Discount What to Drink with What You Eat: The Definitive Guide to Pairing Food with Wine, Beer, Spirits, Coffee, Tea - Even Water - Based on Expert Advice from America's Best Sommeliers

I've been a fan of Dornenburg and Page's work since I acquired "Culinary Artistry," and I applaud this volume for its approach and content. Being a food and drink fan and an enemy of wine snobbery, I am glad to see works such as this one that show people that no serious wine education is needed to begin appreciating the sensual pleasures of the table. At the same time, the case is clearly made that educating yourself through tasting is not only enjoyable in itself, but also imparts knowledge and experience that will better guide future choices.

I think the book is accessibly written for a general audience, and although I only have had it since Christmas Day, 2009, I've pored through it extensively and consulted it for suggestions, including for the French sparkler and Chinese dumplings with soy sauce I enjoyed for my just-concluded evening meal.

All this being said, the work is quite badly edited. It is replete with typographical errors, including spelling (the most common) and missing accents. As well, the wrong terms are used for some wines. For example, a Spanish wine that has the legal term "Reserva" in its name is, in the book, termed a "Riserva." That's the Italian spelling and legal term, not the Spanish. There are sometimes multiple typos on a single page, some for more obscure terms, but others a bit more obvious ("Burdundy" for "Burgundy"). In an award-winning food/drink industry book that has been published by a larger house there is simply no excuse for this level of editorial malpractice. After all, can readers trust content that has so many basic mistakes? Dornenburg and Page have provided us with an enjoyable and useful book, and their work doesn't deserve to have a loss of confidence because of these errors.

An older review on Amazon has pointed out other sorts of mistakes, such as a reference to Cab Sauvignon shining in Pomerol, in Bordeaux. Not really, since that region is the home of Merlot in excelsis. I don't think content errors such as these are nearly as common, but they are also present. The work has gone through multiple printings--why have these errors not been corrected in a new edition?

All in all, I look forward to Dornenburg and Page's works, and I do recommend this one. However, I can't help but add, caveat emptor.Get more detail about What to Drink with What You Eat: The Definitive Guide to Pairing Food with Wine, Beer, Spirits, Coffee, Tea - Even Water - Based on Expert Advice from America's Best Sommeliers.