Wine Into Words

Delectably brief essays that tell you only what you need to know to enjoy wine. There are wine encyclopedias, bibles, and guides—this is not one of those books. It doesn’t contain everything, just the really important stuff: the truly key wines, grapes, regions; tips about wine buying, aging, and storage; and useful explanations about tasting notes and whether or not vintages really matter. In short, this book covers the real absolutes that you need to know about wine.With the pithy wit that readers of her columns have come to expect, Lettie Teague breaks down the stumbling blocks that often intimidate us and clears up the myths that cloud our understanding. A series of mini-essays cover the essentials in a fun, omnibus fashion. The tone is sometimes irreverent, sometimes opinionated, but always practical. For instance, there are entries such as "The Unbearable Oakiness of Being," "Can Wedding Wine Be Good," and "Why You Really Need Only One Glass." Other entries may provoke some lively debate, such as "Men Are from Cab, Women Are from Moscato" and "In Defense of Wine Snobs." The opposite of a didactic textbook, this volume is not meant to be read from start to finish. Instead, like wine itself, it encourages small contemplative sips. It is a companion for the modern taster, a concise and curated collection of tidbits to satisfy anyone with a lively curiosity and palate.

Wine into Words, 2nd edition, contains nearly 8000 entries, thousands of annotations covering everything wine has touched: art, literature, music, history, food, winemaking, grape growing, poetry, politics, religion, and war, and hundreds of biographical sketches of the men and women who pioneered wine's development and recorded its history.--Amazon.com.

Meet the Governor who read the Bible to Sally Rand; English Bob, the nose-biter, and all the luscious damozels, in this fabulous potpourri of stories by Billy Rose, author of the syndicated column PITCHING HORSESHOES. Here is the magic that won 18,000,000 newspaper readers for Billy Rose, the little guy who has crowded into one lifetime such unusual distinctions as (1) giving dictation to President Wilson, (2) combining dampness and damozels into the world’s first Aquacade, (3) going into the nightclub business because he wanted to wear a black hat and meet some girls. “The contents of this book could almost be summarized on a picture-postcard: ‘Having a wonderful time. Wish you were here.’ But Billy Rose does more than wish you were there. He takes you there and lets you share the fun.”—Deems Taylor “Billy Rose is New York’s most sparkling troubadour. Billy came out of a bonfire called Broadway. His book is full of its quick blaze, its sudden warmth and seven wonders.”—Ben Hecht “To me, Billy Rose is the Uncle Remus of Broadway. His book combines nostalgic incident with notes on a weird array of characters. If the Book-of-the-Month doesn’t take it, Billy ought to buy his own month and show them.”—Fred Allen

The subject of Wine and Words is the central role that wine plays in the literature, history and religion of classical and medieval Europe. Drawing on original sources from the Bible to Chaucer and Dunbar, Hanneke Wilson examines myths and legends about the origins of viticulture; drunkenness and moderation; women and wine; the mixing of wine and water, and ideas of 'old' and 'new' wine. The drunkenness of Noah, the cult of Dionysus, the ancient Romans' ban on women drinking wine, the drinking habits of Alexander the Great---these are some of the fascinating topics covered in this thematically arranged book. Finally, the final chapter and the Epilogue look at the development of methods of preservation and storage of wine, from the classical amphora to the modern bottle. Wherever possible, sources are examined in their original languages (mainly Greek and Latin), but English translations are supplied throughout, making this book accessible and interesting to both scholar and interested general reader.

A stimulant at dinner parties, wine tastings and cocktail parties. Plus, as a gift, this book makes an excellent accompaniment to a housewarming bottle. ⿿A great read.⿿ ⿿Rod Phillips, author of A Short History of Wine ⿿Certain to find a wide and grateful readership.⿿ ⿿Anatoly Liberman, blogger The Oxford Etymologist and author of An Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology ⿿Enlightening, engaging and essential.⿿ ⿿John W. Fischer, author and Associate Professor at The Culinary Institute of America ⿿Immensely enjoyable to read⿦well done.⿿ ⿿Tom Wark, Fermentation wine blog and originator of American Wine Blog Awards ⿿I was delighted⿦I learned a lot.⿿ ⿿Debbie Trenholm, Accredited Sommelier & International Society of Wine Educators member Wine's presence at our table is more than 8,000 years old and our conversation and use of words reflects this long familiarity. History of Wine Words is a collection of nearly 400 of the words you use when you enjoy wine, shop for wine or discuss wine with your friends; along with the origins and stories behind the words. The names of wines, grapes and vineyards are explored and bring to life fascinating vignettes from the development of our ancient wine traditions as well as illuminating our habits of speech.

The best on wine from the New York Times! The newspaper of record has always showcased the writing of some of the worlds most respected wine experts, and these 125 articles from its archives feature such esteemed names as Eric Asimov, Frank Prial, Florence Fabricant, and R. W. Apple Jr. They cover everything from corkscrews and winespeak to pairing wine with food, wines from the Continent and South of the Border, and restaurant experiences. This is the ideal gift book for wine lovers.

The vocabulary of wine is large and exceptionally vibrant -- from straight-forward descriptive words like "sweet" and "fragrant", colorful metaphors like "ostentatious" and "brash", to the more technical lexicon of biochemistry. The world of wine vocabulary is growing alongside the current popularity of wine itself, particularly as new words are employed by professional wine writers, who not only want to write interesting prose, but avoid repetition and cliché. The question is, what do these words mean? Can they actually reflect the objective characteristics of wine, and can two drinkers really use and understand these words in the same way? In this second edition of Wine and Conversation, linguist Adrienne Lehrer explores whether or not wine drinkers (both novices and experts) can in fact understand wine words in the same way. Her conclusion, based on experimental results, is no. Even though experts do somewhat better than novices in some experiments, they tend to do well only on wines on which they are carefully trained and/or with which they are very familiar. Does this mean that the elaborate language we use to describe wine is essentially a charade? Lehrer shows that although scientific wine writing requires a precise and shared use of language, drinking wine and talking about it in casual, informal setting with friends is different, and the conversational goals include social bonding as well as communicating information about the wine. Lehrer also shows how language innovation and language play, clearly seen in the names of new wines and wineries, as well as wine descriptors, is yet another influence on the burgeoning and sometimes whimsical world of wine vocabulary.