Table Of Content7-2003-WineLovers-ufbs 5/9/06 10:52 AM Page 1
The New HaH The New
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Praise for the previous edition . . . SECOND EDITION
“Wine Lover’s Companionpacks a tremendous amount of useful, intriguing
Enlarged and
information about wine. This book is a joy to use—information is what it is all about.”
T updated with
—Harvey Steiman, Wine Spectator h
e
N facts, definitions,
“Highly recommended! Wine Lover’s Companionhas precise and informative e and descriptions
w
definitions for thousands of wine terms. This book is top notch and the pronunciation
guide for every entry fills a void in recent wine literature.”
—Bob Foster, California Grapevine
“This terrific book is likely to prove curiously addictive. A font of knowledge—literally
thousands of answers—whether you’re a beginner, collector, or just a compulsive reader.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“. . . the best new wine book in more than a decade.”
— Jurgen Gothe, Vancouver Sun
“…an invaluable, user-friendly reference. I learned something from the very first
page I turned to, and keep learning as I keep turning.” ES
DE
—William Rice, Food and Wine Columnist, Chicago Tribune IC
TO
I
ON
—And this new, enlarged and completely updated edition is better than ever! No wine ND
snobbery here. The authors’ style is relaxed and conversational, serving up information
without intimidating readers. You’ll
find nearly 4,000 entries that speak ISBN-10: 0-7641-2003-4
ISBN-13: 978-0-7641-2003-9
to every aspect of purchasing, serving,
and enjoying wine, all enriched with N
A
glossaries, tips, illustrations, and E
wine labels.
Ron Herbst and
$14.99 Canada $21.95
www.barronseduc.com Sharon Tyler Herbst
wine_fm 5/5/06 4:30 PM Page i
The New
Wine Lover’s Companion
Second Edition
By
Ron Herbst
and
Sharon Tyler Herbst
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© Copyright 2003 and 1995 by Ron Herbst and Sharon Tyler Herbst
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by photostat,
microfilm, xerography, or any other means, or incorporated into any
information retrieval system, electronic or mechanical, without the
written permission of the copyright owner.
All inquiries should be addressed to:
Barron’s Educational Series, Inc.
250 Wireless Boulevard
Hauppauge, New York 11788
http://www.barronseduc.com
ISBN-13: 978-0-7641-2003-9
ISBN-10: 0-7641-2003-4
Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 2003041776
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Herbst, Ron.
The new wine lover’s companion / Ron Herbst and Sharon
Tyler Herbst.
p. cm.
Rev. ed. of: Wine lover’s companion. c 1995.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-7641-2003-4 (alk. paper)
1. Wine and wine making—Dictionaries. I. Herbst, Sharon
Tyler. II. Herbst, Ron. Wine lover’s companion. III. Title.
TP546.H455 2003
641.2'2'03—dc21 2003041776
PRINTEDINCHINA
9 8 7
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iii
CONTENTS
Dedication/v
Acknowledgments/vii
Introduction/ix
How to Use This Book/xiii
Pronunciation Guide/xv
Terms/1-549
Appendix/551
Grape Varieties/553
Wine Styles/561
Tips on Buying Wine/564
Wine Bottles/566
Common Wine Bottle Sizes/568
Demystifying the Wine Label/569
Sample Wine Labels/574
Pronunciation Guide for Wine Producers and Proprietary
Brands/582
Ordering Wine in a Restaurant/591
Opening and Serving Wine at Home/593
Wine Openers/596
Temperatures for Serving Wine/598
Optimum Serving Temperatures by Wine Type/600
How to Store Leftover Wine/604
Glassware/605
Tasting Wine/606
Glossary of Wine Tasting Terms/613
Wine Aroma Wheel/634
Official Wine Classifications of Bordeaux/636
The 1855 Classification of Bordeaux—The Médoc/638
Summary of the 1855 Classification/640
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Contents iv
The 1855 Classification of Bordeaux—Sauternes/
Barsac/641
Graves (Pessac-Léognan) Classification of 1959/642
Saint-Émilion Classification of 1955 (revised 1996)/643
World Wine Consumption by Country/645
Per Capita Wine Consumption in Selected Countries/649
World Wine Production by Country/653
World Vineyard Acreage by Country/657
Bibliography/661
About the Authors/667
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v
DEDICATION
To the world’s talented, hardworking winemakers who,
thankfully, so generously share their labors of love.
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vii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A bottle of wine begs to be shared;
I have never met a miserly wine lover.
—Clifton Fadiman, American author
Our heartfelt thanks to:
Oscar Anderson and Holly Hartley for sharing their exceptional, pro-
fessional biweekly wine tastings (which always expand our knowl-
edge) and, just as importantly, for being such good friends.
Lee and Susan Janvrin, dear friends with whom we’ve shared more
bottles of excellent wine over the years than any of us care to admit—
thanks for sharing the passion and making it so much fun.
Phil Hicks, friend and fellow wine enthusiast, for his thoughtful con-
tribution toward the phonetics in the first edition of this book.
Michael Boyd, for the wine knowledge he so generously shares, and for
his wonderful shop, Michael’s Wine Cellar, in Corte Madera, California.
Pat Hunter, our wise and wonderful editor, for her talent, expertise,
and wisdom, and for her calm, cheerfulness, understanding, and good
humor that is always able to soothe any author’s angst.
