Free Downloads True Taste: The Seven Essential Wine Words
There's a world of words to describe wine, but only seven you need to know to understand it.Wine is one of the most written about beverages in our history, with dictionaries dedicated solely to the words and phrases used to describe it in the ever-expanding world of self-professed wine connoisseurs. Now, the "great demystifier of wine” (Booklist), highly acclaimed wine expert Matt Kramer, explains in a lucid, accessible and conversational style that there are only seven words that you really need to remember to enjoy wine with anyone.
Hardcover: 128 pages
Publisher: Cider Mill Press (June 9, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1604335688
ISBN-13: 978-1604335682
Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 0.6 x 7.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #417,629 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #63 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Beverages & Wine > Wine & Spirits > Buying Guides #85 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Beverages & Wine > Wine & Spirits > Wine Tasting #402 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Beverages & Wine > Wine & Spirits > Wine
Matt Kramer’s latest book (really not more than a long, concise, finely argued essay) is subversive. While at once a bare knuckled take down of the now well established “flavor-descriptor-as-tasting-note” mode of wine review, True Taste: The Seven Essential Wine Words is also a manifesto for the return to values, judgment and discernment in both wine writing and wine reviewing. And it is a book that every wine writer, every wine industry participant and every true wine aficionado needs to read because it is one of the most important and insightful wine books to be published in the past 2o years.True Taste is the culmination of Kramer’s 40 years of writing about wine. And the book reads like something one would need 40 years of drinking wine, tasting wine, evaluating wine, discussing wine and thinking about wine to produce. Those 40 years of experience have provided Kramer with a unique view of a transformation in wine writing and evaluation that he believes has taken us all astray. And he’s right.Boiled down, Kramer’s plea is that we move aside the obsession with focusing on flavor identification and descriptors when we evaluate wine because the descriptors actually tell us very little about the quality of the wine or about the most important thing: our judgment of the wine: “Flavors descriptors have nothing to do with judgment. What you can find doesn’t necessarily correspond to what you conclude…Too many tasting notes now offer little more than a string of fanciful flavor descriptors with the judgment revealed only in the score itself—a numerical ‘thank you ma’am” after the more energetic ‘slam , bam’ of the flavor descriptors.”Kramer is looking for thoughtful judgment in wine reviews.
First I would like to say, I so wanted to like this book, I think Matt Kramer is very talented, and through his essays and other books, has championed the fact that there is more to wine then swirl, sniff, sip, spit and score. That the greatness of a wine, can not be recognized in a snapshot taste among hundreds of other wines with sometimes vastly differing characteristics. Then be categorized and distilled into a few, often vague or oddly overly specific, descriptive phrases, assigned a score and forgotten. Sadly this "book" falls short (pun intended) of this in several ways.First, is it even a book? It is very small, both in stature 8"x6" and length 99 pages of standard type, from preface to footnotes. Of those pages, 29 are either chapter title page, 2 per chapter, or blown up quotes from the text you are reading, so essentially blank. That leaves the reader with 70 small pages, witch in a more standard format, would I think come to less then 50 pages. Is that worth $19.00 (cover price)? I would say this is less, a small book and more, a long pamphlet.But, you say maybe Matt drilled into this subject of taste and got to the root, and therefore could get the point across with fewer words, it's right there in the title you only need 7. Sorry but that isn't the case, what you get is a short series of recycled platitudes with no specifics, complaints about wine reviewing with no offer of solutions, and an attack on one kind of doctor (chemists) using an other (psychologists).My last and biggest issue with True Taste is it smacks of elitism.
