For whatever reason, I received the book About Wine by J. Patrick Henderson and Dellie Rex over two years ago, yet had been too overwhelmed by my wine studies to open anything that wasn't Janscis Robinson or Tom Stevenson. It's only now that I have my diploma from the Wine and Spirits Educational Trust that I am dusting off my wine books and taking a (relaxed, for once!) look inside.
Now I haven't met Mr. Henderson, but I knew Dellie Rex when I lived in Boston and was active with Julia Child and the American Institute of Wine and Food. Not sure if Dellie and I met at an AIWF event or not, yet this is a terrific book and I am so proud of the authors.
In some ways, it's a nice bridge between a wine created for students in intensive wine programs, and service people (waiters, sommeliers) who read Brian K. Julyan's book "Sales and Service for the Wine Professional." Most of the "textbooks" I used in my WSET study didn't really talk about service all that much, or how to set up a wine list. This book is very practical in that regard. The authors, Henderson and Rex, also take a different approach to wine regions. When they discuss Burgundy, for example, they define each village and the style of wine it produces quite succinctly.
Each chapter begins with learning outcomes -- what the student/reader will learn as a result of reading that chapter. For this reason, i can see the book used the the Wine Directors of restaurants in whatever wine program they might be developing for the staff. It gives the reader a clear sense of what they are expected to know.
Very impressed by this book, and feel that it fills a very needed gap in the market as it is more extensive in terms of regions, history, and tasting notes than Julyan' shorter, more specifically service book, and is less intense than the oversized, dense educational books.
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