Great Wine Made Simple: Straight Talk from a Master Sommelier

• #48 in Best Wine Books

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For years, I was in the category of people who liked wine, or at least SOME wine, but wasn't quite sure how to proceed. Every so often, I'd buy one of those wine tasting kits, or pick up a book for wine beginners, but they never got me very far. Either they required a major financial and social commitment (HOW many bottles do you want me to buy for this tasting? and do I have, say, 8 other friends who'd want to participate? can they all show up on Friday night, without me having to cook?), or they threw around terms that they expected me to understand intuitively. It didn't help a lot.

Over time, I learned to identify the sort of wines I like (in my case, that means nearly any German riesling), but I never got smarter. I never learned how to explore wine in a direction that I would probably enjoy. I knew I'd be certain to make expensive mistakes.

After catching a couple of episodes of Andrea Immer's TV show on the Fine Living channel, however, I picked up a copy of Great Wine Made Simple. Dagnabit, this woman has done it: she's made the whole subject *understandable.* I didn't realize how much I'd learned until I attended a local wine tasting. I knew what I liked about the wines presented to me (which wasn't much), and I could recognize the attributes I disliked. Wow; beforehand, I wouldn't have said much more than "I don't like it."

This book has _totally_ changed the way I interact with wine, and I know that I'll never again be intimidated by a wine list.

That's because Immer teaches one set of attributes at a time, such as what is meant by a wine's body, or the differences between New World and Old World wines. She also (rather brilliantly, as far as I'm concerned) gets you to place the wines you've liked on a map. I discovered that I like light-bodied wines from colder regions (which explains my affinity for German riesling and Washington state Pinot Noir). And it means that I will probably like wines from the Loire region of France; I'd NEVER have known that before.

Plus, the book lets you work on one thing at a time, in a very affordable manner. You don't have to start with the wine tastings in chapter 1 and proceed through them, one at a time, as though you're taking College Algebra. For each tasting, she suggests brands that are affordable to mere mortals, and which you're likely to find in your local market; you don't have to wander into a fine wine market (at least not right away). We jumped to the middle of the book, and did her comparison of Old/New World rieslings, using two bottles that cost $8.99 each.

Can you tell that I'm impressed? I am. This is the book I've been looking for, for several years. I highly recommend it.

Concise, entertaining, educational, and -- best of all -- interactive (lots of tastings!) In a word: wonderful! I keep coming back to this one.

Andrea Immer Robinson's Great Wine Made Simple (2005) succeeds brilliantly in making sense of the complex worlds of wine. I have read several introductions to wine, including Michael Broadbent's Michael Broadbent's Wine Tasting (Mitchell Beazley Wine Guides), Jancis Robinson's How to Taste: A Guide to Enjoying Wine, Mark Oldman's Oldman's Guide to Outsmarting Wine: 108 Ingenious Shortcuts to Navigate the World of Wine with Confidence and Style, and Kevin Zraly's Windows on the World Complete Wine Course: 2008 Edition (Windows on the World Complete Wine Course) and I recommend them all, but I learned the most from Andrea Robinson's book. Her original and easy-to-follow approach will greatly enhance the appreciation of wine for new and experienced wine drinkers alike.

There are dozens of wine grapes, but Robinson reduces this complexity by emphasizing the "Big Six." These are three white grapes (riesling, sauvignon blanc, chardonnay) and three red grapes (pinot noir, merlot/cabernet sauvignon, syrah or shiraz) that provide most of the world's quality wines. Each group of three is listed in ascending order of body style, i.e., light, medium, or full. She clarifies these styles by comparing their weight, richness, and thickness in the mouth to skim milk, whole milk, and cream. Robinson then lays out tasting sequences with easily available wines that show the distinctive quality and body of each grape. You quickly get an idea of the world's primary wine styles.

In the succeeding chapters on taste, Robinson recommends that you taste wines side by side in carefully chosen pairs that will highlight key tastes. This method is far superior to tasting one wine at a sitting. Wines can generate a seemingly infinite number of tastes and here Robinson simplifies things by concentrating on pairs of wine that exemplify the major style terms of dry, crisp, oaky, tannic, buttery, grassy, spicy, floral, and Old World vs. New World.

In another great innovation, Robinson introduces flavor maps of the wine world combining where grapes are grown with climates. The maps are a bit hard to read at first, but well worth the effort, because they help you predict what a wine will taste like once you know where it's from. For example, white grapes grown in cool climates may produce light bodied wines with apple or pear flavors while white grapes grown in warm climates may produce full bodied wines with pineapple or mango flavors. I found the flavor maps to be the most valuable part of the book, because they help you organize the world's wines into a system that explains why they taste the way they do.

