How To Drink A Glass Of Wine
John Saker
Awa Press, $24.95 p/b
Sorting good sense from nonsense in a field ripe with both is no easy task – especially, as is the case here, when the delights of your subject are not always open to coherent description.
But Wellington wine writer John Saker really does want you to know how to drink with both pleasure and sense, and he is remarkably good at capturing that pleasure while sharing his extensive knowledge, without a drop of stuffiness.
If you’re going to read only one book about wine, I’d say make it this one. And if you’ve read them all, try this as a marvellous refresher.
Occasional nonsense does creep in. Saker believes, for example, that there’s a physical basis to the notion that the best glassware makes wine taste better. It often does, but the reasons are far more likely to be impressionistic and aesthetic than scientific.
But such lapses are very minor. From buying to storing to enjoying, this is a book full of simple good advice, framed in the tale of a sturdy young man in love and picking grapes in France. As Saker demonstrates so very nicely, one of the wonderful things about wine is that it gives you memories such as these.
Simon Wilson
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