Get the Summary of Elizabeth Schneider's Wine for Normal People in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. Elizabeth Schneider's "Wine for Normal People" demystifies the world of wine, making it accessible to beginners. She shares her initial intimidation by wine culture and aims to simplify wine terminology and tasting techniques. The book covers the essentials of wine tasting, including the importance of glassware, lighting,...

Once brewed throughout Asia, sake has come to be inextricably linked with Japanese culture, tradition and society. In Sake and the wines of Japan, Anthony Rose argues that, after decades in the doldrums, sake is well on its way to becoming the next big thing. Neither a wine nor a spirit, sake's purity, centuries-old brewing methods and umami taste have gained it fans among the sort of younger drinkers who sparked the revolution in craft beers and...

It is extraordinary enough that one small area in north-eastern France, on the northern edge of Europe's wine-growing regions, should be capable of producing the finest sparkling wine in the world, one of the few worth discussing as a wine and not merely as a sparkling beverage. Yet champagne fascinates not only wine lovers, but also historians – social, economic, political – linguists, physiologists, physicists and chemists. The long-awaited...

This historic wine nation at the heart of Europe produces a diverse range of wines – Riesling above all, but also compelling Spätburgunder, aka Pinot Noir, and Silvaner, amongst others. Yet in the minds of many it is still associated with mass-produced sweetish plonk. But following a bruising twentieth century, German wine over the past thirty years has experienced a renaissance. In The wines of Germany, master of wine Anne Krebiehl takes us with...

Sparkling wine has delighted humanity for nearly five-hundred years. It has become essential at celebratory meals, a toast to new marriages, new babies, new jobs, and is even used to launch ships, but there's more to it than the fizzy and festive. In Fizz!, Anthony Rose takes an in-depth look at sparkling wines around the world, exploring how and where they are made, and why they are such a joy to drink. The first part of Fizz! delves into the history...

The landlocked country of Austria, at the centre of Europe, produces a great variety of quality wines. While the wine scandal of the mid-eighties caused a temporary setback, and put many blameless producers out of business, it also allowed serious winemakers a chance to focus and innovate. Stephen Brook has been fascinated by the country and its wines for more than 40 years, seeing it through its worst times to the multi-faceted wine producer it has...

Faugères is one of the most individual appellations of the Languedoc. Although it produces white and rosé wines the appellation is most famous for its rich, elegant reds. The Faugères wine appellation was created in 1982 and is now producing consistently excellent wines, the secret lying in the hills surrounding the village of Faugères where the schist, or decayed slate makes for wines with a distinctive freshness and minerality. Currently little...

Richard Mayson first visited Portugal as a child, nearly fifty years ago. He immediately fell in love with the country, living there and revisiting it many times over the ensuing half century. During those years Portugal has changed greatly, as have its wines. The cooperatives and wine merchants of the 1970s produced patriotically Portuguese blended wines with little sense of place. Dão, Bairrada and Vinho Verde all existed as demarcated regions...

The epithet 'hidden treasure' may be overused but it can truly be applied to the often-overlooked wine region of Roussillon. Tucked into the southernmost corner of France between the Pyrenees, the Corbières massif and the Mediterranean, it is often considered as an adjunct to the Languedoc. However, Roussillon, which has been part of France for little more than 350 years, is quite different culturally, topographically and climatically from its more...

New Zealand's wine industry has grown rapidly over the last thirty years, with the world's wine drinkers falling particularly hard for the Marlborough region's distinctive Sauvignon Blancs. But New Zealand wine goes far beyond the exuberant whites grown in the north of its South Island. In The Wines of New Zealand Master of Wine Rebecca Gibb takes us on a vinous journey through Aotearoa ('land of the long white cloud') and opens our eyes to the huge...