Part 1 Getting Started with Wine -- Chapter 1 Wine 101 -- How Wine Happens -- What Color Is Your Appetite? -- (Not exactly) white wine -- Red, red wine -- Rosé wines -- Choosing your color -- Other Ways of Categorizing Wine -- Table wine -- Dessert wine -- Sparkling wine (and a highly personal spelling lesson) -- Chapter 2 A Matter of Personal Taste (Buds) -- The Special Technique for Tasting Wine -- Savoring a wine's appearance -- The nose knows -- The mouth action -- Parlez-Vous Winespeak? -- Deconstructing a wine's taste -- The flavor dimension -- The Quality Issue -- What's a good wine? -- What's a bad wine? -- Chapter 3 Pinot Envy and Other Secrets about Grape Varieties -- The Importance of Grape Varieties -- Of genus and species -- A variety of varieties -- How grapes vary -- Grape royalty -- A Primer on White Grape Varieties -- Chardonnay -- Riesling -- Sauvignon Blanc -- Pinot Gris/Pinot Grigio -- Other white grapes -- A Primer on Red Grape Varieties -- International superstars -- Local heroes -- Other red grapes -- Chapter 4 Wine Label Lingo -- The Wine Name Game -- Grape names and place-names -- Hello, my name is Chardonnay: Varietal wines -- Hello, my name is Bordeaux: Place-name wines -- Wines named in other ways -- Decoding the Language of the Label -- The mandatory sentence -- Indications of origin -- Some optional label lingo -- Chapter 5 Winemaking Matters -- Vineyard Jargon, Winemaking Talk -- The World of Viti-Vini -- Vine-growing variations -- Winemaking wonder words -- Even More Winemaking Terms -- Part 2 Wine and You: Up Close and Personal -- Chapter 6 Buying Wine to Drink at Home -- Buying Wine Can Give Anyone the Jitters.

Wine Retailers, Large and Small -- Supermarkets, superstores, and so on -- Specialty wine shops -- Online merchants -- Criteria for Choosing Wine Merchants -- In the wine shop -- On the Internet -- Strategies for Wine Shopping -- Explain what you want -- Name your price -- Chapter 7 Buying Wine in Restaurants -- By the Glass or Buy the Bottle -- Just a glass, please -- Choosing from the bottle list -- Analyzing the Wine List -- What the wine list should tell you -- Tips for using the wine list -- The end result: Choosing your wine -- Managing the Wine Presentation Ritual -- Restaurant Wine Tips -- Long Live Wine Bars -- Chapter 8 Serving Wine -- Getting the Cork Out -- The corkscrew not to use -- Corkscrews to buy -- Dealing with cork particles in your wine -- A special case: Opening Champagne and sparkling wine -- Screw Caps Are "In" -- Does Wine Really Breathe? -- How to aerate your wine -- Which wines need aerating? -- Does the Glass Really Matter? -- Color, size, and shape -- Tulips, flutes, trumpets, and other picturesque wine-glass names -- Which glasses to buy? -- Washing your wine glasses -- Not Too Warm, Not Too Cold -- Entertaining with Wine -- First things first -- How much is enough? -- Keeping Leftover Wine -- Chapter 9 Marrying Wine with Food -- With Wine and Food, Rules Do Not Apply -- The Dynamics of Food and Wine -- Tannic wines -- Sweet wines -- Acidic wines -- High-alcohol wines -- Other Ways of Pairing Food and Wine -- Classic Pairings of Wine and Food -- Part 3 Wine's Classic Face: The "Old World" of Wine -- Chapter 10 Knowing the Wines of France -- The French Model -- Understanding French wine law -- Fine distinctions in the ranks -- France's Wine Regions -- Bordeaux: The Legend -- The subregions of red Bordeaux -- Classified information: Left Bank -- Classified information: Right Bank.

Bordeaux to try when you're feeling flush -- The value end of the Bordeaux spectrum -- Practical advice on drinking red Bordeaux -- Bordeaux also comes in white -- Burgundy: The Incomparable French Wine -- The grapes: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Gamay -- Districts, districts everywhere -- From the regional to the sublime -- The Côte d'Or: The heart of Burgundy -- Côte Chalonnaise: Bargain Burgundies -- Chablis: Exceptional white wines -- Mâcon: Affordable whites -- Beaujolais: As delightful as it is affordable -- The Rhône Valley's Hearty Wines -- Generous wines of the South -- Noble wines of the north -- The Loire Valley: White Wine Heaven -- The Upper Loire -- The central Loire Valley -- Pays Nantais -- Alsace: Unique Region, Unique Wines -- The South and Southwest -- France's bargain wines: Languedoc-Roussillon -- Timeless Provence -- Southwest France -- Other French Wine Regions -- Chapter 11 Italy, the Land of Great Vino -- The Vineyard of Europe -- The ordinary and the elite -- Categories of Italian wine, legally speaking -- Italy's wine regions -- Reds Reign in Piedmont -- Barolo and Barbaresco -- Weekday reds -- Piedmont's white wine -- Tuscany the Beautiful -- Chianti Classico and Chianti: Italy's iconic red wines -- Monumental Brunello di Montalcino -- The noble wine of Montepulciano -- Three more wines of note from Central Tuscany -- The Tuscan coast -- The Tre Venezie -- Three gentle wines from Verona, plus two blockbusters -- Alpine Italy: Trentino-Alto-Adige -- The far side: Friuli-Venezia Giulia -- The Sunny South of Italy -- Snapshots from the Rest of Italy -- Chapter 12 Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Greece, and Other European Hot Spots -- Intriguing Wines from Spain -- Spain's classic wines start with Rioja -- Ribera del Duero's serious red wines -- Priorato: Emerging from the past -- Other Spanish regions to know.

