Have you ever wondered what it is like to be the wine director of a restaurant? Of course, in some ways it sounds like a fantasy job. One can imagine the pleasures of having distributors visit your restaurant, bringing you fabulous wine to savor and discuss …

Yet of course this is really only a fantasy. The reality is that most restaurant wine directors are so stressed with so much to do they must limit visits from distributors, and even then, savvy wine directors tell the distributors in advance exactly what they are looking for so as to save time.

Yet if you ever wanted an inside peak into the restaurant world – including how wine is bought and priced and sold  – you may want to check out the new book RESTAURANT MAN by Joe Bastianich, even though  the focus here is more on the mechanics of creating a restaurant more than the responsibilities of a sommelier.

Joe is the son of Lydia Bastianich, who runs Felidia and is a famous TV celebrity chef and cookbook author. I met him once at Felidia, Lydia’s top-end restaurant, when he was giving a presentation to the Wine Media Guild about the family’s vineyard in Italy. In the book he spends countless pages describing his childhood helping out in his parents’ earlier restaurant in Queens – and his dreams of being a ‘restaurant man.’

His first restaurant, Becca, was wine focused … Joe explains his goal was to find a variety of interesting Italian wines from all over the country, and introduce them to American customers at a price point of (then) $16 dollars. According to Joe, though the “restaurant math” was wrong because restaurants typically price of a glass of wine what they pay for a bottle (and mark a bottle up 3x the wholesale cost), what he lost in margin he made up in quantity.

Some of the more interesting parts of the book concern Joe’s wine education traveling around Italy, buying wine for the high-end Felidia, and basically self-educating himself about the best Italian wines. You can also find some interesting restaurant gossip, such as the passage when he says “selling wine is all about sizing people up, and it takes a certain amount of chutzpah. The tableside bottle sell is a very funny thing – you take a look at the guy’s blazer, what kind of shoes he’s wearing, what kind of broad he’s with … is he trying to be a hero? A cheap #S#D? Who does he want to impress?”

Another colorful passage is when he compares tasting wine to looking at women. “Tasting  the first wine in the morning is like seeing the first pretty girl of the day – the impact is clear, the impression vivid, there is little ambiguity. Beauty is apparent and it lingers.  But with every wine tasted after the first one, it is the same with every girl you see on the street – you’re more likely to observe a ripple or a wrinkle, a blemish, poor posture …as you taste through a massive quantity of wines, what was crystal clear becomes a blur of sensations, tactile and olfactory.”

Written in a style slightly similar to Anthony Bourdain in Kitchen Confidential, it is a “must read” for anyone who is considering starting a restaurant – or perhaps, even being a sommelier though the focus here is much more on Joe’s intriguing life.

And after reading it, well, all I can say is that you’ll never walk into a restaurant the same way again.

"What a fabulous resource!"

This was my first thought when clicking into the fabulously detailed online course called "Discovering the World of Wine" co-authored by highly credentialed writers/educators Patricia Savoie and Ron Kapon (also Fairleigh Dickinson University's wine course professor for 16 years) and underwritten by Fairleigh Dickinson University's school of International hospitality and The New York Times Knowledge Network.

In contrast to a written book, this upbeat, engaging resource consists of many types of media, including videos (both long and short) and charts.  It is a valuable resource to a seasoned professional as well as a novice apprehensive about what to buy and how to order.

You will find many well-organized chapters (most containing helpful videos) that go over basics like the different kinds of red and white wines, as well as more sophisticated topics such as how to buy wines at auction.

My favorite chapter though was titled "The Social Side of Wine" because what is wine if it's not social?

In this chapter, you will discover many important things, especially with regard to food and wine pairing.

You will also be able to download (and stash in your purse or pocket!) a very helpful "cheat sheet" in the form of a chart that helps you figure out what wine to order to match your food.

In short, this online resource consists of 26 self-paced classes each focused on a specific wine topic.

One of the key benefits in contrast to a heavy book is that it is portable ... you can read the material on your ipad while waiting for appointments or at the airport ... and come off sounding like an expert!

