Wine Blog

Iowans attending inauguration reflect on historic event – Waterloo Cedar-Falls Courier
WATERLOO — Kristal Miller has imagined it a hundred times over. She will have been standing outside in 30 degree weather since dawn, waiting to witness the inauguration of Barack Obama, the nation’s first black president. Long johns, jeans, an

Italian Wines 2008 (Italian Wines)
A comprehensive guide to the delicious world of Italian wine

Customer Review: excellent source
This book is a review by people who know the wine, the history and what the wine should be from year to year. It provides a great perspective on the state of Italian wine and it’s place in the industry.

Customer Review: A bit of a mess and far too much convoluted detail…
I see the validity of the points of the other reviewer here, but I’ll be frank, this book is just not set up well and nor does it have any type of approachability for even the wine professional. If you’re looking for any kind of a casual book, this is NOT it. You will have to wade through literally hundreds of pages and indexing (in a horribly small print) to find anything you are looking for or will find useful.

See my FULL review for the 2006 edition of this book if you’d like more examples. I’ve used both it and the 2008 for very specific things. But in general, I’ll never purchase another from this series and will probably have very little reason to use either of them again. They are just not easy to use or approachable.

Chitosan, dry climate grapes: Wine Wizard – Winemaker Magazine

Chitosan, dry climate grapes: Wine Wizard Winemaker Magazine, VT - Jan 16, 2009 … are just that — and just won’t make wine identical to the traditional varietals you might have as favorites, such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay. …

How to Taste: A Guide to Enjoying Wine
Whether Montessori or Merlot, kindergarten or Cabernet, the importance of a good instructor during the formative years is crucial. That’s why newcomers to the world of wine could do a lot worse than having a corkscrew in one hand and a copy of Jancis Robinson’s How to Taste in the other. A revision of 1983’s Masterglass and published in the U.K. under the superior title Jancis Robinson’s Wine-Tasting Workbook, How to Taste is a primer by a certified Master of Wine and star of the PBS series Jancis Robinson’s Wine Course. From acidity to Australian Shiraz, oak to Oregon Pinot, Robinson delivers chapters of information and theory, intermingled with shaded “Practice” exercises, presented in a style as off-dry as one of the author’s beloved Rieslings (the tannin in a lesser vintage Barolo is “like sucking on a matchstick”). Sometimes tuition at Jancis U. runs high: the lesson on sugar/acid balance culminates with expensive Sauterne “Practice.” And even if Robinson risks, by dropping words like “charred” and “umami” early in the book, sending novices back to tear open a fresh box of Franzia, vinous virgins are encouraged to stick with it. By the time they get to the glossary at book’s end, they’ll be identifying wines at blind tastings with professional accuracy–which, Robinson encouragingly reveals, and she ought to know, is about 50 percent. –Tony Mason

Customer Review: me likey
i thought it was a good beginners book. it had plenty of detail about wine (and everything that goes into producing it) without encumbering a neophyte (such as myself)

Customer Review: Wish I had read this before my wine tasting tour
Easy and enjoyable to read. I learned a lot from page one. I did not feel like I was studying for a test, but painlessly absorbing interesting information about grapes. The book answered questions I didn’t know I had, and explained things I had been wondering about for years, like how to spit at a tasting.

Accept no substitutes: The best of the 2003 Brunellos – The Week Magazine

The Week Magazine

Accept no substitutes: The best of the 2003 Brunellos The Week Magazine - 18 hours ago In a recent blind tasting by our panel, these emerged as the four best: This wine’s black cherry color practically glows in the glass. …

The Wine Maker’s Answer Book (Answer Book (Storey))
Home winemaking is an appealing hobby for a new generation of wine lovers lured by the promise of a great payoff — small batches of handmade wine. It’s the perfect opportunity to experiment with flavors, have fun playing with chemistry, and share a few tasty bottles with friends and family. But safely fermenting, bottling, and aging wine is a demanding process requiring special equipment, impeccable sanitation, an understanding of chemical reactions, and the patience to see the aging process through to the end. No matter how experienced the home winemaker, unforeseen questions develop with every batch of new wine.

When a winemaker has problems with leaky corks or finds an oily film on top of his fermenting wine, what’s the simplest, quickest way to get an answer? The Wine Maker’s Answer Book is a 24/7 helpline with advice on hundreds of winemaking dilemmas. From the basic curiosity of the novice (What equipment will I need to get started?) to the finer points of fermentation (What is the impact of malolactic fermentation on acidity?), every step of the process is covered in detail.

Author Alison Crowe uses a friendly question-and-answer format to explain the mysteries of turning grape juice into wine, whether the reader is beginning with fresh grapes or a home winemaking kit. To the straightforward requests for information, she offers detailed descriptions of procedures and equipment. For stickier real-life problems, she first carefully assesses the possible causes and then gives expert advice on fixing the trouble.

Covering the entire range of situations a winemaker is likely to face, this handy, at-a-glance reference will make every batch of wine taste better.

Customer Review: the wine maker’s answer book
Great book for amateurs wine makers. This book will answers many questions and problems you may have with making fine wines. I entered a international wine competition in 2007, I entered 4 different types of wine and won one gold medal. After buying this book and reading it from cover to cover, I entered 3 different types of wine and walked away with 3 medals in the 2008 comptition (one gold and 2 silvers).
This book is well worth the money,and I want to thank Alison Crowe for writeing this great book.

Customer Review: Nice QA book
This is a nice book that will answer questions for those interested in home winemaking as well small scale wineries.