Life's Too Short to Drink Bad Wine: 100 Wines for the Discerning Drinker - Softcover

Simon Hoggart

3.79

19 ratings by Goodreads

9781844007424: Life's Too Short to Drink Bad Wine: 100 Wines for the Discerning Drinker

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1844007421 ISBN 13: 9781844007424

Publisher: Quadrille Publishing Ltd, 2009

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20 years ago the French held almost a monopoly on the wine we drank - but now all that has changed as wine producers from the New World have introduced a stunning range of good value, delicious wines. Simon Hoggart has been wine correspondent of the UK's Spectator magazine since 2001 and runs the Spectator Wine Club - in the past seven years the magazine's readers have spent several million pounds buying his selections. He never writes for the wine expert, always for the enthusiastic layman, and his infectious pleasure in finding a delicious, reasonably priced bottle is one reason for the club's success. Hoggart's Hundred is a highly eclectic and personal selection aimed at the regular wine drinker who is occasionally prepared to spend a little bit more than supermarket prices to get something really good - perhaps for a special occasion. But in these belt-tightening times his main concern is to cheer us all up and recommend some wines that will give the drinker pleasure. His choice is exciting, sometimes surprising, but invariably good value. The wines are divided into sections on red, white, rose and champagne; wine entries are interspersed with fascinating features varying from how to read a wine label to inside stories of particular grapes or regions, to an account of the Judgement of Paris, when California wines beat the French in a blind tasting. From the 100 Simon has selected he has awarded ten of them Top 10 status. At the back of the book is a source list of wine makers, distributors and merchants, with complete details, including websites, for ease of ordering, and a checklist that the reader can tick off and add their own comments on each wine. Simon Hoggart is known as one of the wittiest journalists in Britain. This book will bring to a wider audience his entertaining (as well as knowledgeable) approach to wine writing. Whether or not you manage to drink your way through the 100 wines he recommends, you will certainly enjoy reading every page of this delightful book.

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Review:

"Anyone who can take the stress and self-consciousness out of trying new wines is to be praised. Anyone who can do it with enough charm and wit and friendliness to earn the name "companion" should be reverenced. At last, someone who really, really gets it. Somewhere between complicated technical detail and chummy cosy chattiness there is a space for proper wine-writing and no one occupies that space better than Simon Hoggart. This book contains more useful information than manuals ten times the size. And, just like the kind of wine he champions, the book leaves you feeling warmer and happier - quality without snobbery, value without cheapness, pleasure without preciosity. If you want to enjoy wine, the Hoggart's School of Wizardry and Wine-Craft is the best in the land..." -- Stephen Fry

"I would love to drink all of these wines - except of course on public transport!"
-- Boris Johnson

About the Author:

Simon Hoggart is wine correspondent for the Spectator and has been running the magazine's wine club since 2001. Since then, readers of the Spectator have spent millions of pounds on his wine offers. He is a frequent broadcaster on vinous topics. He is also parliamentary sketch-writer and weekly columnist for The Guardian and author of 16 books - written when he could find the time between searching for great wines - on many and varied subjects that have attracted his sharp focus and sardonic wit. But this is his first book on his greatest love - wine. Author Location: London

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