Customers say
Customers find the book informative and easy to follow. They appreciate the simple language and explanations that make sense. The book is described as an engaging and fun read. Readers are provided with a list of wines to taste and well-planned tasting exercises that help them understand wine labels and what pairs best with different foods. Many of the tastings in the earlier chapters are affordable.
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A quick rundown of this product’s key features:
The updated edition of the classic introduction to wine for everyone, by Master Sommelier Andea Immer Robinson.
Great Wine Made Simple established Andrea Immer Robinson as America’s favorite wine writer. Avoiding the traditional and confusingly vague wine language of “bouquet” and “nose,” it instead discussed wine in commonsense terms.
Now, thoroughly revised, this edition lives up to its title by making selecting and enjoying wine truly straightforward. You will never again have to fear pricey bottles that don’t deliver, snobby wine waiters, foreign terminology, or encyclopedic restaurant wine lists. You’ll be able to buy or order wine with confidence—and get just the wine you want—by learning the “Big Six” basic styles (which comprise 80 percent of today’s top-selling wines), how they taste, how to read any wine label, and how to pick a wine off a restaurant menu. Ten new flavor maps show what to expect from climates around the world.
A refreshing blend of in-depth knowledge and accessibility, Great Wine Made Simple is a welcome resource for those who are intrigued by wine but don’t know where to start and makes it easy to master the ins and outs of choosing a wine that you and your guests will love—on any budget.
Our Top Reviews
Reviewer: James T. Hathaway
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A near perfect introduction to wine for beginning and experienced wine drinkers
Review: Andrea Immer Robinson’s Great Wine Made Simple (2005) succeeds brilliantly in making sense of the complex worlds of wine. I have read several introductions to wine, including Michael Broadbent’s Michael Broadbent’s Wine Tasting (Mitchell Beazley Wine Guides), Jancis Robinson’s How to Taste: A Guide to Enjoying Wine, Mark Oldman’s Oldman’s Guide to Outsmarting Wine: 108 Ingenious Shortcuts to Navigate the World of Wine with Confidence and Style, and Kevin Zraly’s Windows on the World Complete Wine Course: 2008 Edition (Windows on the World Complete Wine Course) and I recommend them all, but I learned the most from Andrea Robinson’s book. Her original and easy-to-follow approach will greatly enhance the appreciation of wine for new and experienced wine drinkers alike.There are dozens of wine grapes, but Robinson reduces this complexity by emphasizing the “Big Six.” These are three white grapes (riesling, sauvignon blanc, chardonnay) and three red grapes (pinot noir, merlot/cabernet sauvignon, syrah or shiraz) that provide most of the world’s quality wines. Each group of three is listed in ascending order of body style, i.e., light, medium, or full. She clarifies these styles by comparing their weight, richness, and thickness in the mouth to skim milk, whole milk, and cream. Robinson then lays out tasting sequences with easily available wines that show the distinctive quality and body of each grape. You quickly get an idea of the world’s primary wine styles.In the succeeding chapters on taste, Robinson recommends that you taste wines side by side in carefully chosen pairs that will highlight key tastes. This method is far superior to tasting one wine at a sitting. Wines can generate a seemingly infinite number of tastes and here Robinson simplifies things by concentrating on pairs of wine that exemplify the major style terms of dry, crisp, oaky, tannic, buttery, grassy, spicy, floral, and Old World vs. New World.In another great innovation, Robinson introduces flavor maps of the wine world combining where grapes are grown with climates. The maps are a bit hard to read at first, but well worth the effort, because they help you predict what a wine will taste like once you know where it’s from. For example, white grapes grown in cool climates may produce light bodied wines with apple or pear flavors while white grapes grown in warm climates may produce full bodied wines with pineapple or mango flavors. I found the flavor maps to be the most valuable part of the book, because they help you organize the world’s wines into a system that explains why they taste the way they do.The remainder of the book is more conventional in its approach, with surveys of French, Italian, American regions and so on followed by such topics as shopping for wine, wine and food, and wine gear. In these sections, Robinson continues to communicate key information about wine without oversimplifying.I think Great Wine Made Simple does make a few missteps. A major omission is that only the briefest mention is made of serving temperatures. She does note that whites tend to be served too cold and reds too warm. Robinson’s 2008 Wine Buying Guide for Everyone, which I also highly recommend, does a satisfactory job explaining how to serve various types of wine; but I like Andrew Oldman’s general rule that white wines should be chilled for several hours and then removed 15 minutes before serving while reds should be refrigerated for 15 minutes before serving. Robinson could have said more about how to analyze the finish of a wine. Here I like the approach of her mentor, Kevin Zraly at Windows of the World in New York City, who describes what you should expect at fifteen second intervals in the minute or so after you have swallowed the wine.Robinson occasionally criticizes other wine writers for being too technical. In part she does this because she feels that beginners will lose interest when confronted with overly technical prose, but this assumes that readers don’t know how to select a basic introduction to wine as opposed to a more advanced book. Robinson’s ideas easily stand on their own and are not strengthened by disparagement of those who write at a more detailed level or use specialized wine terminology.To end, my criticisms are minor compared to Robinson’s substantial achievement. She has assembled an impressive apparatus for appreciating wine. My wine knowledge increased by several orders of magnitude after having read her book, and I know I will be returning to it for years to come.
