As a novice to the nuances of wine, I found this book to be a great introduction to the wide world of wine. It profiles grape types and tasting elements, and also gives great information and insight into the production of wine from harvesting to producing. It has become a part of my go-to library for wine terms and especially for grape profiles. Skinner has that part of the book set up really easily with headers of style, taste, and f.y.i. about each.
Matt Skinner has a knack for communicating information simply but sensibly, and also has a knack for using exclamation points for practically every other sentence. This is why I give the book four stars! Skinner's jolly, excited tones had me scattered at times! As I would read this book before bedtime! Perhaps it is a generation gap thing and blog style writing is something that the younger set find agreeable, but for me the excessive exclamation points and chilled out verbiage of Matt's writing were grating at times. Overall though, really, this book is a great choice, and would be an excellent gift for a young person getting into wine (18 to 25-ish). It has a nice large size and great photographs (if not, at times a little cheesy, but that is forgivable).