Discovering the World of Wine is ideal for:

Wine Lovers

•     Build the foundation for a lifetime of wine appreciation including: techniques for evaluating wine, the most important grapes and the wines they produce, the world’s most significant wine-making regions, and easy ways to pair wine with food.

Food Service Professionals

•     Restaurant Sommeliers, wine buyers and wait staff

•     Executive Chefs, Sous Chefs, Banquet Chefs, Chefs and Cooks

•     Wine Importers and Distributors and their Sales Representatives

•     Convention Managers, Catering Directors, Meeting and Banquet Planners

•     Retail Wine and Liquor Store Owners and Staff

Benefits of the course

•     Develop wine knowledge and increase personal or staff credibility

•     Impress clients and customers and increase wine sales

•     Learn wine the way people drink it -- by the grape, not by geographic area

•     Discover easy approaches to wine and food pairing

Registration and additional information can be found at http://fdu.edu/wineonline.

Cost: $149 plus optional purchase of wine.

Naked Wine by Alice Feiring
Reviewed by Marisa D'Vari

In this colorful narrative vaguely similar to Kermit Lynch’s Adventures on the Wine Route, Alice Feiring tackles “natural wine,” currently one of the hottest subjects in the wine world. Most people think that like buying the freshest produce in a greenmarket, the more natural the wine, the better. Yet many respected wine critics are against natural wine, and even some winemakers famed for their natural winemaking practices agree there may be limits to how “natural” a wine should go.

So what is natural wine, anyway? Basically, it refers to any wine made with natural yeast and a minimum of outside chemicals, including sulfur. Sulfur is a naturally occurring byproduct of the fermentation process. The problem is that in the past, producers across the globe have been too liberal in its use, adding a surplus of sulfur to keep oxygen and bacteria from spoiling the wine. Today – outside of large-scale commercial wineries, this is changing slowly due to the ‘natural wine’ movement.

Naked Wine centers on Alice Feiring’s journey to discover for herself and her audience the viability of a truly natural wine. Beyond prohibiting (or lessening) the use of sulfur, ‘natural wine’ to Feiring means letting grapes ‘do what comes naturally.’ This means no additions of any kind, even water to lower the potential alcohol of a wine grown in a hot region.

This narrative dramatizes Feiring’s quest to see, through her own winemaking experiments and in conversations with other winemakers, it is possible to make a natural wine. In the end, she ultimately discovers that the natural wine issue is not truly black or white.

The story opens as Feiring is presented with the opportunity of making her own natural wine in California, as in the past she had blasted the state for wine that is “overripe, over-manipulated, and overblown.” She is to make her own wine, in its own tank, from the tannic Sagrantino grape in Sonoma County under the guidance of a seasoned winemaking friend.

With enthusiasm, Feiring hand picks the grapes, drives the forklift that takes the grapes to the de-stemming machine, and begins to stomp the grapes with her bare feet over several days to start the fermentation process. The work is harder than anticipated, yet the wine ultimately begins to ferment. The only glitch is that Feiring wanted to make a low alcohol wine like the French wine she prefers, and the brix (sugar level) is so high her winemaking friend advises her to add 10 gallons of water to reduce the potential alcohol.

The very idea of ‘altering’ her hard-won natural wine with something as simple as water is deeply disturbing to Feiring, and drama ensues when she discovers that her friend performed this necessary task for her. The California experience seems to demonstrate that as much as one tries to be completely natural, winemakers are faced with situations like this (high alcohol) that force them to weigh the benefits of intervention.

Feiring then goes on an adventure in search of natural winemakers, both famous and those just starting out, to discuss the natural wine movement. First she travels to France to meet with pioneer Nicolas Joly, whom she calls the ‘Deepak Chopra” of wine dynamics. Joly made a name for himself in the 80’s by returning to his family’s winery after working a banker, and being one of the first to embrace biodynamics (winemakers treating the farm as a cohesive, interconnected living system).

