The World's Shortest Wine Book by Simon Woods 86/100

Published Friday, November 21, 2014

Overview

As the title promises it's a quick and fun read with 21 ways to get more out of a bottle of wine. Some good tips and sensible advice for those who enjoy wine.

The book is 61 pages long and took me about hour or so to read it from cover to cover, so it is short, as the title suggests. My guess is that most people will dip in and out, but I think it would be better to read it and digest in one go, then re-visit as needed. It promises to bring a smile to your face with each chapter and I have to say it did, mostly, Simon has quite a dry, off beat sense of humour (Sausages!). The book is divided into 21 chapters, each with some good common-sense advice for wine drinkers, starting with advising on the best shaped glass to drink your wine from. At the end of each chapter there is an anecdote from Simon about his most memorable wine moments and the wines that have inspired him. So the format works as its predictable and followed throughout each chapter. There's very little wine jargon and its written in a down-to-earth unpretentious style.

My favourite chapters were Getting Sniffy (why you need your nose to taste wine), Taste as Much as Possible Parts 1 and 2 (encouraging the reader to experiment) and Food & Wine Mismatching (his tongue in cheek but well worth reading 'rules').

Simon's advice to ditch wine fashions for me was the best advice in the book. He suggests we look at grapes such as Chardonnay and Reisling again and his analogy 'I don't like Chardonnay it's too oaky' being as daft as saying 'I don't like chicken, it's too spicy' is spot on - I can definitely see myself repeating. Actually, I found myself agreeing with much of what Simon says and many of his opinions, for example, on natural wines and on keeping wine, but I didn't learn any really new stuff, which would have been a bonus. However, for someone who enjoys drinking wine, rather than the wine professional, there are some great tips.

I liked the book, I can imagine wine drinkers picking up a few new tips for getting more out of wine and it was fun to read, easy to understand and not at all pretentious. It would make a very good stocking filler and it is also available on Kindle.

I rate the book 86 out of 100.