A Guide to Understanding and Enjoying Wine
Brian St Pierre’s review of Wine Confident: There’s No Wrong Way to Enjoy Wine by Kelli A White shines a light on the evolving world of wine amidst the rise of social media influencers and modern marketing strategies. While platforms have opened the floodgates for wine promotions, cluttering the space with superficial information, White offers a refreshing and sensible approach through her book.
Wine Confident serves as a contemporary primer that appeals to both new wine drinkers and seasoned enthusiasts. It tackles current issues in the wine landscape including smoke taint, the impact of COVID-19 on the wine industry, and emerging trends like orange and natural wines. White’s mission is straightforward: to encourage readers to enjoy wine without pretense. She prioritizes storytelling over dogma, using engaging metaphors to highlight the multifaceted experience of wine tasting.
The book’s layout echoes the modern, upscale aesthetic of lifestyle magazines, featuring colorful headings and internal highlights. It progresses logically from tasting, discussing, and buying wine, to finally understanding how wine is made and cultivated, providing practical advice without overwhelming esoteric details.
Throughout Wine Confident, White highlights that wine appreciation is deeply personal. She emphasizes that understanding and articulating the sensory experiences of wine can often feel as complex as grappling with the nuances of language itself. The essence of the book resonates with the idea that preference in wine, like in art or music, is profoundly subjective.
Humor is not lost in White’s writing; she shares relatable anecdotes from her experiences as a sommelier and wine enthusiast, making complex topics accessible. For instance, her funny take on a date gone wrong due to wine ordering faux pas adds a personal touch that conveys the lighter side of wine culture.
In conclusion, Wine Confident advocates for a joyful, liberated exploration of wine. Kelli A White emphasizes that there is no singular “right” way to enjoy wine—just the right way for you. This sentiment encapsulates the essence of what wine drinking should be about: pleasure, discovery, and connection.
Wine Confident: There’s No Wrong Way to Enjoy Wine
Kelli A White
Published by Académie du Vin Library; 236 pages; $35 / £25
For further reading on wine topics, visit Wine Books.