Feiring is with Joly to judge wine for Joly’s Renaissance group, which awards stars to wines they accept in their traveling show. The basic entry requirements include no synthetic chemicals allowed in the vineyard, and no allowance for genetically modified or aromatic yeasts.

During the tasting, Feiring felt many producers misunderstood the requirements, as many wines from Germany reeked of what seemed to be factory-created yeast (versys indigenous) and excess sulfur, and some of the California Pinots tasted out of balance and overripe. When one California winemaker learned he did not make the cut, he retorted: “I had not known the group was looking for bacteria-ridden wines that were so natural six bottles out of twelve had to be thrown out. I don’t make that kind of wine. I have a business to run!”

And with that statement, the California winemaker reveals the crux of the natural wine controversy. In the course of this book, one discovers that it does seem possible to make natural wine, without any additions, in a perfect vintage with excellent terroir. The challenge is that few winemakers have the luxury of producing wine only in perfect vintages, and face tumultuous economic risks unless they can take some preventative measures (using a little sulfur, adding water, etc) to save the wine from heat, rain, rot, etc. In the course of Feiring’s many interviews with small ‘natural’ winemakers, many whispered in apologetic tones about how they had to add sulfur or risk losing the vintage … clearly feeling some shame in doing so.

Feiring’s colorful story introduces the reader to vibrant, real-life characters such as famed winemakers Nicolas Joly and Eric Texier, as well as the small, dedicated, winemakers we may never meet or even hear of, such as American Matt Kling and Amy Lillard, who moved to the Rhone Valley after meeting at Kermit Lynch’s wine store in Berkeley. Definitely recommended for readers who enjoy learning more about winemakers, the art of making wine, and the intricacies of the natural wine movement.

Naked Wine: Letting Grapes do What Comes Naturally, by Alice Feiring
Da Capo Press $24
ISBN 978-0-306 81953-7

Rather daring, don’t you think, for a restaurateur to write a book titled Setting The Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business?

     Especially since no matter a restaurateur’s personal ideals and goals, he or she depend on chefs and servers to communicate these ideals to the guests. Not only must the restaurateur walk the talk, the staff must willingly do so as well.

     Danny Meyer has been in business over twenty years, growing his original Union Square Café into a brand (Union Square Hospitality Group) now including the celebrated Eleven Madison Park, The Modern, Grammercy Park, and many others. In his new book, Meyer attempts to chronicle his not-quite rags to riches story of how he succeeded in the restaurant business by listening to people and putting the customer first.

     Skeptical by nature and well-versed in the world of PR, I’d expected to read the typical froth about how the little things matter. And in print articles and interviews related to the book, I’ve read shaggy dog stories about how Meyer’s service-obsessed waiters jumped cabs to airports to return a forgotten purse to a diner, or scrambled to retrieve a chilling bottle of signature champagne from a patron’s refrigerator when he (isn’t it almost always a ‘he?’) forgot to bring it to the restaurant for an anniversary diner.

     Leery of tales of servers so heroic each seemed equipped with a knight’s armor and charging white horse, I wondered why Meyer would resort to such extremes when in the real world I’ve always found his service staff (at the Modern, Union Square, Gramercy Park, and Eleven Madison Park) always sincerely friendly, well-trained, and extra-ordinarily well-versed in wine. And requests for sauces on the side and other When Harry Met Sally-style deviations have always been delivered exactly as ordered.

     Then, without design, Meyer’s message was put to the test when a friend entertaining important business clients and myself at the Modern (the pricey dining room, not the bar room) discovered after the first of many already ordered courses that his parties’ theater tickets for the sold-out hit musical Jersey Boys was for 7:00 PM, not 8:00 PM.

     Despite the fact it was a busy Thursday night (in Manhattan, the busiest night of the week) with every table booked, arrangements were made for us to return to our wines and already-fired courses following the performance.

