1000 Best Wine Secrets
April 2, 2007
1000 Best Wine Secrets by Carolyn Hammond finally arrived in the post today! It’s journey from the United States must have been an epic and eventful one - and would probably make for wonderful story telling if one could somehow bring the package to life!
Anyway, I have only had the book for a weekend and it’s already fast becoming my favorite little wine book! I brushed through all the well laid out categories very quickly to begin with, but now I am paging through it one secret at a time.
It’s almost like a mystery novel for me, for as I journey through the pages, it reveals - in brilliant format and style - a wonderful world of wine secrets.
The book is not as in-depth, factual and quite frankly not as boring as something like The Oxford Companion to Wine by Jancis Robinson. 1000 Best Wine Secrets is the perfect start for anyone who is passionate about wine and wants to take it to the next level and become a wine connoisseur. Hammond provides us with all the necessary facts in a comprehensible and professional manner - yet presents it to us, in useful and understandable terms.
The book is brilliantly laid out and the format is very easy to read, follow and come back to should you wish to revisit one of the very handy secrets you remember reading! Here are just few really great secrets:
#18 Better wines are usually found in heavier bottles. This is a clue to quality.#61 Red wine can make fish taste metallic. This happens when iodine in fish meets tannin in red wine.
There is even a ‘South African Wine’ section with secrets including this one:
#901 The first South African vineyard was planted in 1655 in the Cape, and in 1659 the first wine was made - a modest 15 liters from Muscadel grapes. In 2005, South Africa produced 593.1 million liters of wine.
Fantastic stuff - I think as my ongoing review of the book unfolds, I’ll present you with some of the fantastic wine secrets every now and then!
Thanks to Sourcebooks for the complimentary copy and to Carolyn Hammond for writing an essential and easy going guide to the world of wine!
Cru Master
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April 3rd, 2007 at 8:56 am
Hardly secret, me thinks she is over egging the pudding*. Every article on South Africa wine recounts those dates. Red wine with fish? Yawn. So vague (’can’) to be useless; red wine can go with many fish types — try it. More expensive wines use more expensive bottles? No sh*t.
(*tho’ to be fair she probably had no say in the books title)
April 3rd, 2007 at 12:01 pm
Pete her approach may not break any boundaries in terms of wine facts - but she does offer a very ‘layman’s terms’ approach to revealing some very basic and interesting things about the world of wine.
It is beginners book not an in depth study of wine such as The Oxford Companion - it offer a quick glance at some things people should start looking out for when familiarizing yourself themselves with wine.
Red wine with fish - well yes not everyone thinks or knows that the two can go together and usually opt for white wine.
Often people get turned off wine by the multitude of - left bank this, appellation that - type of information.
While those facts may be simple to you and me, they are very handy for a newbie to the world of wine.
Heavier wine bottles for ‘better; wine - obvious yes, but hell I had never paid attention to that.
I get your point though, perhaps it could have broken the norm even more and been really inventive etc with the secrets - and perhapos they whould have called it 1000 Wine Tips!
April 3rd, 2007 at 12:40 pm
“Red wine with fish - well yes not everyone thinks or knows that the two can go together and usually opt for white wine.” — yeah, and its that advice in books like this that has keeps propagating these da*n stupid food & wine matching rules.
Seems like I’ve suggested a subject for you to blog on — matching reds with fish. You have a good choice of a wide range of fresh fish there and many fish restaurants. Look forward to reading your conclusions
Re wine bottles — compare the Pinotage bottle used by Beyerskloof at 32 Rand and Meerendal Old Heritage Block at 140 Rand. I think the Meerendal bottle alone (which weighs 1.1 kg) costs more than Beyerskloof sell their finished wine for.
April 4th, 2007 at 3:29 am
Dear Peter,
If you read the book, it does explain how to pair red wine and fish. The full tip #61 reads: “Red wine can make fish taste metallic. This happens when iodine in fish meets tannin in red wine. To minimize the effect, choose red wines low in tannin such as Beaujolais or Merlot, or play it safe and serve white or rose.”
April 4th, 2007 at 8:59 am
Dear anonymous
I’ll happily read the book if, like Cru, I get sent a copy
My beef (ha ha) is with instructions like this — all of us read such advice when we started drinking wine and took it as gospel.
I wonder how many people actually have drunk red wine with fish? Personally, its one of the few occasions I drink white wines, but I have enjoyed Luddite Shiraz with Yellow Tail (as Neils Verburg’s guest with another Veritas international judge) at that seafood restaurant by the waters edge in Hermanus, Wamakersvallei ‘La Cave’ Pinotage with Cobb at Fishmarket in Stellenbosch and on several other occasions.
My attitude is there are too many people laying down too many rules about wine which scares new drinkers off — they think it is complicated. Its not, its just a drink, and people showul work out for themsleves what works for them.
So, I am afraid I jumped in on poor old Cru with both boots here because it was like a red (ha ha) rag to a bull. Apologies, Cru…
My article - Wine & Food Matching is Bunk at http://www.winelabels.org/artbunk.htm attempts to put an alternative view.
April 4th, 2007 at 9:25 am
Not at all Pete - I love the banter!
It raises good points and also creates healthy debate - otherwise people would begin to take certain writers opinion as law/gospel and be scared off or worse yet, never venture off the beaten track.
Old school is outt, new school is in - forget all the rules: trial and error is the only way forward.
With the global fusion of food, and new and exciting combinations of tastes emerging - how on earth can one set rules for wine pairings?
April 12th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
After having read all the comments, there is only one thing I can suggest: a food and wine pairing course. I have actually done this for a third time now, and every time my mind blows sideways with the combinations that come out… it is more than amazing - it is an experience! Truly!!
Fish and red wine? Yes, depending in the sauce you have with the fish. Red meat and white wine? By all means, depending …. you have to do this course, I’m telling you.
R180 for a course that includeds 4 courses and delightful conversatoin,not to mention that you are allowed as many comments and questions as you wish… I wil do it again and again, I suppose, until I am able to recite word for word what the tutor says…
bloody marvelous!
April 12th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
Where could one possibly find a copy of this book, Cru??
April 12th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
Queen P, where is the course held - I’m very interested!
With regards to the book, I haven’t seen it on South African shelves so i think your best bet is amazon.com or through Sourcebooks themselves!