2WineSnobs

Amazon.com’s Best of 2001
Though it drinks deep of its subject, Karen MacNeil’s Wine Bible deftly avoids two traps many wine books fall into: talking down to wine novices or talking up to more experienced enophiles. The book avoids these traps through MacNeil’s obvious, and infectious, love of her subject, which comes out in almost every sentence of the book, and which lets her talk about wine in a way that combines the good teacher, the trusted friend, and the expert sommelier. As director of the wine program at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley, California, MacNeil is one of the world’s true experts on wine. After reading a chapter on the Burgenland, for example, you’ve learned about the region’s sweet wines while feeling like you’re actually there, toasting a glass of Cuvee Suss with the author. It is this passion that leads to describing an Italian riservas as “mesmerizing” and a Cabernet Sauvignon as having “texture like cashmere.” The Wine Bible is broken into countries, hitting all of the major wine producers and most of the minor ones. Each section gives detailed descriptions of the country’s wines (with chapters on individual regions when necessary), highlighting specific wine producers and individual wines, as well as talking about local foods, customs, and other tidbits that add to the reading experience. MacNeil begins her journey through the world’s wine with an invaluable section on “Mastering Wine,” which lets a reader get ready before uncorking separate sections. –A.J. Rathbun

Review
Bon Appétit : “A dazzling, comprehensive, modern guide to wine, free of elitism and pedantry. This thoroughly successful work sets a new standard and makes wine more accessible and user-friendly than it has ever been before.”
—Anthony Dias Blue, wine and spirits editor, Bon Appétit

Red Wine by Marques de Caceres from Rioja, Spain. Spicy, rich, complex Rioja drinking beautifully right now. Deep ruby in color, it is full and intense with a complex bouquet and a depth of ripe fruit which later matches its elegance, richness and full flavor. Marques de Caceras Reserva Red is produced from grapes that are specially selected in certain years for their outstanding quality. It spends just over two years in oak and at least three in the bottle before release.

Buy Marques de Caceres 2000 Rioja Reserva - Tempranillo Red Wine at Wine.com

White Wine by Bonterra from North Coast, California. Once again in this exceptional vintage Bonterra has layered sister White Rhone varietals Marsanne and Roussanne to the blend, adding a dimension of complexity. Marsanne provides a rich texture and green apple flavor, while Roussanne contributes pear and haunting floral notes. As you begin to drink, powerful aromas of freshly sliced harvest peach, hints of honeysuckle and an exotic note of jasmine dominate. Peaches and cream remain a sensory signature of this wine. Complex fruit flavors of apricot and peach are overlaid with notes of oak vanilla. Balance and elegance will become the watchword for this vintage. The wine is crisp, yet creamy, a grand alternative to everyday whites.

Buy Bonterra 2006 Organically Grown Viognier - White Wine at Wine.com

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Rosé Wines (Blush Wines)

Also called blush wines, rosé wines are usually pink in color, though some, like White Zinfandel, do indeed appear to be white. Rosé are made using red wine grapes, but after crushing, the juice is kept in contact with the skins for just a couple of hours. This brief contact ensures the wine won’t have more color than a pink “blush” and also limits the tannins that get into the wine.

Rosés are often drunk as “picnic wines,” and can be tasty and refreshing when chilled to about 60ºF (15ºC) and drunk on a hot day.

Sparkling Wines

As yeast ferments the sugar in grape juice to produce alcohol and wine, it also produces carbon dioxide gas as a byproduct. Usually winemakers let this carbon dioxide escape from the wine. To make sparkling wines, however, the winemaker traps the carbon dioxide, producing bubbles. Sparkling wines are made almost exclusively with white wines.

Though all American wine companies that make sparkling wine can legally call their product Champagne, the fact is that real Champagne is made only in the Champagne region of France. Other sparkling wines are just that: sparkling wines.

Dessert Wines (Fortified Wines)

Yeast cannot survive in an environment containing more than 14% alcohol by volume. This means that unless a winemaker uses specially developed yeast, naturally produced wines cannot have an alcohol content above 14% because the yeast in the casks will die off at that point.

Winemakers such as those in Port (in Portugal) and Sherry (in Spain) found a way around this limitation: they added extra sugar or additional alcohol to the wine as it fermented. This produced wines that had significantly higher alcohol contents. Most, though not all, of these wines are sweeter than regular wines and are consumed after meals—hence the name dessert wines. Dessert wines are also sometimes called fortified wines since their alcohol content has been strengthened.