Grilled beef tenderloin in a red wine sauce made with shallots thyme and spices served with creamed potatoes and cut asparagus spears.

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EDITORIAL REVIEWS BOOKLIST Many oenophiles find themselves stumped when it comes to proper pronunciation of names of even familiar wines. How to Pronounce French, German, and Italian Wine Names offers a simple approach to this problem. Bellucci's carefully crafted pronunciations are easy to follow, and only the strictest linguists will quibble with her results. Her phonetic approaches to French's accents and uniquely pronounced consonants give good approximations of the originals, and she has helpful suggestions for dealing with German's umlauts. Although not noted in the book's title, there are tables of Spanish and Portuguese wine words as well. The comprehensive lists of chateaus, personal names, and grape varieties make this a very helpful addition to any reference collection of books on wine. Mark Knoblauch Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

PUBLIHSERS WEEKLY "You need this book because: Ordering wine should be as easy as drinking it, not an intimidating experience."

WINE SPECTATOR.COM "A new book may help...Its goal is not to teach you the languages comprehensively, but simply to make you more confident the next time you order wine at a restaurant or ask a retailer for a certain bottle." -Dana Nigro

AMERICAN REFERENCE BOOKS ANNUAL "Perfect for a waiter or sommelier needing a refresher course on pronunciations of wines, for an executive throwing a dinner party, or for those interested in knowing everything there is to know about wine...This book will be ideal in the libraries of the wine connoisseur, restaurateur, or world traveler." -Shannon Hysell

DRINKS, THE MAGAZINE OF FINE WINE, SPIRITS, AND LIVING "You say Abruzzo, she says [ah-b(l)roots-so]. Anyone who's ever struggled with foreign wine names should find welcome relief in Diana Bellucci's helpful new guide How To Pronounce French, German, and Italian Wine Names. Bellucci uses her own system of phonetics to demonstrate proper pronunciations of wine types and producers in not only the languages mentioned in the title, but also in Spanish, and Portuguese."

ORANGE COUNTY HOME MAGAZINE "It's impossible to be a true wine connoisseur without the ability to pronounce international wine names correctly. With Diana Bellucci's How To Pronounce French, German, and Italian Wine Names, even the most linguistically challenged person will be able to sound like a world traveler."

ARIZONA FOOD & LIFESTYLES MAGAZINE "Here's a book for the well spoken wine enthusiast (and those who wish they were). …purchase How To Pronounce French, German, and Italian Wine Names by Diana Bellucci….an incredible compendium of wine titles that helps anyone pronounce even the most complicated vintage…The gift of enunciation is a most unique and delightful gift. Bravo!" -Candy Lesher

KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS "Feeling incorrect? This book tells how to pronounce more than 15,000 wine names Spatlese [shpayt-lay-za], a style of riesling." -Fred Tasker

STAR-LEDGER "At last! A wine book that anyone who ever has occasion to talk about wine can immediately put to good use. …people concerned about the correct pronunciation of foreign wine terms will find this an indispensable guide. Just about every wine book that comes out these days promises a fresh approach to the subject, but most are monotonously alike… Every once in a while, I come across a wine book that has something new to say, or at least a new way of saying it." -T.J. Foderaro

HOUSTON CHRONICLE "Even if you know wine, do these names flow as effortlessly off your tongue as a vintage port into a decanter? Ycoden-Daute-Isora, Sforzato, Auxerrois and (gulp) Königsschaffhauser Steingrüble? Finally, a guide for the linguistically challenged (which includes me)." -Michael Lonsford

MINNEAPOLIS STAR-TRIBUNE "If imported wines leave you tongue-tied, then you'll look forward to Diana Bellucci's book How To Pronounce French, German and Italian Wine Names. Before long, you'll be saying Chianti and Château d'Auguilhe with the best of them." -Nicole Hvidsten

AKRON BEACON JOURNAL "For the restaurant weary: How to Pronounce French, German and Italian Wine Names by Diana Bellucci will put anyone who dreads ordering a glass of wine on the road to confidence. This book is a veritable Hooked on Phonics for wine." -Tricia Colianne

SWIRL WINE NEWS "Your last high school French class was just a few (ahem) years ago; you never even took Italian or German. And yet, you wish to impeccably pronounce a wine's name (like Trockenbeerenauslese, perhaps) when you're ordering a bottle for your Valentine's dinner. What to do? Get yourself a copy of Diana Bellucci's How To Pronounce French, German, and Italian Wine Names." -Arlene Wszalek

COLORADO WINE NEWS "This book is a lifesaver. Its simple pronunciation rules and multitude of examples mean you can say wine names with confidence even if you don't speak French, German, Italian, Spanish or Portuguese. Now you need not fear ordering or discussing any wine your heart or palate fancies." -Harold J. Baer, Jr.

