Essential Winetasting: The Complete Practical Winetasting Course

by Michael Schuster

This authoritative and inspirational winetasting course, from one of the world's leading wine educators, provides a clear and precise means of teaching yourself how to taste and get more out of your wine, whatever your level. Including everything you need to know about tasting wine, from what equipment to use to how to taste and recognize the major grape varieties, it features nine instructive tastings using a selection of widely available and affordable wines.

The first edition of Essential Winetasting won numerous prizes - this new, larger edition has been substantially rewritten and updated with new illustrations, revised maps, and up-to-date statistics for the 2014 vintage.

At the more advanced tasting level, there is a completely new section on perceiving and recognizing quality, a comprehensive section on blind tasting, new material on organic, biodynamic and natural wines, as well as information on gadgets and wine at home.

Genres: Wine, Reference, Nonfiction, Food and Drink, Alcohol

224 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1998

About the author

Michael Schuster is acknowledged internationally as an expert wine taster, wine writer and wine teacher with over 25 years experience. He studied tasting in Bordeaux, where he gained the University Tasting Diploma, and in the early eighties he was instrumental in creating an award-winning wine retail business. Since 1986 he has worked independently as a writer and lecturer, and has run his own wine school in north London.

He is a regular contributor to The World of Fine Wine, writing their annual Bordeaux en primeur report, an occasional contributor to Decanter Magazine, and his highly praised book, Essential Winetasting (Mitchell Beazley), won all three major wine book prizes in the UK in 2001. It was described by Bill Nesto MW (Beverage Business USA) as “The most effective winetasting manual ever written.”, and as “explaining the mechanics of taste and tasting better than any book I’ve seen.” (Richard Ehrlich, The Independent on Sunday).

As well as sitting on the board of The Wine Society, Michael is a member of the regular panel of speakers on Sotheby's wine courses, he judges at international wine competitions, chairs the Burgundy panel at Decanter’s World Wine Awards, and lectures to amateurs and professionals in the UK and abroad. His own wine courses range from a widely acclaimed “Beginners Course”, via “The Fine Wines of France”, to a much sought after three day “Blind Tasting” event for trainee Masters of Wine, which takes place each May.

For several years now Michael has been working as a consultant for Bordeaux Index, one of the UK’s leading wine merchants.

Reviews

[Aleksandar · Rating 4 out of 5]

As you know (or as you may assume), the Master of Wine program requires one’s blind tasting skills to be on god level. Hence, you need to drink taste a lot of wine. But why blind tasting? Blind tasting is preferred over any “open” kind of tasting because it enables an objective evaluation of a wine's true qualities without the influence of external factors such as brand, price, origin, or reputation. By removing these biases, tasters focus solely on the sensory attributes - aroma, flavor, texture, and balance - allowing for a more honest and accurate assessment. “Ok, but why can’t I just chug the wine?” Of course you can brother, but when you’re working as a a pro in a buyer or sommelier role, this practice is essential in order to develop a deeper understanding of wines and to make fair comparisons between different varietals and producers based solely on the wine's inherent characteristics. Hence, this book came along for the week. Honestly, I don’t think there’s a better person to write about winetasting than Mr. Schuster.

Michael Schuster is internationally recognized as an expert wine taster, writer, and educator with over 25 years of experience. He honed his tasting skills in Bordeaux, where he earned the University Tasting Diploma. In the early 1980s, he played a pivotal role in establishing an award-winning wine retail business. He’s trained many Master of Wine, so he’s pretty much the grand daddy of blind tasting. Mr. Schuster effectively demystifies wine concepts, presenting them in an accessible manner without any pretension. While some information about vintners feels a bit outdated, the insights on wine types remain relevant and timeless. In my opinion, the book could have benefited from a sharper focus on the essentials of wine tasting rather than delving into wine service and viticulture topics seen in every other wine book on the planet. Including these broader subjects somewhat dilutes the essence of the book, so I had to skim through a lot it, but nonetheless, this is a golden source of knowledge if you’re serious about your wine journey.

[Ryan Donnelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

For anyone interested in wine, this book is the ultimate in terms of serious in depth teaching. It was recommended to me by a Master of Wine, and I’ve been reading it on and off for literally 3 years. I’m a huge fan of Michael Schuster and again, can’t recommend this enough for anyone interested in really getting into it.

[Julyana Fiorin · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a sommelier, I can’t recommend this enough. Straight to the point, very practical and an actual great read. This book can count as a wine course if applied properly. The comparative tastings are a great way to understand wine with better intimacy.

[Ricardo Marcos · Rating 3 out of 5]

What I like about this book is the fact that if a person is not participating in any class or training, he/she can use this book as a way to understand the basics of wine tasting and learn about the main varieties of grapes. The Maps are also good and can be used during the reading about the regions and grape varieties.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Covers the varieties of grapes and wines available throughout the world. Has maps of the wine growing regions and does cover the non-snob wine producing areas in in America. Gives hints on storing, decanting, and serving wine. A good general introduction.

[Barbara Corbalis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author explains the concepts well, without snobbery. Some of the information about vintners is a little dated, but the information about wine types is certainly timeless.