'd all like to be when they're online. Just look at me. Ho ho.

I've offended and been offended in equal measure over the years, and really, the only way is to not care about it too much :wink:

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 3:26 pm

Oh Rawshack, I rarely do :wink:

Woulda gotten outta posting anywhere a long time ago otherwise. I just found Bick's need to disagree humorous and puzzling, I ain't got nothin 'gainst him :lol:

malliemcg · Post by **malliemcg** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 3:42 pm

I enjoyed Oz Clarke's book on Aussie wine. The Mrs picked it up at a book fair in 2004, and it seems to cover the regions and what they do to the wines (as a typical). (I also really enjoyed the Oz and James Big Wine Adventures (France, California, Britain if you count drink to britain which includes Gin, Beer, Wine, Scotch).

I like it from the perspective that you can get an idea of what a region is doing and if a winery gets expensive because they've got a good name and hate's their punters so they jack up the price - you have somewhere to start poking around for stuff in your budget. The "guide" suits my way of wine investigation as I've recently (3 years ago) come into it - rather than if someone goes drink X it's good - I drink X, Y, Z and see if I like it or if I don't like it - why not. So I like it where it says things like "Semillon from hunter usually has Z,Y,X at this age and I,J,K at that age" because it gives me an idea what to expect when grabbing random bottles (as randoms are more typically in my price range) and when I can afford the iconic wines of the region comparing my experiences. ((Not saying if I get an experience that is different that it's bad - just the way I'm going about my learning journey)).

Partagas · Post by **Partagas** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 4:10 pm

I would try this as well. Found it very informative for me on most topics about Aus wine in general from making to marketing.

http://www.wineaustralia.com/australia/ ... ?tabid=785

cuttlefish · Post by **cuttlefish** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 9:57 pm

Write your own.

Bick · Post by **Bick** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 7:28 am

jeremy wrote:Oh Rawshack, I rarely do Woulda gotten outta posting anywhere a long time ago otherwise. I just found Bick's need to disagree humorous and puzzling, I ain't got nothin 'gainst him

That's a relief. :wink:

I hadn't realised disagreeing with someone on a forum was such a contentious issue to be honest - a bit of discussion, disagreement and banter is part of what its all about isn't it? FWIW, I didn't need to disagree, I just happened to - your suggestion was no less valid than mine, just not the same. Lets face it, if you suggest book A and I follow up with a suggestion for book B, then by inference I disagree with you even if I don't say so explicitly. Perhaps saying so explicitly was the problem - apologies for any offence caused.

Rawshack - I used to frequent the odd soccer forum, but they're a nightmare of bluster and aggression - I gave 'em up in the end. Its very friendly here by comparison.

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 8:14 am

Good on you Bick, I see what you're getting at too. Happy it was a relief, I am a very powerful man :lol:

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 8:28 am

And you didn't offend me, no apology necessary whatsoever. It was all just banter to me.

As was the last sentence of my last post, hope the sarcasm was apparent!

Rawshack · Post by **Rawshack** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 10:00 am

I feel a big, cuddly cyber hug coming on. Aw....

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 10:24 am

It can be a group hug Rawshack