Portugal: More than Just Port -- Portugal's "green" white -- Noteworthy Portuguese red wines -- Germany: Europe's Individualist -- Riesling and company -- Germany's wine law -- German wine styles -- Germany's wine regions -- Austria's Exciting Whites (and Reds) -- Grüner Veltliner and company -- Austrian wine names and label terms -- The Glory That Is Greece -- Greek grapes -- Wine regions, producers, and label lingo in Greece -- Three Other European Wine Hot Spots -- Hungary: Unique Old World wines -- Croatia: A wine renaissance in Eastern Europe -- Slovenia: A surprisingly large wine country -- Part 4 Wine's Modern Face: The "New World" of Wine -- Chapter 13 America, America -- The New World of American Wine -- The grape variety as star -- American Viticultural Areas -- California, U.S.A. -- Napa Valley: As Tiny as It Is Famous -- The grapes of Napa -- Who's who in Napa (and for what) -- Down-to-Earth in Sonoma -- Sonoma's AVAs -- Sonoma producers and wines -- Mendocino and Lake Counties -- The San Francisco Bay Area -- The Santa Cruz Mountains -- What's New in Old Monterey -- Gold Country: The Sierra Foothills -- San Luis Obispo: Paso Robles to Edna Valley -- Santa Barbara, Californian Paradise -- Oregon: A Tale of Two Pinots -- Oregon's other Pinot -- Who's who in Willamette Valley -- Two other Oregon wine regions -- Washington State Reaches New Heights -- Washington's wine regions -- Who's who in Washington -- The Empire State -- The Finger Lakes region -- Long Island and the Hudson Valley -- Who's who in New York -- Chapter 14 The Southern Hemisphere Explodes with Wine -- Australian Wine Power -- Winemaking, grapes, and terroir -- Australia's wine regions -- The Rise of New Zealand -- Kiwi geography -- Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir lead the way -- Chile's Rapid Rise to Wine Fame -- Chile's wine regions -- The face and taste of Chilean wines.

Argentina, a Major League Player -- Regions and grapes -- Names to know -- The South African Wine Safari -- South Africa's principal wine regions -- Steen, Pinotage, and company -- Part 5 Wine's Exotic Face -- Chapter 15 Champagne and Other Sparklers -- All That Sparkles Is Not Champagne -- Sparkling Wine Styles -- The sweetness factor -- The quality factor -- How Sparkling Wine Happens -- Tank fermentation: Economy of scale -- Bottle fermentation: Small is beautiful -- Tasting the difference -- Champagne and Its Magic Wines -- What makes Champagne special -- Non-vintage Champagne -- Vintage Champagne -- Blanc de blancs and blanc de noirs -- Rosé Champagne -- Sweetness categories -- Recommended Champagne producers -- Grower Champagnes -- Other Sparkling Wines -- Italian spumante: Dry and Sweet -- Spanish sparkling wines (Cava) -- French sparkling wine -- American sparkling wine -- English sparkling wines -- Buying and Serving Bubbly -- Chapter 16 Wine Roads Less Traveled: Fortified and Dessert Wines -- Timing Is Everything -- The Growing Popularity of Sherry -- The Jerez triangle -- The phenomenon of flor -- Communal aging -- Two makes 12+ -- Serving and storing Sherry -- Recommended Sherries -- Montilla: A Sherry look-alike -- Italy: Marsala, Vin Santo, and the Gang -- Port: The Glory of Portugal -- Home, home on the Douro -- Many Ports in a storm -- Storing and serving Port -- Recommended Port producers -- Long Live Madeira -- Timeless, indestructible, tasty, and baked -- Endless finish -- Madeira styles and grape varieties -- Sauternes and the Nobly-Rotted Wines -- Sauternes: Liquid gold -- Mining the gold -- Recommended Sauternes -- Letting baby grow -- Sauternes look-alikes -- Hungary's Tokaji Aszú and Tokaji Eszencia -- Part 6 When You've Caught the Bug -- Chapter 17 Buying and Collecting Wine -- Finding the Rare and Collectible Wines.