I've always adored Kramer's writing for its unique balance of erudition and lack of pretense. Kramer isn't a critic, he's a wine writer, and spends his time looking for meaning rather than adjectives in every glass.Kramer doesn't seek flavors, but something more fundamental in what makes wine great. He offers his seven wine words in the vein of the Platonic Solids, shapes that were thought at the time to be the fundamental building blocks of the universe.Insight, Harmony, Texture, Layers, Finesse, Surprise, and Nuance. These are the characteristics that Kramer suggests should form the fundamentals of any judgement about wine. Wines either have them, or they don't, says Kramer, and the best wines have got them all.But even more to the point, Kramer suggests that once you understand these elements of wine, they're pretty much all you need to fully understand and appreciate it, which may be a welcome message to many who will never pick up the Oxford Companion or The Wine Bible.Indeed, this book seems pitched at a very different audience than those two reference books, likely to already be in the possession of serious wine aficionado. Kramer's little book may be best for the wine timid -- those who enjoy wine and are slightly embarrassed by how little they know about it (which describes a large portion of my friends, and yours, most likely).These folks will find a combination of solace and inspiration in Kramer's book, starting from its very premise. The individual essential words that Kramer has selected are beautifully elucidated and explained, in ways that make them both approachable, but also profound.
WINE: Wine Lifestyle - Beginner to Expert Guide on: Wine Tasting, Wine Pairing, & Wine Selecting (Wine History, Spirits, World Wine, Vino, Wine Bible, Wine Making, Grape, Wine Grapes Book 1) Wine Tasting: Secrets of Wine Tasting - The Ultimate Guide To Learn Everything About Wine Tasting & Wine Pairing (Wine Selecting, Wine Variety, Wine Making, Wine Education) Wine Making: Beginner Wine Making! The Ultimate Guide to Making Delicious Wine at Home (Home Brew, Wine Making, Red Wine, White Wine, Wine Tasting, Cocktails, ... Vodka recipes, Jello Shots Beer Brewing) True Taste: The Seven Essential Wine Words Wine: Everything You Need to Know About Wine From Beginner to Expert (Wine Tasting, Wine Pairing, Wine Lifestyle) Wine: The Best Guide To Wine Tasting, Wine Pairing And Wine Selecting To Find Your Personal Palate And Tips On Choosing The Perfect Wine For Every Occasion. How To Make Wine: 20 Tasty Homemade Wine Recipes Made Of Fruits And Vegetables From Your Garden!: (Dandelion Wine, Plum Wine, Wine Bottle Crafts) True Ghost Stories And Hauntings: Horrifying True Paranormal Hauntings From The Last 300 Years: Creepy True Ghost Stories And Accounts (True Ghost Stories, True Paranormal, Bizarre True Stories) Wine Guide: Learn everything you need to know about wine tasting & wine selecting - Includes tips and tricks (Wine Making and Tasting Books Book 1) Wine: The Ultimate Educational Resource Of Red Wine, Types And Origin, Red Wine Selecting & Food Pairing And Tips On Wine Occasion Matching Wine Making: 14 Amazing Recipes for Beginners - The Ultimate Guide to Making Delicious and Organic Wine at Home! (Home Brew, Wine Making, Wine Recipes) Wine Pairing: 7 Wine Secrets You Wish You Knew: How to Translate a Restaurants Wine List (France, Australia, California, New Zealand, Napa, Red, Champagne, ... you need to know about wine Book 1) Beginner's Guide to Wine: Wine History, Grapes and Types, Pairing with Food and Other Wine Secrets Revealed (Wine Guide & Spirits) Words, Words, Words: Choosing the Right Words to Explain Ideas and Express Emotions (The Writing Code Series Book 9) SAT Vocabulary Words Flashcards: 500 Most Common Words, 600 Words from the Official Study Guide, and 5000 Comprehensive Words for Full Mastery Bizarre True Stories: Weird And Unusual True Stories Of The Paranormal, Strange Sightings, Eerie True Ghost Stories And Unexplained Phenomena (True Paranormal ... True Ghost Stories And Hauntings) Taste Like a Wine Critic: A Guide to Understanding Wine Quality The Taste of Wine: The Art and Science of Wine Appreciation So You Think You Know Washington State Wine? (2016-17): Demystifying the Economics of Wine (Washington Wine Series) Essential Oils: 50 Essential Oil Dog & Cat Recipes From My Essential Oil Private Collection: Proven Essential Oil Recipes That Work! (Essential Oil Pet Private Collection Book 1)