The remainder of the book is more conventional in its approach, with surveys of French, Italian, American regions and so on followed by such topics as shopping for wine, wine and food, and wine gear. In these sections, Robinson continues to communicate key information about wine without oversimplifying.

I think Great Wine Made Simple does make a few missteps. A major omission is that only the briefest mention is made of serving temperatures. She does note that whites tend to be served too cold and reds too warm. Robinson's 2008 Wine Buying Guide for Everyone, which I also highly recommend, does a satisfactory job explaining how to serve various types of wine; but I like Andrew Oldman's general rule that white wines should be chilled for several hours and then removed 15 minutes before serving while reds should be refrigerated for 15 minutes before serving. Robinson could have said more about how to analyze the finish of a wine. Here I like the approach of her mentor, Kevin Zraly at Windows of the World in New York City, who describes what you should expect at fifteen second intervals in the minute or so after you have swallowed the wine.

Robinson occasionally criticizes other wine writers for being too technical. In part she does this because she feels that beginners will lose interest when confronted with overly technical prose, but this assumes that readers don't know how to select a basic introduction to wine as opposed to a more advanced book. Robinson's ideas easily stand on their own and are not strengthened by disparagement of those who write at a more detailed level or use specialized wine terminology.

To end, my criticisms are minor compared to Robinson's substantial achievement. She has assembled an impressive apparatus for appreciating wine. My wine knowledge increased by several orders of magnitude after having read her book, and I know I will be returning to it for years to come.

This is simply the best introduction to wine and winetasting that I have found. Many wine books get bogged down in minutiae, without telling you why it is significant. For example, they will spend three pages telling you about the soil and climate in a small region of say, France, without telling you how it affects the flavor and quality of the wine (i.e., why you should care). Somewhere in there will be a vague one sentence statement about how the wines taste "fruity" or "fresh." Andrea Immer's book actually concentrates on how to taste wine, using all your senses, and what specifically to look for in the color, nose, and flavor. She gives you a list of wines to taste, and through a series of tasting exercises you learn to recognize different flavors and aromas in wine. Her flavor map is an ingenious way to explain what flavors to expect from wines of the same grape grown in different climate zones, and it works! One heads up though, be prepared to drop some change on these tastings. Many of the tastings in the earlier chapters are affordable, but in the later chapters (read France and Italy), we found some of the wines to be cost prohibitive. While the earlier tastings are absolutely essential to getting the most out of the book, we chose to dispense with some of the later ones (Maybe some day I'll buy that $80.00 Barolo). My suggestion: Buy the book, do the tastings in the first five chapters, and learn a heck of a lot about wine.

I have always had a love for wines and this book was able to teach me relatively quickly identify different tastes of wine. Granted the book probably asks you to buy over 20 bottles for wine tastings, but there is no better way to learn than trial by drinking.

This is the only book I have ever read on the subject and I believe the quick easy guidelines have made me a more sophisticated wine buyer and taster. My only criticism is the fact that the book is written in a manner that assumes intimidation of wine, which could not hold true for every reader.

This is the first wine book that does exactly what it promises.....you will be able to read a wine bottle label in the store or wine list in the restaurant and know what you are buying and buy what you want. That is a great boon to all wine drinkers out there, the majority of whom didn't have wine training in finishing school or a butler/sommelier at home. I have always know what taste I like but now I know how to read the label to find the type of wine that I want. This book will serve the experienced drinker as well with a system of classifying wine into groups for organizing your wine celler and advice about making those all important pairings with food. This book makes a fantastic gift as well.

If you have room for only one wine book, this is the book to own. Andrea Robinson nee Immer is a master sommelier who started out with Kevin Zraly at Windows on the World, and has become one of the great wine teachers in the world. I met her in 2001 at the Wine Expo in Boston, attended a wine tasting of Australian wines, and took her intensive three day course on wine at the French Culinary Institute last fall. My initial impressions still stand [from my wine diary]:

It was a joy to watch Andrea Immer in action and to discuss her book for a few minutes afterward. Her approach to learning about wine is superb, and I recommend this book strongly to anyone, beginner or more advanced, who has any interest in learning about wine. Her enthusiasm and knowledge is infectious.

The approach works; Robinson has taught her approach to thousands of people -- restaurant guests, sommeliers, chefs, waiters, bartenders, in a wide variety of restaurants and bars. "The light goes on every time."

