Wine For Dummies 4th Ed

433 Pages·2007·9.7 MB·English

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Wine
FOR
DUMmIES
‰
4
TH EDITION
by Ed McCarthy
Certified Wine Educator
and
Mary Ewing-Mulligan
Master of Wine
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Wine For Dummies®, 4th Edition
Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
111 River St.
Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774
www.wiley.com
Copyright ©2006 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
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ISBN-13: 978-0-470-04579-4
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About the Authors
Ed McCarthyand Mary Ewing-Mulliganare two wine lovers who met at an
Italian wine tasting in New York City’s Chinatown and subsequently merged
their wine cellars and wine libraries when they married. They have since co-
authored six wine books in the Wine For Dummiesseries (including two of
their favorites, French Wine For Dummiesand Italian Wine For Dummies) as
well as their latest book, Wine Style(Wiley); taught hundreds of wine classes
together; visited nearly every wine region in the world; run five marathons;
and raised eleven cats. Along the way, they have amassed more than half a
century of professional wine experience between them.
Mary is president of International Wine Center, a New York City wine school
that offers credentialed wine education for wine professionals and serious
wine lovers. As U.S. director of the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET®),
the world’s leading wine educational organization, she works to make the
courses she offers in New York available in more and more parts of the
United States. She is also the long-standing wine columnist of the NY Daily
News.Mary’s most impressive credential is that she’s the first female Master
of Wine (MW) in the United States, and one of only 22 MW’s in North America
(with 251 worldwide).
Ed, a New Yorker, graduated from City University of NY with a master’s degree
in psychology. He taught high school English in another life, while working
part-time in wine shops to satisfy his passion for wine and to subsidize his
growing wine cellar. That cellar is especially heavy in his favorite wines —
Bordeaux, Barolo, and Champagne. Besides co-authoring six wine books in
the For Dummiesseries with Mary, Ed went solo as author of Champagne For
Dummies,a topic on which he’s especially expert.
Ed and Mary also share wine columns in Nation’s Restaurant Newsand in
Beverage Media,a trade publication. They are each columnists for the online
wine magazine, WineReviewOnline.com. Ed and Mary are both accredited as
Certified Wine Educators (CWE).
When they aren’t writing, teaching, or visiting wine regions, Mary and Ed main-
tain a busy schedule of speaking, judging at professional wine competitions,
and tasting as many new wines as possible. They admit to leading thoroughly
unbalanced lives in which their only non-wine pursuits are hiking in the
Berkshires and the Italian Alps. At home, they wind down to the tunes of U2,
K.D. Lang, Bob Dylan, and Neil Young in the company of their feline roommates
Dolcetto, Black & Whitey, Ponzi, and Pinot.
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Authors’ Acknowledgments
The wine world is dynamic — it’s constantly changing. Because three years
have passed since the third edition of Wine For Dummies,we decided to
revise and update the book. We especially felt an obligation to write this
fourth edition because of all the readers who have personally told us how
valuable Wine For Dummieshas been to them. We are grateful that we’ve
been able to contribute to your knowledge about this wonderful beverage.
But this book would not have been possible without the team at Wiley. We
sincerely thank Publisher Diane Steele, who engaged us to write the fourth
edition of Wine For Dummies,along with Acquisitions Editor Stacy Kennedy.
Really special thanks go to our Project Editor, Traci Cumbay, who made excel-
lent suggestions to improve the text.
We thank our technical reviewer, colleague Igor Ryjenkov, MW, for his expertise.
It’s a better, more accurate book because of you.
Special thanks to Steve Ettlinger, our agent and friend, who brought us to the
For Dummies series in the first place, and who is always there for us.
We thank all our friends in the wine business for your information and kind
suggestions for our book; the book reviewers, whose criticism has been so
generous; and our readers, who have encouraged us with your enthusiasm
for our previous books in this series.
Mary offers special thanks to Linda Lawry and everyone else at International
Wine Center, who enabled her to have the time and the peace of mind to work
on this book. Thanks also to Elise McCarthy, E.J. McCarthy, Cindy McCarthy
Tomarchio and her husband, David, for their encouragement and support.
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Publisher’s Acknowledgments
We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registration
form located at www.dummies.com/register/.
Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:
Acquisitions, Editorial, and Composition
Media Development
Project Coordinator:Tera Knapp
Project Editor: Traci Cumbay
Layout and Graphics:Lauren Goddard,
(Previous Edition: Joan Friedman) Denny Hager, Stephanie D. Jumper,
Heather Ryan, Alicia South
Acquisitions Editor: Stacy Kennedy
Special Art: Akira Chiwaki
Editorial Program Coordinator: Erin Calligan
Proofreaders:Leeann Harney, Techbooks
Technical Editor: Igor Ryjenkov, MW
Indexer: Techbooks
Editorial Manager: Michelle Hacker
Editorial Supervisor and Reprint Editor:
Carmen Krikorian
Editorial Assistant: David Lutton
Cover Photos: ©S.T. Yiap/Age Fotostock
Cartoons: Rich Tennant
(www.the5thwave.com)
Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies
Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher, Consumer Dummies
Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director, Consumer Dummies
Kristin A. Cocks, Product Development Director, Consumer Dummies
Michael Spring, Vice President and Publisher, Travel
Kelly Regan,Editorial Director, Travel
Publishing for Technology Dummies
Andy Cummings,Vice President and Publisher, Dummies Technology/General User
Composition Services
Gerry Fahey,Vice President of Production Services
Debbie Stailey,Director of Composition Services
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Contents at a Glance
Introduction.................................................................1
Part I: Getting to Know Wine.........................................7
Chapter 1: Wine 101...........................................................................................................9
Chapter 2: These Taste Buds Are for You......................................................................21
Chapter 3: Pinot Envy and Other Secrets about Grape Varieties...............................35
Chapter 4: Wine Names and Label Lingo.......................................................................49
Chapter 5: Behind the Scenes of Winemaking..............................................................67
Part II: Wine and You: Up Close and Personal...............75
Chapter 6: Navigating a Wine Shop................................................................................77
Chapter 7: Confronting a Restaurant Wine List............................................................89
Chapter 8: The Insider’s Track to Serving and Using Wine.......................................105
Part III: The “Old World” of Wine..............................125
Chapter 9: Doing France................................................................................................127
Chapter 10: Italy, the Heartland of Vino......................................................................167
Chapter 11: Spain, Portugal, Germany, and Beyond..................................................187
Part IV: Discovering the New World of Wine...............211
Chapter 12: The Southern Hemisphere Arises...........................................................213
Chapter 13: America, America......................................................................................231
Part V: Wine’s Exotic Face.........................................263
Chapter 14: Champagne and Other Sparklers............................................................265
Chapter 15: Wine Roads Less Traveled: Fortified and Dessert Wines.....................287
Part VI: When You’ve Caught the Bug........................307
Chapter 16: Buying and Collecting Wine.....................................................................309
Chapter 17: Continuing Education for Wine Lovers...................................................327
Chapter 18: Describing and Rating Wine.....................................................................341
Chapter 19: Marrying Wine with Food.........................................................................349
Part VII: The Part of Tens..........................................355
Chapter 20: Answers to Ten Common Questions about Wine..................................357
Chapter 21: Ten Wine Myths Demystified...................................................................363
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Part VIII: Appendixes................................................369
Appendix A: Pronunciation Guide to Wine Terms.....................................................371
Appendix B: Glossary of Wine Terms..........................................................................377
Appendix C: Vintage Wine Chart: 1985–2004..............................................................385
Index.......................................................................389
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Table of Contents
Introduction..................................................................1
About This Book...............................................................................................1
Conventions Used in This Book.....................................................................2
Foolish Assumptions.......................................................................................2
How This Book Is Organized...........................................................................3
Part I: Getting to Know Wine.................................................................3
Part II: Wine and You: Up Close and Personal....................................3
Part III: The “Old World” of Wine..........................................................3
Part IV: Discovering the New World of Wine.......................................4
Part V: Wine’s Exotic Face.....................................................................4
Part VI: When You’ve Caught the Bug..................................................4
Part VII: The Part of Tens......................................................................4
Part VIII: Appendixes.............................................................................4
Icons Used in This Book..................................................................................5
Part I: Getting to Know Wine .........................................7
Chapter 1: Wine 101 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
How Wine Happens..........................................................................................9
What could be more natural?.............................................................10
Modern wrinkles in winemaking.........................................................10
The main ingredient.............................................................................10
Local flavor............................................................................................11
What Color Is Your Appetite?.......................................................................11
(Not exactly) white wine.....................................................................11
Is white always right?...........................................................................12
Red, red wine........................................................................................14
A rose is a rose, but a rosé is “white”................................................15
Which type when?................................................................................16
Other Ways of Categorizing Wine.................................................................16
Table wine.............................................................................................17
Dessert wine..........................................................................................18
Sparkling wine (and a highly personal spelling lesson)..................19
Chapter 2: These Taste Buds Are for You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21
The Special Technique for Tasting Wine.....................................................21
Savoring wine’s good looks.................................................................22
The nose knows....................................................................................23
The mouth action.................................................................................25