Posted on: Wednesday, December 7, 2005
TASTE
Here's a holiday toast to your gift shopping
By Joan Brunskill
Associated Press
A few books on wine and drinks to consider for holiday giving:
"The World's Greatest Wine Estates: A Modern Perspective" by Robert M. Parker Jr. (Simon and Schuster, $75). Parker, author and editor of The Wine Advocate, is one of wine's best-known authorities — who does not go unchallenged on his confident assertions.
For connoisseurs, this 708-page book does indeed span the world of great wines, from Argentina to the United States by way of Australia, France and Spain, among others. The book is heavy with information and nicely sprinkled with color illustrations. The introduction includes basic comments on what makes a wine great, useful for those still below connoisseur level.
"Drinks" by Vincent Gasnier (DK, $50) is from a French-born master sommelier, and its cover explains that it's all about "enjoying, choosing, storing, serving, and appreciating wines, beers, cocktails, spirits, aperitifs, liqueurs, and ciders."
This large-format 512-page book is also global in its reach, and even more colorfully illustrated with images to liven its helpful text.
"Windows on the World: Complete Wine Course" by Kevin Zraly (Sterling, $24.95) is the 2006 edition of a solid, attractive guide to wine, with something to offer just about anyone at any level.
Zraly is founder and teacher of the Windows on the World Wine School, and worked at the Windows on the World Restaurant in New York City until it was destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001. He has a conversational style of writing, and puts the Q-and-A format to good use in this latest, 20th-anniversary edition of his wine guide, first published in 1985, now revised and expanded.
"Great Wine Made Simple" by Andrea Immer Robinson (Broadway, $27.95) is a revised and updated edition of a valued text from another well-known, reliable wine writer, teacher and master sommelier.
Immer Robinson's accessible style takes readers painlessly from the starting gate into areas of specialization often intimidating to the uninitiated. The book just exudes encouragement.
"Andrea Immer Robinson's 2006 Wine Buying Guide for Everyone" (Broadway, $12.95, paperback) is the handy little text you take to the wine store after learning the basics and gaining confidence from reading Immer Robinson's other works.
"The Wine Guy" by Andy Besch (William Morrow, $23.95), co-written with Ellen Kaye, his wife, suggests that uncertain or neophyte wine drinkers should just relax, read a little and taste a lot of wine. It should be fun, says Besch.
"A History of Wine in America" by Thomas Pinney (University of California Press, $45) surveys the subject from Prohibition to the present — not light reading, but wine lovers may find it adds an extra perspective to their interest.