Check the Comments for a summary of Andrea's approach to learning about wine.

Robert C. Ross 2008

This book came in the mail very quickly and will make a great Xmas gift for my husband.

I've always said, when in doubt about wine, rely upon a trusted Grape Geek. Andrea Immer has the wine credentials to make her a Grape Goddess amongst Grape Geeks. Not only is she a Master Sommelier and the Dean of Wine Studies at the French Culinary Institute in New York City, she has also written several other respected books on the subject of wine: Everyday Dining with Wine; Andrea Immer Robinson's Wine Buying Guide for Everyone. In Great Wine Made Simple, Immer demystifies wine by offering essential information to amateur onephiles on varietals (Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Merlot, Pinot Noir, and Cabernet Sauvignon), tasting, wine termonlogy, and geography. She also provides recommendations on how to select a wine in the complex market, and food pairing. While this book won't qualify you as a Master Sommelier, it is a good starting point for the wine novice.

G. Merritt

Andrea Immer Robinson is an excellent teacher on the art of wine. Her skill as a writer matches her skill as a master sommelier. This is an excellent book for anyone interested in exploring the world of wine. I'd also recommend Andrea's DVD, "Andrea's Complete Wine Course for Everyone." It's a complete two-hour course that touches all the bases, from the basics, to ordering in restaurant, to great food pairings.

What an amazing book from someone who clearly knows wine and how to relate her experiences to wine enthusiasts. This book covers wine from the basic principle to the most detailed. Anyone interested in wine, MUST read this book!

This is such a great guide to wine and winetasting. It's perfect if you have a bunch of friends that also enjoy wine. I started out trying to do the tastings (part of every chapter) on my own, which started to get very expensive. I quickly learned that this is a perfect evening activity to do with a bunch of friends. Have each friend bring a bottle from her provided lists so that it's more affordable. Each chapter turns into another get together with friends and we go through them together. The tastings perfectly illustrate what she explains in the text and you'll be a connoisseur in no time.

It teaches you how to enjoy wine without turning you into a snob - or a pauper.

I purchased this book for my daughter who is turning 21 next month. I thought it was important for her to be able to intelligently choose wine while at the wine shop and also to be able to read the sometimes intimidating wine lists and "books" in restaurants. I also purchased this book as a Christmas gift for a friend that enjoys wine.

I picked up my daughter's book yesterday and I have been unable to put it down. While I consider myself to be fairly well-versed in domestic wines (I have been to Napa a few times, and have gone to some local tasting/educational events, and have been to our local wineries and some wineries in Virginia quite often), I have recently become enamored with French wines. Although I admittedly can't read the labels and only have some vague idea of what kinds of grapes are used to make these wonderful wines, I'd been going to the wine shop and purchasing wines based upon their point ratings and recommendations of the staff. Thanks to Andrea's book, I now understand the labels, wine growing regions and the kinds of grapes grown in each. The same goes for Italian wines which I enjoy very much, but knew very little about. Now I can go in with my eyes open and know that a Bordeaux contains Cabernet and Merlot (in varying amounts depending on whether the grapes grow to the left or right of the river) and know that red Burgundy is pinot noir and white Burgundy is chardonnay. Also, based on all of Andrea's raving about Riesling, I will start trying some. I have always associated Riesling with the ghastly Blue Nun/Liebfraumilch and have steered clear.

This book contains a voluminous amount of information. It will appeal to people that want data presented in a straightforward, no-nonsense, unpretentious way. You never get the impression that Ms. Robinson is a wine snob -- she takes the mystique and intimidation out of tasting wine. She makes recommendations in various price ranges to make wine accessible to the average person. I like this book because it appeals to my organized, analytical nature: it contains lots of maps, lists, tables, etc. making it very easy to find the information you're looking for. I wish there was a little more info. on the smaller, boutique wineries, and more information on other grapes besides the "big six", but Ms. Robinson has apparently made wine selections based on wines from larger producers that are generally available everywhere.

This is the first wine book I've purchased; I have looked at many others, but found them not to be useful. This book is well-organized, practical, readable and above-all quite comprehensive and informative. I recommend buying it for anyone that enjoys wine.

Andrea Immer Robinson is absolutely amazing. She makes wine seem so simple with her tasting groupings, charts and descriptions. Reading this book really teaches you about wine from what to taste and good bottles to represent different types of wines. Great Guide for both beginners and experts! A must read for anyone interested in learning about wine.