ITALIAN WINE MERCHANTS NEWSLETTER "It's fairly easy to stumble on the names of Italian wines and regions, especially after a few glasses. Here's a guide that will help you untie your tongue as you explore the world of wines. You won't learn the language, but you will be able to ask for the wine by name."

Customer Review: Makes me confident behind the podium

It helped me to pronounce the French wine names like a Frenchmen & Spanish wine like a Spaniard and so on. I am no longer worried about someone in the audience trying to correct my pronunciations. Further it has very comprehensive coverage, I found almost all names that I wanted to pronounce in this book." It real is great value

Customer Review: Presents a complete method of learning pronunciation

Diana Belucci's newest reference title isn't just a another dictionary of pronunciation as might be anticipated: rather, How To Pronounce French, German And Italian Wine Names creates and presents a complete method of learning pronunciation to provide keys to the phonetic pronunciation of over 15,000 wine terms, regions, and grape varieties in five different languages. How To Pronounce French, German And Italian Wine Names could've appeared in our 'Literary' or 'Languages' section but deserves mention here for its in-depth interest to wine buffs.

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HEINZ RED WINE VINEGAR 12/OZ

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An unintimidating guide to France¹s best and best-value wines, hot new winemakers, and up-and-coming wine regions, from one of the world¹s premiere authorities on the subject.

Comprehensive yet accessible listings of the top producers within each of France¹s 10 wine regions, including star ratings, price ranges, vintage information, producer contact details, and crib sheets, plus a glossary, index, and one-page crash course on ordering wine in French. Compact size makes this book your ideal personal shopper, whether browsing wine shops, perusing restaurant wine lists, or traveling the wine routes of France.

Friedrich¹s "A Wine and Food Guide to the Loire" won Veuve Clicquot, James Beard, and Julia Child awards.

Customer Review: Wines of France: Guide for Savvy Shoppers

Since I love French wines it's great to have a source that reviews the wines I have bought and want to buy. It also makes it easier to take information to my favorite wine store to show them what I want.

Customer Review: The guide-hater's guide to wine

Normally I don't even pay attention to the wine guide genre--they're outdated almost immediately and are characterized by "points" which are almost always awarded in the highest quantity to the usual suspects. Luckily I happened to open a copy of this one, probably because the author's book on Loire Valley wines is so invaluable. This is the guide I've always wanted. The focus is on winemakers, not vintages, and Ms. Friedrich has definite tastes and preferences which (importantly) coincide with mine. She happens to know a lot more than I do, however, and has a knack for ferreting out the unusual and succinctly characterizing a winemaker and his wines in a few pithy sentences. Her emphasis on terroir-driven and naturally made wines has major appeal for me. Many of these wines, while not household names, are available in the U.S. (alas, not all) so you don't have to be planning a trip to France to benefit from this book.

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After a long and beguiling climb, the stock market dive of 2000-2002 put phrases like ?irrational exuberance? and ?speculative bubble? back into common usage and was a stinging reminder of the importance of portfolio diversification. Financial wizard Mahesh Kumar shows how to guard against the inherent riskiness of the stock market while still reaping the benefits of a profitable portfolio in his new book Wine Investment for Portfolio Diversification: How Collecting Fine Wines Can Yield Greater Returns than Stocks and Bonds. It?s a thorough piece of academic analysis, which combines the Nobel Prize winning Markowits Theory and Kumar?s Fine Wine Fifty Index and empirically proves that Fine Wine is one of the best diversification tools available (whether you?re high-finance or a modest personal investor). Fine Wine is ?uncorrelated? with stocks and bonds; that is, they aren?t affected by the same types of risk. Moreover, Kumar points out that Fine Wine has a HIGHER expected return relative to its overall contribution of risk. ?Smart investors are those who recognize large shifts in the economy early on and invest for the long term,? he writes. ?In the ?70s, gold investors thrived; in the ?80s it was the real estate owner?s turn. In the ?90s the action shifted to stocks. What will this decade bring? Alternative investments (Fine Wine, Fine Art or Antiques) will make a breakthrough, and compensate investors for their disappointing equity, bond and cash portfolio returns.? The book also includes a history of wine markets dating back to the 12th century; chapters on the different modes of marketing and distribution in Bordeaux, and the primary and secondary markets; and he critically analyses the total alternative investment market, and the relationships between their price and quality. He also discusses, systematically, the key question: what constitutes a good investment portfolio?

