Books

Confessions of a Wine Lover
The Tuscan Cookbook
Pop Culture: Stories from Pepsi-Cola's First 100 Years
"Evening Standard" 101 Things You Need to Know About Wine
The Ultimate Pasta Machine Cookbook: More Than 75 Foolproof, Irresistible Recipes for Automatic Pasta Machines
The Moosewood Restaurant Kitchen Garden (Fireside S.)
Food: Your Miracle Medicine - How Food Can Prevent and Treat Over 100 Symptoms and Problems
Food: Your Miracle Medicine - How Food Can Prevent and Treat Over 100 Symptoms and Problems
We Are What We Eat: Ethnic Food and the Making of Americans
The Pantheon: Design Meaning and Progency
We Are What We Eat: Ethnic Food and the Making of Americans
Thermal Properties of Foods and Agricultural Materials
Compass Guide to Wine Country: California's Napa and Sonoma Valleys (Compass American Guides)
Wines and Vineyards of Character and Charm in France (Fodor)
Escape to California's Wine Country
Teatime Cookbook: Tempting Treats and Charming Collectible Teapots
La Cucina Siciliana Die Gangivecchio
The Man Who Ate Everything: And Other Gastronomic Feats, Disputes, and Pleasurable Pursuits
Norman's New World Cuisine
Cooking (Chic Simple)
The Flavours of "Bon Appetit"
Spago Chocolate
Foods of Israel Today
Bordeaux: A Comprehensive Guide to the Wines Produced from 1961-1990
Borders Up!: Eastern Europe Through the Bottom of a Glass

Tasting Pleasure: Confessions of a Wine Lover

Average customer rating:

A Matter Of Perspective
Just a Wine Lover?
Dry...Dry...Dry
A Must For Fans of Jancis and of Wine!
A new tonic for insomnia

Tasting Pleasure: Confessions of a Wine Lover
Jancis Robinson
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Spirits | Drinks & Beverages | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Cookbooks | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Vintner's Art: How Great Wines Are Made
Decantations: Reflections on Wine by The New York Times Wine Critic
Bacchus and Me: Adventures in the Wine Cellar
Adventures on the Wine Route: A Wine Buyer's Tour of France
The Wine and Food Guide to the Loire, France's Royal River

ASIN: 0140270019

Book Description

Even the French admit that Jancis Robinson is the "undisputed mistress of the kingdom of wine" (Le Figaro). Internationally renowned for her work in both television and print, she is the editor of the bestselling Oxford Companion to Wine and has won more than two dozen major awards around the world. Tasting Pleasure is her compelling account of a passion that began while studying at Oxford University.

Writing with Julia Child's authority, Elizabeth David's intelligence, and M.F.K. Fisher's verve, Robinson takes us on a journey through the world's finest cellars, most beautiful vineyards, and best restaurants. As she explores the universe of the grape--from Bordeaux to Australia and South Africa to California--we meet scores of colorful, wine-loving characters, including Philippe de Rothschild, Julian Barnes, Francis Ford Coppola, and Julio Gallo.

There are many books about producing and rating wine; this one is about enjoying it. Witty, revealing, and knowledgeable, in Tasting Pleasure Jancis Robinson has distilled twenty years in the wine world into a hugely entertaining read.

--Robinson received the 1995 Wine Literary Award from the Wine Appreciation Guild

"Our cleverest, most thoughtful wine writer . . . well known wherever wine is made or consumed." -Paul Levy, The Wall Street Journal

"Of all the wine writers in the world," proclaimed Robert Parker, "Jancis Robinson may well be the most gifted. . . . She is witty, brilliant, authoritative."

Customer Reviews:

A Matter Of Perspective.......2004-09-01

If you want tasting notes and rankings, pick up Robert Parker or Hugh Johnson. This is a book about a life in wine, not a book about wine.

"Tasting Pleasure" is a ramble through Jancis Robinson's ascent into the heavens of the wine world. She's been very lucky, and has supported that luck with intelligence and hard work. In other hands, this story might have been insufferable; but Robinson's greatest gift may be her ability to keep a sense of perspective while progressing from one table laden with fine bottles to the next. She is well aware of the essential frivolity of what she does for a living, and also well aware of her good fortune.

N.B.: Unless you're totally fascinated with Jancis Robinson, there are sections that are easily skippable. The book remains, even so, a worthwhile addition to your wine library.

Just a Wine Lover?.......2004-04-22

I confess to a liking for books from those who are knowledgeable when it comes to wine. Perhaps it is more correct to say books that provide me with knowledge and personal insights. Jancis Robinson's "Tasting Pleasure" is a particularly insightful look into the birth and growth of a wine connoisseur. In some respects the stars align perfectly for Ms Robinson as she rises, very quickly, from tour guide to assistant editor of the British wine trade magazine Wine & Spirit in 1975, to Master of Wine in 1984, to author and TV presenter. However it is also clear that the considerable knowledge and experience that she gained during these years contributed significantly to the evolution of her career and to her current status. She has been privileged to taste some extraordinary wines in the company of some extraordinary wine tasters; Michael Broadbent to name just one. It is easy for those of us who are unlikely to rise to such heights of pleasure to fall into the trap of dismissing such experiences as conceited ramblings. But it should be appreciated that access to such wine completes the spectrum of tasting experiences available to the connoisseur; those of us who taste the great and the near great have to be satisfied with being somehow incomplete. What is interesting is that Ms Robinson prefers to call herself a Wine Lover, that is something we can all claim to be.

Dry...Dry...Dry.......2003-09-16

I have to admit I didn't read the entire book. I got bored and decided to count the grains of sand in the street in front of my house.

This is just a brain dump of opinions and experiences. The last sentence should be "...well...I guess you had to be there."

A Must For Fans of Jancis and of Wine!.......2001-04-27

I have been shocked to see Jancis Robinson's books and videos being slated by Americans. Maybe her European style and English stlye of writing aggrevates Americans. I found this book absolutely charming! (Then again, I am European!)It's not a guide to wine in itself but more a fascinating tale of Jancis' involvement with wine and it's producers. If you bear this in mind when you order it, you will not be disappointed. Her turn of phrase makes this the ideal book to read whilst sipping a nice glass of wine!

A new tonic for insomnia.......2001-01-22

My wife found a damaged copy of Confessions for a few dollars, and bought it for me as a joke. She and I have both laughed for years at Jancis' smarmy tone in her column in Wine Spectator, though I also found her very knowledgeable about wine. Writing about herself rather than wine, Jancis has lost any sense of what the reader might possibly care about. It is the single most boring book I have read in my life, including chemistry textbooks. I seriously use it to fall asleep at night. It puts me out cold in 1/2 page, on average. That's worth a star!

Average customer rating:

Confessions of a Wine Lover
Jancis Robinson
Manufacturer: Penguin Books Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Average customer rating:

Tasting Pleasure: Confessions of a Wine Lover
Jancis Robinson
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OJ4BHK

Books:

Books