Shepards Guide To Mastering French Wines

Shepard's Guide to Mastering French Wines makes you an authority on the finest French wines. Explore the vineyards region by region. Then throw away those misleading point scorecards as you develop your own wine taste. What They Are Saying About Shepard's Robbie Cutler Diplomatic Mystery Series "Bill Shepard has adroitly used his encyclopedic knowledge of Bordeaux and the region to weave a fascinating story. If you like Bordeaux wine read Vintage Murder." -Evan Galbraith, United States Ambassador to France 1981-1985. "Murder On The Danube is very well written, very informative and very entertaining. Reminds me of Eric Ambler's A Coffin for Demetrios." -John Goodspeed, Star/Democrat.

Confused at the wine store ? You are not alone. French wines are amongst the best in the world, but their centuries old tradition make them understandable only to the initiated. This book will help you remember what style of wines each region produces, as well as the main appellations and their principal varieties. It will help you understand terms used on labels so you can confidently pick up a bottle of French wine and know what to expect from it. Did you know that Rasteau Sec is dry, but Champagne Sec is not ? Or the difference between Pouilly-Fumé, Pouilly-Fuissé, Pouilly-Loché and Pouilly-Vinzelles ? Or which is the only Côte de Nuits Grand Cru that produces white wine ? While this book will help you remember all this information when you are picking your next bottle, you can also use it as a reference. Most French appellations, including the Grand Cru of Alsace and Bourgogne are cross-referenced, and a vintage chart and map of the main varieties is included. All winemaking regions are discussed: Alsace, Champagne, Beaujolais, Bordeaux, Bourgogne (Burgundy), Jura & Savoie, Languedoc-Roussillon, the Loire valley, Provence & Corse (Corsica), the Rhône valley and the South-West of France. If you are studying for the Court of Master Sommeliers (CMS), Wines and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) or French Wine Scholar (FWS), this book can be a good preparatory reading. It highlights the essential information about each region as well as dives deeper into the appellations and what makes them special.

Unique, astonishingly comprehensive, and with over 8,000 French wines selected from 28,000 tasted blind, this ultimate guide offers irresistibly tempting suggestions. Each entry includes 20 separate pieces of information-many given in compact symbols and found in this book alone-and there are four indexes, so you can look up a wine by its name, producer, appellation, or commune. For every winemaking region in France, you'll get the latest news on the past year's vintage.

This completely new and updated edition of the 1985 classic Mastering Wine, winner of the Cliquot Prize for the best wine book of the year, provides a complete course in tasting and understanding the virtues and flaws of wine of all kinds--in your home and without bankrupting you. Tom Maresca's ingenious do-it-yourself guide to mastering wine is based on comparing two wines at a time; his one unyielding rule is that there is no wrong answer to the question "Which wine did you like better?" Each pair leads you to the next, and your own taste charts the course. You may proceed through the carefully planned sequence of over forty different pairs of reds, whites, rosés, and sparkling wines, or follow the directions to the wines of a particular region or a particular class, such as Cabernets. Whichever route you opt for, Mastering Wine can provide you with an acquaintance with the major kinds and classes of dry dinner wines, a painless introduction to wine terms, and practice in the art of tasting and analyzing wine--of any kind. Anyone who would like an introduction to wine or a wider appreciation of the infinite variety of wines will find Mastering Wine the only practical, enjoyable, and affordable choice. Award-winning wine author Tom Maresca writes in simple, clear, and sensible language that punctures the pretensions and mystique associated with wine. He introduces a new way of thinking about how and why certain wines go well with certain kinds of food--and why others don't. Maresca also provides a down-to-earth explanation or how wines change as they mature; he suggests wines suitable for short- and long-term cellaring; and he lists six wines that you can keep on hand to suit most every occasion. For clarity, wit, good taste, and adventurous enjoyment The Right Wine is the essential accompaniment to wine of any vintage.