Customer Review: Gift it to your financial advisor

According to Professor Mahesh Kumar, and his dense Wine Investment for Portfolio Diversification, people who invest in wine don't all have butlers for alarm clocks. They don't all have different homes for different moods.

It's true that some wines have Bentley price tags. A few years ago, three bottles claiming to be the past property of Thomas Jefferson (the handwritten "Thom. J." on the label giving it the seal of authenticity) was auctioned off to a Florida millionaire for 500K. Their actual provenance is being determined in a NY court as I write. These sorts naturally get the headlines. So we, those who've never raised a paddle to a rapidly appreciating Monet, naturally think the whole indulgent scene is the domain of the moneyed set.

But ask Kumar and he'll tell you that people who invest in wine don't all have their phone numbers on congressional speed dials, and after reading his book, the parts that I could grasp, parts not requiring an advanced math degree, it not only makes sense, it exposes bagging six-figure bottles as merely big-game hunting.

By not assuming as a starting point the profitability of wine, Wine Investment for Portfolio Diversification is unique to the small population of wine investment books, like Sokolin's1987 Liquid Assets, and the new Keys to the Cellar (interesting but superficial buying and cellaring guides). Kumar first presents the arguments against wine investment (and there are plenty of these). Point-by-point he unravels them, with his Fine Wine 50 Index, a collection of a dozen blue-chip Bordeaux (the household names like Lafite, and Petrus) which, over a 21-year period, holds steady with the Dow and beat the FTSE 100 by several percentage points. This alone wouldn't make for much celebration, but taken in step with Kumar's assertion that wine prices aren't influenced by the same sort risk that affect stocks and bonds (recession, inflation, etc.), and are far less volatile, which makes fine wine "and other alternative investments" ideal diversifiers--for as much as a $50,000 per-year earner puts in his 401-K annually. That of course means he's not suggesting holding fine wine as a single asset class, but held as part of portfolio of tradition equities. Kumar also diagrams "relative value analysis." He says it's a "simple and effective indicator of which wines and vintages are under-or over-valued" that "maximizes returns by minimizing overexposure to specific labels." Seems useful enough. But simple? I couldn't tell you. Overexposure to six-inch-long math equations make my eyeballs vibrate.

Thus afflicted, the second half of the book was impenetrable. Kumar is after all a professor of finance. But it does purport to have in it calculations (like "relative value analysis") to help insure prudent purchasing, so I suggest gifting it to your financial advisor. Include a bottle to make it well rounded.

The first half was surprisingly fascinating; not what I was expecting from my experience with other wine investment/buying guides. Kumar unpacks how the alternative investment market interacts with the wider financial world--a brief education in economic and financial philosophy, and the kind of primer that engages the imagination.

The front matter includes an introduction by the iconic Michael Broadbent, a wonderful retrospective of Christie's (the British auction house for which he's director of wine) dealing in the old wine trade; and an interesting short preface by the publisher which attempts to come to terms with the "general anti-wine-investor vehemence" of wine critics.

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Hediard's red wine vinegar from France is flavored with cherries for a tart twist to mayonnaise, or roast duckling and pork dishes. Cherry Flavored Red Wine Vinegar is wonderful when served in a vinaigrette over spinach salad with dried berries and nuts.

Each bottle contains 8.45 fl. oz. of Cherry Flavored Matured Red Wine Vinegar by Hediard from France.

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Noted food authority David Rosengarten has written: "You say tomatoes, I say Barbera!" Just as Barbera wine compliments all tomato dishes, so does Barbera wine vinegar. It has not just bright acidity, but an underlying depth of flavor which make salads, vegetables and sauces taste more complex and delicious.

Cesare Giaccone does not just "flavor" neutral vinegars. In small closely-monitored batches, he barrel-ages fine quality wines into their vinegar essence. This quality will tell in your finished dishes.

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You can spend years in Paris and never hear the same answer twice to this cookbook's underlying question: what is the difference between a bistro, a brasserie, and a wine bar? In his third cookbook, acclaimed author and expert on all things French Daniel Young explains the nuances between the three, as he takes home cooks on a vibrant, spirited tour of Paris's best eateries.

