2012 Vinos Wine Film Festival Celebrates Love of BC Wines
Attention wine-loving filmmakers: Black Hills Estate Winery, producers of “The Vinos”, is now accepting submissions for its wine commercial film festival and is encouraging filmmakers everywhere to tell their own story of BC Wine. Inspired by the Sundance
Red Wine for Dummies
The authors of Wine for Dummies and White Wine for Dummies have produced a handy primer on the fundamentals of red wine. After a brief introduction to the varieties of grapes and the seven classic types of red wine, the reader (and taster!) is introduced to the world’s greatest offerings, including less recognized wines from Chile and Australia. The familiar Dummies-style “Part of Tens” includes 10 wine-tasting exercises using affordable vintages.
Customer Review: Self asserted Dummy
I’m glad to see that so many people do not mind applying the term “dummy” to themselves when it comes to trying new things. Even though the black and yellow cover clashes horribly with my copies of Emmerson and Tennyson on the bookshelf, I am not ashamed. I would hope that the self-professed “snob” who wrote one off these reviews has the sense not only to use his large vocabulary with caution, but also to spell “label” properly when communicating how snobbish s/he is.
Customer Review: Easy to understand, complete in its coverage
As I wrote in a previous review of The Sommelier’s Guide to Wine, I am just beginning my introduction to the fascinating world of wine. While the former book has been invaluable, so has this – Red Wine for Dummies.
As always, the language is very accessible and the subject material easy to understand, even when some of the more difficult or intimidating aspects of wine are discussed (such as when and why to decant, picking a wine, a guide to wine terms, etc.)
The descriptions of the grapes themselves are marvelous. For example, here is the description for a Zinfandel (yes, Zinfandel is a red grape – White Zinfandel [all apologies to those who like it] is a wine made by ruining the grape): “The Zinfandel grape gives good color to the red wines made from it, along with bramble-berry fruit flavors and aromas and a spicy character. The intensity of the wine varies according to where grapes grew and how old the vines are; some very old (80 to 100 years) vineyards make wines that are full bodied and dense with flavor. More typically, Zinfandel makes wines that are medium bodied, with succulent fruit and medium tannin.” Sure there are descriptions in fancy wine magazines that are more complete, but chances are you wouldn’t have the slightest idea what they’re talking about.
This book also covers regions where wines are made, climates, soil, and everything that goes into producing a good red wine. It’s a superb book for a beginner.
