The enormous variety of wines available today can be baffling even to an experienced buyer. Anyone who enters a wine store is immediately confronted by rows and rows of racks filled with a myriad of choices. Where do you begin when all you want is a reasonably priced quality wine to serve with dinner? Jancis Robinson can make anyone an expert, or at least an informed buyer, in short order.

Nothing complements a good meal with friends like a rustic oak table laden with an exquisite selection of fine cheeses: a grape leaf-lined platter of ricotta with honey, red pears, and roasted chestnuts, or a decorative Spanish tile topped with sheep's milk cheeses, toasted almonds, and oven-dried tomatoes, or a simple Italian salad of crostini dripping with melted fontina and white truffle oil. The elegant tradition of the after-dinner cheese course is rapidly gaining popularity as a part of home entertaining.

At one time, Italian wines conjured images of cheap Chianti in straw-wrapped bottles. More recently, expensive "Super Tuscans" have been the rage. But between these extremes lay a bounty of delicious, moderately priced wines that belong in every wine drinker's repertoire. Vino Italiano is the only...

Wine and cooking enthusiasts will know immediately that they have uncorked something truly magical with Karen MacNeil's Wine, Food & Friends. This book combines the culinary expertise of Cooking Light with the wine connoisseurship of Karen MacNeil, today's preeminent wine authority. Award-winning author, lecturer, and television personality, Karen is a champion when it comes to the enjoyment of food and wine, which she summarizes in "The Only Ten Principles of Matching Wine and Food You'll Ever Need." Pair Karen's zeal for the art of wine with more than 150 Cooking Light kitchen-tested recipes and you have all the ingredients you need to reach new levels of gastronomical glory.

What is taste? Is it individual or imposed on us from the outside? Why are so many of us so intimidated when presented with the wine list at a restaurant? In The Accidental Connoisseur, journalist Lawrence Osborne takes off on a personal voyage through a little-known world in pursuit of some answers. Weaving together a fantastic cast of eccentrics and obsessives, industry magnates and small farmers, the author explores the way technological change, opinionated critics, consumer trends, wheelers and dealers, trade wars, and mass market tastes have made the elixir we drink today entirely different from the wine drunk by our grandparents.

Smarts Co. Description From The Publisher: WineSmarts makes learning about wine easy and fun! WineSmarts Cards Volume 1 Designed as a stylish and useful addition to any coffee table, WineSmarts makes a great gift for someone who has just tasted their first glass or teaches their own wine class. You...

Einstein's cook was lucky. But you, too, can have a scientist in your kitchen: Robert L. Wolke. Does the alcohol really boil off when we cook with wine? Are smoked foods raw or cooked? Are green potatoes poisonous? With the reliability that only a scientist can provide,

The Ultimate Buying Guide to America's Most Popular and Accessible Wines

Andrea Immer, Anthony Giglio (Editor) Excerpt from Andrea Immer's Wine Buying Guide for Everyone Introduction Although enjoying a good glass of wine is easy, all the types, costs, and confusing labels can make shopping for a bottle pretty hard. For the typical wine consumer, buying guidance--in the...

"Somehow, we all must eat. we can make indifferent meals, with little connection to where the food comes from. Or we can make meals that are cooked in harmony with the earth and with the seasons, and which are a recurring source of renewal, satisfaction, and celebration. The wine country just seems to require this kind of cooking, and that is part of why I love it." - From the Foreword