     Now given Meyer’s proclaimed customer-first heroics, you may be wondering: Did Danny Meyer send a long stretch limo to take you all to the theater (about six blocks away) in the pouring rain? Did he send a bottle of Dom Perignon to enjoy during Intermission? (no)

     This experience occurred a few months before I read the book, but the incident did reinforce the fact that Meyer has very successfully articulated his message to his staff, and they internalized it quite well. Not because they “had” to (otherwise I’d sense it in their attitude), but apparently because they admired Meyer’s leadership enough to believe in his message and his mission.

     Instead of hubris, Meyer never shies away from admitting his own mistakes as a young restaurateur in his book. He gives a no-holds-barred account of his struggles and successes, both on a personal and professional level. Quite a bit of raw personal emotion in what is touted as a business leadership book, and this is exactly the ingredient that keeps it more real and gripping than the recycled, canned information you find in most books on customer service.

     Meyer is also generous in crediting his mentors, especially Robert Chadderdon, an importer of French wines, in both his marketing and wine list education. Though Meyer grew up in a self-described ‘euro-centric’ household and developed an early interest in wine and food, nothing in his background could prepare him for the territory he was to conquer in NYC circa 1985, a time when Union Square Park was not the leafy, clean, upscale place to buy farm fresh produce it is today, and the park outside what is now the exclusive Eleven Madison Park was rundown and ignored.

     As economic conditions in NYC improved and created a growing audience for his restaurants, Meyer’s growing fleet of restaurants gained in popularity and his focus on customer service deepened. Meyer admits he was afraid of instilling a “Stepford Wives” type approach to hospitality in his staff, similar to the repetitive “bye-bye” chirp of seemingly robotic flight attendants as passengers depart a plane. Instead, he empowered his servers to give great service by letting their personalities shine through in terms of their approach to guests.

     Michael Porter, a professor at Harvard Business School, has written: “Danny Meyer’s marvelous book is not about restaurants, but about how to really learn a business and create a distinctive strategy,” and this is true. If your objective is to please customers, and train staff so that they like you, respect you, and are comfortable following your formula, this is the book for you.

     This is also a “must read” book if you’re interested about how to open a restaurant. Yet perhaps, above and beyond anything else, it is a book that warns you to pick your advisers carefully.

     Meyer writes that in the early 2000s he was driving past what would be the glamorous Time Warner Center, with its Mandarin Oriental hotel, CNN studios, luxury apartments, shops, and five-star restaurants wit his then eight-year-old daughter, Hallie. At the time, it was just a dug-out hole, but Meyer painted the picture of what it would one day be and asked: “What would you think if Daddy opened a restaurant there?”

     Hallie burst into tears and said, “I never want you to have a restaurant where people are going there for some other reason than to go to your restaurant. People go to your restaurants because they want to be at your restaurant.”

     Well said, Hallie. If nothing else, Danny Meyer, sounds like you really do pick your advisors well.

One of the more indulgent pleasures in today’s frenzied world (especially when it comes to the tiny kitchens of Manhattan) is to buy a glossy cooking magazine with mouth-watering photographs of incredibly decadent cuisine, and just sit there, savoring a glass of wine as you read the recipe and pretend you are actually making the meal.

Or maybe it’s just me.

At any rate, as soon as I began to read Carla Capalbo’s gorgeously photographed and lovingly written book Collio: Fine Wines and Foods From Italy’s North-East, I felt the desire to read it with a glass of good local wine and some cheese from the area. Collio is written for people who love not just food, but the individual stories that tie in with the food and wine from this bountiful region.

On a map of Italy, the region looks tiny – easy to overlook - especially when you consider the proximity to glittering Venice. Yet two thousand years ago the Romans considered it the crossroads between east and west north and south and built the key trading city Aquileria here. Pliny visited, of course, and wrote about the way the affluent members of Roman society built luxurious weekend homes and farms (almost similar to the way wealthy Americans are buying wineries in Napa).

Whether you love food, wine, Italian culinary traditions, or are planning a trip to Northeast Italy, this is the book for you. Author Capalbo is a born storyteller, and perhaps without even realizing she is doing so, turns each of the many wine producers, chefs, and farmers she interviews into a very three dimensional character. In just a few paragraphs, through the way she paints these individuals with words, and sentences she chooses for their quotes, we come to know them intimately. Take Aldo Polencic, described as a “soft spoken, opinionated, forty-something winemaker.” In less than a half page we learn not just his winemaking techniques but his relationship to his father, his thoughts on his family’s 400 year history in the area, and his passion for the land.

