Cleveland Plain Dealer
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John S. Long
Who it’s for: Whether you know much about wines or are a beginning wine drinker, Oldman will entertain you as well as teach you things you never imagined about wine.
Why it’s worth the read: This book is good from beginning to end, starting with a list of the top 15 wine producers that give you great value. It ends with useful information on sulfites and tips on how to get VIP treatment in Napa Valley.
Star power: Interspersed throughout the book are lists of wines in the cellars of a bevy of celebrities including Morley Safer, Mario Batali, Tori Amos (a big collector of Bordeaux) and champagne lover and rapper Ludacris.
Getting down to cases: Oldman takes readers through all the wine varietals and lets them know why specific wines taste the way they do. He also discusses pairing wines with food, explaining why certain wines are a good match with specific foods, and what foods can make any wine taste awful. Oldman even provides a list of wines that will pair well with vegetarian meals.
And a bonus: This book isn’t simply for the wine consumer. There are a slew of restaurateurs I wish would read this - if for no other reason than so they can learn the proper temperature at which to serve red wine. (Some in that business seem to think that red wine should be stored next to a furnace and served at 75 degrees and that white wines should be pulled from a block of ice.) Oldman will steer them in the right direction. That will make a lot of our restaurant experiences much nicer than they are now.
Media Quotes
2011 Georges Duboeuf "BEST WINE BOOK OF THE YEAR"
Winner, May 2011"An excellent primer…the perfect book for someone who’s just caught the bug, or would like to...informative and entertaining. Oldman knows his stuff, but he also enlists an army of chefs, winemakers, sommeliers and celebrities to help him demystify the subject...Oldman’s breezy, literate prose and his facility with pop culture metaphors makes for easy reading. Among a number of memorable phrases here, I particularly liked his description of Priorat—the powerful, minerally red from Spain—as ‘Unslim Slatey.’"
Jay McInernery, The Wall Street Journal
Apple iTunes, 1 of 6 books featured in “Cookbooks, Food, & Wine" (along with Bourdain and Bittman)"…Oldman nails it again…just when you think every possible nook and cranny of the wine 101 book category has been explored, out comes a book that takes a unique and valuable spin on the beginner to intermediate wine genre…His writing voice is warm, down-to-earth and accessible and the book itself is peppered with short chapters on varietals…widely available at good wine shops, but also mostly sitting under a layer of dust based on non-familiarity and our own ruts of wine drinking with the familiar…the book is very thoughtfully laid out and a valuable read as a primer on varietals that even the most ardent wine enthusiast likely aren’t too familiar with…the book lives up to its promise…"
Good Grape: A Wine Blog Manifesto"A similar mind-set enriches "Oldman's Brave New World of Wine," in which Mark Oldman examines lesser-known but not obscure varietals. This book would be a great gift for beginners and especially for anyone in a malbec or chardonnay rut, thanks to Oldman's clear writing, understanding of context, and (most important, of course) great palate."
Minneapolis Star-Tribune"The amazing, hilarious, fascinating (and adorable!) Mark Oldman has a new book that's a must for anyone who likes wine — or anyone who doesn't like it but wishes they did. Mark's motto: "Drink bravely." And that's just what he helps you do in Oldman's Brave New World of Wine by uncovering the best-kept secrets of the world of oenophiles. He interviews everyone from restaurateurs to wine-loving celebs about their favorite lesser-known bottles. You'll never order boring old Chardonnay again."
Marie Clare
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