This is the book to help you explore the wonderful world of wine and choose the right wine every time. Wine has an extraordinary range of flavours, but only a limited number of styles.This book aims to sort wines according to various characteristics that will ring a bell with most of us: acidity perhaps, or aroma, or tannic structure, or particular flavours. For example, what strikes the drinker most about Australian Riesling is its powerful lime-cordial flavour. Starting from that flavour, with its attendant high acidity, we lead the reader across the world, picking out wine after wine where they will find those familiar notes of lime and acidity. Petit Manseng in SW France, for example, or Godello from Monterrei in Spain, or indeed Riesling from New Zealand, where the grape nods to the more floral, honeyed style of Rheingau Riesling. Or take reds: Chilean Carmenere has only appeared on the scene in the last 15 years, and growers there have had a rapid learning curve. Now its chocolate and blackberry fruit and its low acidity can start you on an exploration which leads to Argentine Bonarda, Sicilian reds, Toro from Spain and Washington State Merlot. But not to Merlot as it tastes in Bordeaux: there it's acidity and different structure point to classic Pauillac - and that is a separate exploration. The book starts, though, with explorations of the various issues affecting wine today: high and low alcohol levels, why tannin and acidity are important, what 'modern' and traditional' mean in wine terms, screwcaps versus cork, how to describe flavours, what are 'natural' wines and why are they so trendy, and many more topics...The aim is to help readers to understand what is going on in wine at the moment, so that they can make informed choices, and understand why wine tastes the way it does.