Capalbo likes to let her characters (they are so vibrantly colorful it is sometimes difficult to remember they are actual living people) speak for themselves through their dialogue and through her physical description of them. And curiously, in the same way that she brings the winemakers to life, Capalbo brings the actual wines to life. Tocai Friulano and Ribolla Gialla are the local stars here, along with Malvasia and Pinot Grigio. The wines have personality given the intense mineral-rich soil and limestone hills, and its this sense of terroir that in part encouraged Capalbo to choose the area for her book.

Though Collio had been famous for thousands of years, it wasn’t until 1964 that the Collio Consortium was founded to promote the region as a denominazione with a recognizable territorial brand. Save for Pinot Grigio, it’s possible that you haven’t heard of the local varieties – few outside Italy have. Felidia Bastianich, a famous celebrity chef in Manhattan, was born in nearby Istria and can be credited for bringing wines of the region to New York.

In the course of interviewing dozens of winemakers, through Capalo’s eyes we learn about the wine of the region, and also the lifestyle and history of people who live there. “To me,” says Nicola Manferrari of Borgo del Tiglio, “the most important patrimony we have in Italy is the culture of the poor, of the “unschooled” contadini and artisans who seemingly have nothing to teach us but in fact are the transmitters of our most significant wisdom.”

In addition to the poignant stories of the winemakers and cheesemakers and farmers, author Capalbo ensures her book does double duty by revealing top restaurants in each area, points of interest, and guest accommodations which she has visited herself. If indeed you do plan to use this book as a guide, be sure to use a yellow highlighter pen to underline important points such as the one Capalbo uses when directing readers to the Latteria di Montefosca dairy: “Always phone to check opening times before venturing up the mountain to Latteria.”

Well said … especially if you are hiking up that mountain!

For whatever reason, I received the book About Wine by J. Patrick Henderson and Dellie Rex over two years ago, yet had been too overwhelmed by my wine studies to open anything that wasn't Janscis Robinson or Tom Stevenson. It's only now that I have my diploma from the Wine and Spirits Educational Trust that I am dusting off my wine books and taking a (relaxed, for once!) look inside.

Now I haven't met Mr. Henderson, but I knew Dellie Rex when I lived in Boston and was active with Julia Child and the American Institute of Wine and Food. Not sure if Dellie and I met at an AIWF event or not, yet this is a terrific book and I am so proud of the authors.

In some ways, it's a nice bridge between a wine created for students in intensive wine programs, and service people (waiters, sommeliers) who read Brian K. Julyan's book "Sales and Service for the Wine Professional." Most of the "textbooks" I used in my WSET study didn't really talk about service all that much, or how to set up a wine list. This book is very practical in that regard. The authors, Henderson and Rex, also take a different approach to wine regions. When they discuss Burgundy, for example, they define each village and the style of wine it produces quite succinctly.

Each chapter begins with learning outcomes -- what the student/reader will learn as a result of reading that chapter. For this reason, i can see the book used the the Wine Directors of restaurants in whatever wine program they might be developing for the staff. It gives the reader a clear sense of what they are expected to know.

Very impressed by this book, and feel that it fills a very needed gap in the market as it is more extensive in terms of regions, history, and tasting notes than Julyan' shorter, more specifically service book, and is less intense than the oversized, dense educational books.

Sure, reading the back of the bottle can explain quite a bit. Yet to quench your thirst for knowledge you have only two realistic choices. First, you can spend quite a bit of time, energy, and money in going to the various wine schools now available to you. Or you can invest in Jennifer “Chotzi” Rosen’s book Waiter, There’s a Horse in My Wine, the first in a series of books my Rosen (see my review of The Cork Jester’s Guide to Wine) and wine-related materials (like novelty card decks).

