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https://www.wiley.com/Wine+For+Dummies%2C+8th+Edition-p-9781394320073
Michelle Grant
Mary Ewing-Mulligan
Ed McCarthy
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Published:
June 23, 2025

Wine For Dummies

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Overview

Become a wine connoisseur with this fun guide to the complex world of wine

Wine For Dummies helps you explore everything there is to know about wine—the different regions, types, flavor profiles, pairing techniques, and beyond. This edition is updated with the latest, must-know wine varieties and styles, so you can start building your collection (or just know what to order when you're out at restaurants) and discover pro tips on how to sip, share, and store it. This fruitful reference includes a new section full of vocabulary you'll need to describe your wine, plus a guide to all the key wine regions around the world, including the U.S. You'll also discover how apps and social media can enhance your enjoyment of this popular beverage.

  • Discover the basics of winemaking in the vineyard and in the cellar
  • Choose the best wine for any occasion, budget, or food pairing
  • Learn about buying, storing, and collecting wine—plus, considerations for building your own cellar
  • Start serving wine like a sommelier by mastering temperatures, opening techniques, and glassware
  • For beginning and intermediate wine enthusiasts seeking a down-to-earth book about all things wine, Wine For Dummies is the perfect choice.
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About The Author

Michelle Grant, PhD is a Court of Master Sommeliers (CMS)–certified sommelier and founder of Era Wine Bar in Mount Rainier, MD. She is a wine writer, wine educator, and food and wine pairing expert with a focus on international cuisines. Michelle is a CMS advanced sommelier candidate and certified Italian Wine Ambassador.

Mary Ewing-Mulligan is the first woman in America to become a Master of Wine.

Ed McCarthy was a Certified Wine Educator.

Sample Chapters

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wine for dummies

CHEAT SHEET

Selecting a wine you like is easy when you can correctly pronounce wine names, use appropriate terms to describe wine, decode wine names, and approach the selecting process with confidence. Quick guide to wine pronunciation Correctly pronouncing wine names is one way to keep from irritating a wine snob; the following table can help you out.
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You’ll probably recognize several of the myths mentioned here. They all represent common thinking — and common misinformation — about wine. The Best Wines Are Varietal Wines One advantage of varietal wines — wines that are named after a grape variety, such as Chardonnay or Merlot — is that you supposedly know what you’re getting.
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Wine tastings are events designed to give enthusiasts the opportunity to sample a range of wines. The events can be very much like classes (seated, seminar-like events), or they can be more like parties (tasters milling around informally). Compared to a wine class, the participants at a wine tasting are more likely to have various levels of knowledge.
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Wine is essentially just fermented fruit juice. The recipe for turning fruit into wine goes something like this: Pick a large quantity of ripe grapes from grapevines. You could substitute raspberries or any other fruit, but 99.9 percent of all the wine in the world is made from grapes, because grapes make the best wines.
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The tastes of a wine reveal themselves sequentially as the tongue detects them and your brain registers them. We recommend that you follow the natural sequence we describe in the next sections when you try to put words to what you’re tasting. Sweetness in wine As soon as you put the wine into your mouth, you can usually notice sweetness or the lack of it.
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When we first got excited about wine, we tried to share our enthusiasm with a friend who appeared to have some interest in the subject (well, he drank a glass now and then). Each time we served a wine, we’d talk about it in great detail. But he wasn’t interested. “I don’t want to talk about wine — I just want to drink it!
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Instead of worrying about crisp wines, earthy wines, and medium-bodied wines, wouldn’t it just be easier to walk into a wine shop and say, “Give me a very good wine for dinner tonight”? Isn’t quality the ultimate issue — or at least, quality within your price range, also known as value?In fact, a good deal of wine marketing revolves around the notion of quality, except in the case of the least expensive wines.
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Once upon a time, wine labels were boring, colorless (literally and in spirit), and the opposite of inviting. Now, many wine labels are fun. They catch your eye, draw you in for a closer look, and maybe make you smile. Although we tend to have classic tastes in wine, we love the variety of wine labels because it makes browsing for wine more enjoyable than ever.
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Your inner child will be happy to know that when it comes to wine, it’s okay to like some colors more than others. You can’t get away with saying “I don’t like green food!” much beyond your sixth birthday, but you can express a general preference for white, red, or pink wine for all your adult years. (Not exactly) white wine Whoever coined the term white wine must have been colorblind.
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Every dish is dynamic: it’s made up of several ingredients and flavors that interact to create a (more or less) delicious whole. Every wine is dynamic in exactly the same way. When food and wine combine in your mouth, the dynamics of each change; the result is completely individual to each dish-and-wine combination.
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You drink beverages every day, tasting them as they pass through your mouth. But when it comes to wine, drinking and tasting are not synonymous. Wine is much more complex than other beverages: There’s more going on in a mouthful of wine. For example, most wines have a lot of different (and subtle) flavors, all at the same time, and they give you multiple simultaneous sensations, such as softness and sharpness together.
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Selecting a wine you like is easy when you can correctly pronounce wine names, use appropriate terms to describe wine, decode wine names, and approach the selecting process with confidence. Quick guide to wine pronunciation Correctly pronouncing wine names is one way to keep from irritating a wine snob; the following table can help you out.
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