Lush, opulent pinot noir; rich, robust zinfandel; fruity, full-bodied Chardonnay—you can sample them all in California's Napa and Sonoma Valleys, which together comprise one of the world's premier wine regions. Completely up-to-date, Frommer's Portable California Wine Country is a handy guide that will give you proven strategies for exploring the region. Our candid reviews of the top wineries will tell you which tours are worth your time and which wineries offer affordable bottles. You'll also get a beginner's guide to California wines: varietals, recommendations on recent vintages, tips on wine-tasting protocol (how to sniff, swish, and spit like a pro), tips on shipping, and much, much more. And when wine-tasting is done for the day, turn to our candid, complete reviews of the region's fabulous inns and restaurants! The 5th edition has been expanded to include a new section focusing on up-and-coming but off the beaten path northern Sonoma County, including towns like Healdsburg and Santa Rosa.

Free companion podcast available.

Customer Review: Broad, Generic, Timid

This, like the other Frommer's Guides I have seen, seems to be timid, generic and void of fun, gritty, insider information. It gave some useful information to read on the plane about various wineries, but I left it in my hotel the days I headed out to Sonoma, and this I did on purpose. Do your research and buy a better guide.

Customer Review: Touristy hot spots

Just because a travel guide rips into the Mondavi winery as being too touristy does not mean it has any special insights on how to see parts of Napa that are off the beaten path. Mondavi is an easy target. Nevertheless, this guide does have some good info about where to go to get some free drink--and do not worry about wine-drinking protocol. Because if you like it, that's all the counts. The best vintage I ever had was still the '53 Chateau Mouton Rothschild my uncle gave me as a present for getting my doctorate in material science, and I slurped down that bottle while eating a corndog.

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“A must-have book for anyone who is serious about Italian wines.”
—Lidia Bastianich, host of PBS’s Lidia’s Italian Table

“I have yet to encounter more knowledgeable guides to...Italian wine.”
—Piero Antinori, President, Antinori Wines

“Bravo to Ed and Mary! This book shows their love for Italy, the Italian producers, and the great marriage of local foods with local wines. Here is a great book that presents the information without intimidation.”
—Piero Selvaggio, VALENTINO Restaurant

Right now, Italy is the most exciting wine country on earth. The quality of Italian wines has never been higher and the range of wines has never been broader. Even better, the types of Italian wines available outside of Italy have never been greater. But with all these new Italian wines and wine zones—not to mention all the obscure grape varieties, complicate blends, strange names and restrictive wine laws—Italian wines are also about he most challenging of all to master. The time has come for comprehensive, up-to-date guides to Italian wines.

Authored by certified wine educators and authors Ed McCarthy and Mary Ewing-Mulligan, Italian Wine For Dummies introduces you to the delectable world of fine Italian wine. It shows you how to:

• Translate wine labels
• Identify great wine bargains
• Develop your own wine tastes
• Match Italian wines with foods

Here’s everything you need to know to enjoy the best Tuscans, Sicilians, Abruzzese and other delicious Italian wines. This lighthearted and informative guide explores:

• The styles of wine made in Italy and the major grape varieties used to make them
• How the Italian name their wines, the complicated laws governing how names are given and the meanings of common label terminology
• Italy’s important wine regions—including a region-by-region survey of the best vineyards and their products
• A guide to pronouncing Italian wine terms and names and how to order Italian wines in restaurants

For Italians, wine (vino) is food (alimentari) and food is love (amore). And you can never have enough love in your life. So, order a copy of Italian Wine For Dummies, today and get ready to share the love!

Customer Review: Surprisingly In Depth Despite Being a Dummies Title

A wonderful text covering Italian wine in an easy to read format. You may browse through the noted sections and glance over the meat if you want a cursory education on Italian wine. There are very few in depth texts on Italian wine, mainly due to the convoluted DOC system and the overabundance of native grape varieties and grape psuedonyms. The authors give a valiant effort that is worthy of a read.

Pros: great knowledge, easy to follow
Cons: difficult Italian systems, poor maps

Customer Review: Great for Traveling and Tasting Italy

This book helps you select wisely amoung the countless wineries and labels of the delicious wine you will taste in Italy. The book makes it easy to understand which wine taste great in the separate regions, without having to know any of the stuck-up jargon wine experts blab to sound impressive. More importantly the book does not recommend the expensive wine to be best for your palate. You will find the bottles that taste like $50, but are less than $20.

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The sweetness of figs provides a perfect compliment to cheese, pates and meats. These over dried figs in barolo wine are an ideal accompaniment to pates such as foie gras and cheese plates. Chopped up, they also make for a unique snack and a great addition to sauces for lamb, poultry and other game. 10.58 oz. Glass jar decoratively topped with fabric. A beautiful and classic presentation of an Italian favorite.

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The Pein Guide is the definitive and most updated book to learn about Spanish wines with more than 13,000 brands reviewed and 8,100 wines tasted.

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This gift basket is perfect for anyone who enjoys a glass of wine. Filled with wine bites, wine crackers, and wine cheeses, this gift basket is a great gift for any occasion.