Does the title strike you as irreverent? Do you prefer titles like Scientific Examination of Soil Types In Global Wine Regions? Well, I can assure you that Rosen would be the first to admit that soil types are of key importance. Yet she is savvy enough to understand the importance of responding to what wine aficionados need to know now. Despite her first-rate wine education, she has the unique ability to translate what may be considered boring wine terminology into everyday language we can all understand.

Now I can describe all the cleverly written, brightly colored stories in this book, yet why ruin your fun? When she visits the Chianti Classico region, for example, she doesn’t bore readers with details about the soil, the specific demands of the appellation (for example, Italy’s strictly controlled DOC and DOCG regions demand a specific percentage of the blend to be the Sangiovese grape, a specific period for maturation, etc.). Instead, she entertains us with stories of three-hour lunches on the terraces of villas overlooking olive groves and the smoldering glances of bare-chested vineyard workers.

I hear you saying "I want a book about wine, not a glossy romance novel." Please understand that Rosen's book is about wine and, yes, she talks about soils and wine maturation and winemaker tools as well. But the truth is that most books about wine viticulture are as boring as reading a hundred pages about the proper cultivation of potatoes. You'll find that the magic of Rosen's art is to tease the reader with a fun colorful story and then explain the essence of a specific region.

Jennifer Rosen was on my radar screen long before Gary Vandnerchuk became a pop icon, so who is to say which of these zany wine entertainers was first to really “demystify” the subject of wine and make it fun and safe for adults to explore without tears. As a wine educator myself, the fun thing about Rosen's book is that it is great for neophytes as well as scholars in that it forces any reader to let go of old, outmoded wine associations. Thanks for this fun, juicy book, Ms. Rosen, and let us know when you too will become a wine show reality star.

Now, I’ve never been a lady-in-waiting in an elegant French or English court, but from childhood remember stories that the court jester — a painted clown, if you will — was the only person freely allowed to mimic the king with absolute impunity. And this is exactly what Jennifer Rosen is doing in her hysterically funny book. Jennifer pokes playful fun at the "serious and solemn way" most Americans were raised to look at wine. If I understand Jennifer’s intention correctly, in this book she wants to makennfer rosen, the cork jester's gide to wine, books on winee appreciation of wine accessible to all, without all the hyperbole usually associated with the topic.ennfer rosen, the cork jester's gide to wine, books on wine

Call this a "reality-based approach" to learning wine, if you will, as Jennifer has selectively chosen subjects she feels to be key concerns of people wanting to understand more about wine. So do not expect the book to begin with a serious discussion of soil types around the world, vine diseases, and the appropriate way to appreciate wine. Instead, Jennifer chooses topics such as how to maximize a tour to a vineyard, how to choose and order wines in a restaurant, and how to read a wine label (it is more difficult than you may imagine).

Best of all, what I loved about this book was Jennifer’s colorful, witty writing. You will find a zany zinger on every page. One of the funniest is on page 44, in a discussion of the Malbec grape. Here she describes the Malbec grape: "Malbec has a second rate role in Europe. In Bordeaux, it’s a blender, little more than Viagra for flaccid reds." Now, I write about Malbec quite a bit, and seeing it as "Viagra" never really occurred to me — or possibly hundreds of other wine writers and wine makers. Colorful anecdotes like this are what make Jennifer Rosen such a valuable resource to the wine community. She is not afraid to call a spade a spade, or to say something about grapes or winemaking so brazen readers find themselves gasping in surprise.

Jennifer Rosen has won many awards for her writing, including the prestigious James Beard Award for Internet writing, and deserves a place now on your bookshelf.

See also "Waiter There's a Horse in My Wine"

I first met Natalie MacLean at NYU, when she was speaking on a James Beard–sponsored panel about the Internet along with Julie Powell (of Julia and Julia fame). Impressed by her savvy, I later bought her book, Red, White, and Drunk All Over. Now, if you’re reading this review, you probably know that wine books run the gamut from (boring!) encyclopedias to wine-soaked romantic liaisons written by importers about the adventures of their youth. Then, of course, there are the food and wine pairing guides, the Wine 101 books, and all the rest.