Daniel explains that, as true Parisians know; a bistro is a small, informal restaurant serving a few simple, hearty dishes, while a brasserie is a larger, cafe–restaurant providing continuous service and rough–and–ready food. In a wine bar, expect to find a large selection of wines by the glass and light bites to go with them.

Daniel also introduces home cooks to many of his favorite spots (some are famous, others are his own best–keep secrets) and presents classic recipes from each, including Salmon Terrine with Leeks and Pesto, Cream of Carrot Soup with Cumin, Pan–Grilled Rib Steak with Béarnaise Sauce, and Warm Almond Cake with Caramel Cream. Bistros, brasseries, and wine bars, define what it means to be out and eat out in Paris, to dine simply and very well. Theirs is the food that nourishes and sustains the Paris of Parisians – the real and everyday Paris – with local flavor, style, sophistication, personality, and attitude.

I picked this book up expecting the recipes to be a bit out of my humble culinary grasp, and to mostly get a feel for everyday French foods and how the flavors and textures interact. I love to read books like Peter Mayle's A Year in Provence and to enjoy new experiences and places through writing.

This book surpassed my expectations. The recipes are simple, yet are not things I would have ever come up with on my own. The steps to create the dishes here are very simply laid out, and require everyday ingredients that I can get at my local supermarket, yet use combinations that are intriguing and fascinatingly foreign.

Each recipe has the French name written below the dish's title, and then has a paragraph or more describing how the flavors mingle and work together, with tips for substitutions, and background information on how/ where/ by whom the dish is usually enjoyed.

I was thrilled by this book - I expected it to be a fun diversion with a few inspirations, but the simple appetizers and small meals in this book are just the kind of easy to make but quality fare I most like to cook. This has earned a permanent place on my shelf.

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Wine 101: The Best Wine Book for Beginners

What is the secret to learning about wine? Buy a straightforward reference, use it, and go to a restaurant to apply your newly acquired knowledge. Organized in six easy, enjoyable lessons, the Food Scholar Wine Selection & Etiquette CD includes all the practical information you need, including information on wine terms, pairing wine with food, tasting, and ordering wine in a restaurant. Filled with information on wine making, grape varieties, and regions, the Food Scholar Wine Selection & Etiquette CD is the ultimate reference tool for anyone eager to learn more about wine. It is simply the best wine reference available for beginners.

What makes this reference special? It quickly and effectively teaches you how to select and order wines. It does not waste your time with flowery descriptions or irrelevant musings.

Why an audio book? Convenience and practical learning. In audio format you benefit from an exceptional narrator teaching you how to correctly pronounce grape varieties and important wine terms. The lessons are easily listened to on a CD or MP3 player at the gym, on the plane, or in the car.

The Food Scholar Wine Selection & Etiquette lesson includes the following units:

Unit One: The Basics (including basic wine descriptions and characteristics, a brief introduction to winemaking, and the basics of red, white, rosé, sparkling, and fortified wines)

Unit Two: Grapes and Regions (including basic guides to the most commonly encountered white wine and red wine grapes)

Unit Three: Wine Tasting (including proper glassware, the tasting process, and detecting wine flaws)

Unit Four: Food and Wine Pairings (covering perfect pairings for various types of foods, as well as foods to avoid when drinking wine)

Unit Five: Enjoying Wine in Restaurants (including wine lists and prices, selecting wine, interacting with the sommelier, and general wine etiquette)

Unit Six: Sparkling and Fortified Wines (covering sparkling wines, port, and sherry)

Customer Review: Great Idea!

Highly recommended! The audio format is a great idea! It makes learning very easy and the information is all relevant. This is one lesson that is interesting and easily finished.

Customer Review: Excellent Resource For Novice Wine Drinkers

Although drinking good wine isn't difficult, learning about wine can be. Once on a winery tour a vintner explained that there are 15,000 different choices that can be made from grape to bottle. Sometimes picking out a wine can seem daunting. Food Scholar's Wine Selection & Etiquette does a superior job of teaching those of us who would like to learn more without the information being overkill.

While there are more comprehensive books out there on Wine, I really like this book because it excels at being written for the average person. The book is divided into logical sections. I also like that the effect of climates in a region on the grape are covered. This is an easy way to tell what kind of wine you are getting just by looking at where the grape was grown.

This book will enhance your knowledge as well as your ability to pick out wines that you and your guests may enjoy. I would highly recommend this book to those who want to learn about wine, as this book does an excellent job of giving a basic education about many of the wines of the world.

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