Reviewer: C. Alfred Santillo
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Wine, truly a miracle and a wonderful delight.
Review: If you like wine, and feel your knowledge about that magical elixir is not what you’d like it to be, Andrea Immer can help you along a great deal. You will find her writing delightful, never stodgy, stuffy, or nose unusually pointed in a skyward direction. Many people are ‘turned off’ by the air of effete snobbishness [if I may borrow a phrase from someone else]. This wine reference is quite a bit different. It’s a pleasure to read…not like a thrilling page turner that will keep you reading well past the hour which usually signals that “you’re done for this day”. You can use the well arranged index to search for wine types, or vineyard information, bottle styles, words which will help you describe a wine without sounding like a wine critic who’s been sampling too generous an amount of that which he/she’s supposed to be critiquing. This is an enjoyable thought, one that Ms. Immer has written with much thought, a lot of experience, and the sheer joy of tasting one of this world’s most lovely of creations. Wine! Truly a miracle and a wonderful delight. I can easily and happily give this a five star rating.
Reviewer: Susie
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great Guide to Wine
Review: I am overwhelmed by the number of choices and brands of wine at the store, and knew next to nothing about wine, so I sought help. This book has helped tremendously to clear the mystery for me. She tells you about the categories of wine and what kind goes with what food best. The language isn’t so technical that it would leave a beginner foundering.
Reviewer: lab0509
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Excellent book- even for those new to wine
Review: Andrea has a real gift for explaining a somewhat complicated topic in an easy to understand manner. I purchased a highly recommended book on wine before this one, and ended up more confused than enlightened. Andrea’s book is very well written, and explains the world of wine in simple terms that anyone could understand. Her enthusiasm and love for wine shines through, and her writing style is down-to-earth and fun. It seems she is writing to a good friend. Her tasting exercises are excellent, and easy to perform. She gives specific recommendations in a variety of price ranges, so people on any budget can still learn about wine and develop an appreciation of the various grapes and flavors. She even covers how to go about choosing a wine on one of those huge restaurant wine lists, and such basics as wine glasses, storage, and the difference in the various corkscrews available. The part I appreciated most was the pronunciation guide for the large array of vocabulary associated with wine. This was a big help. My only suggestion for improvement would be to have these words together in a glossary in the back of the book, in addition to the book content.
Reviewer: Claude Daigle
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Easy to follow and fun to read: THE perfect book for the novice wine enthusiast!
Review: I was an avid watcher of Simply Wine back in the early 2000’s so I already trusted Andrea Immer’s unpretentious teaching style. After a few years away from my lightly-informed wine hobby, I was finally ready to make a serious commitment. After looking at a dozen or so beginner’s wine books on Amazon, I rediscovered Andrea’s (I so was excited to find that this book was still in print when I looked it up a few weeks ago!) After reading a paragraph or two of the introduction, I knew this was the book for me. By only three chapters in, I was already able to experience even my favorite wines in a completely new and very informed light. Very easy to follow and fun to read, this is THE perfect book for the novice wine enthusiast. I highly recommend this book!!
Reviewer: Tiffany Buckingham
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
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Review: What I really enjoyed about this book, is that Andrea Robinson approached everything as if she is the teacher, and you are the student. Everything is explained in laments terms and appropriate comparisons are made so that anyone can follow what she is trying to say. As a perk, she also adds some personal anecdotes and humour to the book to make it less dry, and a much more enjoyable read.I read this as my first wine book, before reading The World Atlas of Wine, and I am glad I did, as it gave me a good background before reading such an advanced text.
Reviewer: clifton warren
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
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Review: A very handy guide for beginners and experienced lovers of wine.
Reviewer: shasha luo
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
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Review: very Good book. recommend to someone who want to get more knowledge about wine.
Reviewer: nancie mackay
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
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Review: The book is excellent and it arrived quite quickly.
Reviewer: Matt R.
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
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Review: This is an excellent book to own. However, it is not a particularly riveting read or one you won’t find yourself able to put down. It IS, however, short enough to read and absorb. I would certainly recommend this over a huge ‘dictionary’ style book..Matt Reynolds
Price effective as of Mar 15, 2025 05:31:36 UTC
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