MacLean’s book takes a happy departure as she shares with us, her readers, a day in the life of many different wine professionals. MacLean has a diploma from the Wine and Spirits Educational Trust (WSET), a two-and-a-half-year wine education that involves many written and tasting exams. As one who has been through the process, I can assure you that a graduate is expected to know everything about every wine in the world. Literally.

So in her charming and well-written book, MacLean describes not only her love of wine and what brought her into the wine world, but also the lives of people in various wine-oriented professions, and in some instances she spends a day or night literally in their shoes. Yet what I like best about the book is MacLean’s very colorful, highly descriptive voice in which she captures the absolute essence of the people she is writing about. In Vose-Romanee (a prestigious village in Burgundy, France) she describes the person of Madame Lalou Bize-Leroy, the dynamic head of her family’s négociant business. MacLean takes the reader along with Madame Bize-Leroy through the winery, where we seem to see the sorting table and all the other winery equipment in our minds' eyes. And through this very visual tour, even people who have never seen a winery will get a sense of how wine is made (without that expensive, time-consuming WSET program!).

In the course of this book, MacLean seems to literally take the reader by the hand and introduce them to fascinating characters in the wine world from both the new and old world. You will meet antiquated winemakers, American sommeliers, and everyone in between. It is a great book to read if you are just getting your feet wet in the world of wine, as it is not technical enough to be off-putting, yet when all is said and done, it gives the reader a very keen initial knowledge of the wine business, from viticulture and viniculture to the international trade structure. And for the same reasons, it is a very good gift on its own — or accompanied by your favorite bottle of wine. 

You can also subscribe to MacLean's website at http://www.NatDecants.com.

Making Spanish wine easy to understand is Jose Penin and his Penin Guide to Spanish Wine. The 2008 guide has just come out, and many producers from Spain came to celebrate and showcase their wine at New York’s W Hotel. The wines exhibited were rated 87 to 93 points, and reflect the “New Values” of Spanish Wine.

Jose Pennin is Spain’s version of Robert Parker. His guide rates wines and provides very vivid descriptions, and also educates the reader about the various regions, terroir, and soils. Even if you know nothing of wine or Spain, by the time you finish reading this book you will be an expert.

The book begins with a discussion of Spanish varietals. White grapes include Airen (Spain’s most widely planted grape), Albarino, Garnacha Blanca, Malvasia, Palomino, and dozens of other white grapes you probably have not heard of. You probably are already familiar with Spain’s reds, which include the famous Tempranillo, Garnacha, and the very trendy Mencia from Bierzo. Scanning the other red grape varieties in Penin’s book will alert you to know many other dozens of grapes you can find in Spain.

In the next chapter, Penin introduces you to the best terroirs in Spain, which includes stony soils, clay-calcareous soils, sandy soils, and volcanic soils. The influence of the soil on the aroma of wine is tremendous. Granite and sandy soils, for example, provide a certain bluntness to the wine and give it clean aromas. Gravel soils produce wine with earthy aromas. Simply scan the information about the soil’s effect on aroma and you will surprise and amaze your friends with your knowledge.

Next, you will learn about climates and microclimates. The Atlantic, as you may well imagine, is humid and wet with rain all year round. Wines struggle to mature and are high in malic acid (which is why some of the best wines from Galacia are so acidic and mineral-driven). In contrasts, wines from a Mediterranean climate like Jumilla produce fuller-bodied wines with a higher alcohol content. If you want to go to Spain to experience the wines first hand, Penin also includes a list of local wine fairs in Spain, along with his personal comments and contact numbers.

However, the “meat” of the book is the reviews and ratings of the wines themselves, organized by Denomination of Origin (DO), which is the Spanish ranking system of quality wines. You will find illustrative maps of the DO region and main concentration of vineyards, a general view of the area with a brief commentary on its current situation and foreseeable future, general characteristics of the regions wines, and a fantastic index. This book is really a must for the casual wine drinker as well as the connoisseur. Cheers!