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A wine guide
Instead of pointing a laughing at me or dismissing me for my made up pretence about wine he wrote this book for me instead. So, because my wine blagging knowledge is top shelf, instead I would buy this book because it delivers on the title.
The book divides into two parts: Buying, Tasting, Drinking and The World’s Most Common Wines. The heart of the book and Matt’s raison d’etre for writing it lives in the first part and it is where the book delivers – “A guide for people who drink a bit and know a little but would like to know more.”
Wine is a difficult and complex topic and reducing wine nuance into its basic constituent parts is not something I’ve seen done this way before. Matt has skilfully pitched the information, tone and content somewhere between the know-nothing and the knows-most-things, brilliantly filling the void. The books use of the graphics, break-out boxes, colours and supportive layout all contribute to this experience.
I sceptically tried the advice from the “how to tell what it will taste like by looking at the bottle” section – the region and grape variety being the strongest key determinants has worked the few times I tried it. The new world wine producers make this a much easier proposition by indicating the grape variety on the bottle. In fact, that advice enticed me to step away from my tried and trusted and confidently explore something new, something untested. A result.
The old world wines still require additional knowledge of knowing the grape varieties grown in the many regions. Matt comes to the rescue again by devoting the around half the book to an exploration of the regions, grape varieties and typical wines produced.
Even for all its attempts at ease, the book can’t escape the fact that wine is a complex subject and at times reading through it I was still left feeling the subject’s dense weight. It all attests to Matt’s credibility and knowledge but also an impression that he wanted to jam all that knowledge into the book. It was helpful information, but not necessary to meet the book’s aims. You will have to want to know more about wine to get the most out of Drink Me! because as stylish as it is, it is not a coffee table glossy tome full of rolling vineyard pictures.
It’s a guide that I’ll keep handy and refer to and defer to often. I can now confidently speak about the wine and regions I enjoy – and for the rest I’ll blag it “Clearly New World; lovely, vibrant fruit.”
Drink Me! How to Choose, Taste and Enjoy Wine by Matt Walls, published by Quadrille is £12.99. The book is available from 24 May 2012. Thank you to Quadrille for sending me a copy of the book to review.