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Customer Review: Great, but not for everyone

I am a sommelier in a fine dining restaurant, and while I have found this book particularly helpful, my staff seems to have some issues with it. We used it as a textbook, covering one region per week. I like that it allows me to really visualize the vineyards and understand why the wines are what they are. In the Northern Rhône section, he talks about the steep, terraced vineyards and the stiff Mistral winds... when you understand where the wine is coming from, the wine itself makes sense. For my waiters, though, it was just too much stuffing, and they were unable to extract the information that I wanted them to. Perhaps novices need something more factual and to-the-point rather than an in-depth, evocative narrative? At any rate, I strongly suggest this book as a tool to delve deeper into French wine for those who already have a broad knowledge base. It's not for the beginner though.

Customer Review: Best book to start with

For the people like me who doesn't have any knowledge about France wines, it is the best book to start with.

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The process is painstaking, slow and laborious, but worth every step. No shortcuts are taken, no inferior fruit picked, no spoiled wine made into vinegar, Minus 8 is never boiled and never hurried. The superior quality that sets Minus 8 apart is guaranteed.

All Minus 8 is hand-crafted by one winemaker at one vineyard, from ultra premium quality fruit grown to the strictest standards. First, each vine must be protected from hungry animals with netting, until harvest when the nets are removed. The harvest conditions for Minus 8 Wine Vinegar are often brutally cold temperatures below -8°C (17°F), winter winds and night skies make a bone chilling combination for the people who hand pick and press the grapes. Why risk frostbite for frozen grapes? The answer is in the taste. Months of weathering give the grapes unmistakable flavors found nowhere else; the slow natural freezing concentrates those flavors. The winemaker blends juices from 8 varieties of grapes elevated and harvested in this way to attain the intricate flavor profile and delicate balance.

First, wine is made from the juice; a delicious luxury in itself. But then this wine is fermented, slowly, over months, alcohol transforming to acetic acid, or vinegar. Temperatures are monitored; overheating is avoided to make sure that every characteristic aroma and taste of the original wines is maintained. The unique fermentation culture used to produce Minus 8 was developed with the first making of Minus 8 many years ago, and it is cared for year after year for consistency.

This vinegar isn't Minus 8 until it has been aged for years partially in French oak barrels, then blended with vinegars dating back to 1997, and finally bottled. Minus 8 is very limited in production.

Customer Review: Minus 8 Ice Wine Vinegar

Minus 8 Ice Wine Vinegar - 200 ml
Best gourmet vinegar around

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Home winemaking is an appealing hobby for a new generation of wine lovers lured by the promise of a great payoff — small batches of handmade wine. It’s the perfect opportunity to experiment with flavors, have fun playing with chemistry, and share a few tasty bottles with friends and family. But safely fermenting, bottling, and aging wine is a demanding process requiring special equipment, impeccable sanitation, an understanding of chemical reactions, and the patience to see the aging process through to the end. No matter how experienced the home winemaker, unforeseen questions develop with every batch of new wine.

When a winemaker has problems with leaky corks or finds an oily film on top of his fermenting wine, what’s the simplest, quickest way to get an answer? The Wine Maker’s Answer Book is a 24/7 helpline with advice on hundreds of winemaking dilemmas. From the basic curiosity of the novice (What equipment will I need to get started?) to the finer points of fermentation (What is the impact of malolactic fermentation on acidity?), every step of the process is covered in detail.

Author Alison Crowe uses a friendly question-and-answer format to explain the mysteries of turning grape juice into wine, whether the reader is beginning with fresh grapes or a home winemaking kit. To the straightforward requests for information, she offers detailed descriptions of procedures and equipment. For stickier real-life problems, she first carefully assesses the possible causes and then gives expert advice on fixing the trouble.

Covering the entire range of situations a winemaker is likely to face, this handy, at-a-glance reference will make every batch of wine taste better.

Customer Review: Nice QA book

This is a nice book that will answer questions for those interested in home winemaking as well small scale wineries.

Customer Review: In your face gobs of jammy knowledge

This book has the answers!

And not only that, it gives the answers in a concise, readable, erudite format that speaks to all levels of expertise. Professional vintners will benefit from having such a broad compendium of the science of wine, and neophyte oenophiles will rejoice in the practical and esoteric aspects of making and appreciating wine. Ms. Crowe is the calm voice of reason when discussing the excesses and intricacies of wine, and waxes lyrical about the culture and joy that can be found in the alchemy used to turn grape to ambrosia.

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This excellent vinegar is as flavorful and complex as its parent wine, which is said to taste of tar and roses! A few drops are all you need on roasted fall vegetables, especially onions and garlic. This sensational vinegar is made by hand in the vinegar cellar of Cesare Giaccone's world-renowned restaurant in Piemonte.

Cesare's restaurant is called Dei Cacciatori da Cesare and is located about 15 minutes south of Alba at Via S. Bernardo, 9 12050, Albaretto Della Torre (CN), phone: 011-39-0173-520141.

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Great for entertaining! Delight friends and anyone who visits. Basket includes olive wood Berard cutting board and cheese knife. Also includes 1 jar of Moulin de la Brague tapenade, 1 Jar of Favorita Artichoke and olive cream and one jar of black olive cream (Favorita). Add toast and some wine, you're good to go!

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