All the behind-the-scenes people at Barron’s who were involved in
the minutiae it takes to bring a book this size together, especially
Ginger Monaco (talented production manager).
And our friends and fellow wine lovers, who are all quite sure, as we are,
that life’s too short to drink bad wine: Jon Arnold, Gale Bach, Don Bailey,
Leslie and David Bloom, Walt and Carol Boice, William Boyd, Marilee
Brand, Gary Brower, Jerry Bucher, John Collins, Phillip Cooke, Marc
Cuneo, Ron and Judy Cutler, Bruce Dukes, Lisa Ekus and David Epstein,
Joan and Michael Epstein, Howard Fields, Mike Folkes, Brian Halton, Bill
Hassenzahl, Barry and Kathy Herbst, Ruth Hicks, Herb Kassler, Daniel
Maye, Larry Michalak, Christian Miller, Rosalie Morosin, Heino Nitsche,
Leland Peterson, Chris Pisani, Danette and Patrick Quigley, Sid Sall and
Debra Gray, Steven Schofield, Marc Shiota, Phil Shiota, David Shuh,
Emma Swain and Wes Jones, Dennis Swanson, Joel Teller, Alan Tobey,
Bob Tripp, Mark van Norman, and Stuart and Kirsten Williams.
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ix
INTRODUCTION
Good wine, well drunk, can lend majesty to the
human spirit. The rules are simple, and if followed
will add pleasure to the simplest palate, the simplest
meal, and make it grow.
—M.F.K. Fisher, American author
The world has been having a love affair with wine since the moment
the first grape was stomped. And why not, for what other potable has
the ability to inspire, exhilarate, and nurture body, intellect, soul, and
spirit—all at the same time? Whether you say vino, vin, Wein,or wine,
the word conveys contentment, satisfaction, gratification, inspiration,
comfort, joy, relaxation, poetry . . . in short, all things pleasurable.
The next best thing to consuming wine is talking about, learning
about, and (in our case) writing about it. So it should come as no sur-
prise that, when our editor called asking if we wanted to update Wine
Lover’s Companion, we toasted the idea with a heady Shiraz that we’d
brought back from our last trip to Australia . . . and then we got to
work.
Our core objective was to keep TheNew Wine Lover’s Companiontrue
to the original. It had to remain a straightforward, comprehensive ref-
erence, eminently user-friendly and packed with thousands of infor-
mative wine-related terms. Our work was cut out for us.
The past decade has seen a phenomenal number of changes in the
endlessly evolving world of wine, which correlates to myriad changes
in this new edition. For example, DNA profiling (see DNA) has con-
firmed the previously unknown parenthood of several popular grape
varieties; established and new growing areas have been given appel-
lation status; countless regions around the world have approved new
grape varieties for use in regional wines; and on . . . and on.
Viticultural (winegrowing) terms have become much more a part of
the winemaker-to-consumer lingo since we wrote the first edition, so
we included definitions of everything from BUDWOODto TRELLISSYSTEM.
Likewise, more ENOLOGY-related terms are part of the layman’s lan-
guage, so you’ll find everything from ACETIFICATION to VOLATILE ACIDITY
in this edition.
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Introduction xx
One of our biggest challenges in writing The New Wine Lover’s
Companion was deciding which of the world’s producers (wineries,
châteaux, etc.) to include. Only fair, we thought, to write about them
all. And then we realized that including even a tenth of the world’s
producers would produce a tome so unwieldy that it couldn’t be eas-
ily carted off to a wine store, a wine tasting, or simply read in bed. In
short, it wouldn’t be very companionable (in either size or price),
which is one of the primary premises of this book. And so, after much
deliberation, we had to omit all producers.
We assuaged our chagrin over having to leave out wineries and
châteaux with the fact that we now had room to include numerous
definitions for everything from grape varieties to wine tasting terms to
winegrowing regions. Then, of course, we knew readers would also
want to know about the diverse wine regions that are burgeoning
around the world. Countries like Australia, Chile, and New Zealand
are producing blockbuster wines that simply weren’t available to most
of us ten years ago. Likewise, even though California dominates U.S.
wine production, all fifty states now have bonded wineries so we
added a great deal of information on American Viticultural Areas and
their related grape varieties and wines.
In this book, you’ll find myriad details on grape varieties; wine styles;
the world’s winegrowing regions; official wine classifications; wine
label terms; winemaking techniques; foreign wine terms; tips on how
to buy, store, and serve wine; description of what comprises a wine
tasting; wine tasting terms; sizes and styles of glassware, wine bottles,
and wine openers; advice on ordering wine in a restaurant; guidelines
for opening and serving wine at home; and temperatures for serving
wine. Plus you’ll find historical wine lore, etymological origins, pho-
netic pronunciations (seePronunciation Guide, page xv), a completely
revised appendix, and much, much more.
Great pains were taken notto editorialize in this book—a difficult task
for two opinionated wine writers. But The New Wine Lover’s
Companionisn’t about ouropinions. As Dragnet’sSergeant Joe Friday
always said, our aim was to present “just the facts, ma’am, just the
facts.” And we hope to have accomplished that in a clear, concise
style. With this book as a guide, anyone can learn to speak the lan-
guage of wine with ease, whether ordering it in a restaurant, buying it
at a wine shop, or enjoying it at a friend’s house.
