Wine Isn't Rocket Science: A Quick and Easy Guide to Understanding, Buying, Tasting, and Pairing Every Type of Wine

There are so many details to consider in the wine world. While this may not cover all of them, or give you a sense of what should be prioritized, the visual aids are really helpful. It's an organized resource for enthusiasts, just not a somm-in-training tool, as the title suggests. Gift it to your bougie millennial friend to give them some actual knowledge to work with!

Great layout, terrific illustrations, easy approach to get to knowing the basics of wine without being too elementary. Came in handy when studying for beginning levels of wine certification. Highly recommended!

For beginning wine enthusiasts, I think the book is great. The explanations and illustrations are excellent and captivating. The tasting guide is so nice to have. I use it all the time now when I'm tasting wine. The different sections are really well organized and it helps me with finding information again since the first time I read the book.

Even though it was a bit particular on the wine regions, it was helpful for understanding how wine is made. I'm glad I read it.

Awesome book, visually fun and highly informative. I work at a winery and this book is a major go-to!

very comprehensive books, lots of great info

Buy this if you want basic knowledge but not an inquisitive mind. You’ll know enough to buy wine for a small gathering but will fall short if anyone at the party asks questions. It gives you a tidbit of information but no explanation at all.

At this point, Wine Isn’t Rocket Science has received nothing but five star reviews on Amazon and I am going to add another five star review to that impressive number. I thoroughly enjoyed this book by Ophelie Neiman, a French woman who has posted many videos on YouTube, sadly, all in French.Ophelie’s book seems perfect for people new to wine and those with some experience, but who still want to learn more about this wonderful and healthy beverage. I have a small wine cellar myself and am always looking for the perfect bottle of wine that costs less than ten dollars. Good luck to me! Ophelie’s book will not be much help. She is writing for people with deeper pockets than my own. That said, I enjoyed from beginning to end all the information Ophelie provides about wine, where it comes from, how it is made, how it should be tasted and served, and so forth.Here is one interesting tidbit for my readers. Ophelie talks about wine glasses and their stems. Heat is the enemy of wine and the stem allows us to keep our hands off the glass itself. Our body temperature would quickly heat the wine if we held the glass by the bowl. I went to YouTube and found several videos showing us how to hold wine glasses – always by the stem.Ophelie’s book is richly and beautifully illustrated from beginning to end. Pictures help her tell the story of wine and make it very easy for us to understand the various points she makes as she instructs us about this great and complex beverage. I had a hard time putting down this book, but I did say to myself, this is a great reference for me. Before heading to the wine store I’ll dip into Ophelie’s book for some suggestions about wines to buy that I can afford. Once again, that’s a problem with wine – it can be expensive.Ophelie is a bit dismissive of wines such as Yellow Tail from Australia; she is French, after all, and Yellow Tail is an inexpensive wine made in great quantities by the Casella family of Australia – somewhat like Gallo wine in the US. I don’t turn up my nose at Yellow Tail. I think it is a good everyday table wine and if my readers live in SoCal, they can buy it at a discount at Ralph’s.I am Italian and my family makes wine – pretty good, too, in my opinion. As mentioned, the great bulk of Ophelie’s book is about French wine and I was disappointed that she did not have more to say about wine in Italy. Like the French, the Italians take wine seriously and from north to south grapes for wine are grown everywhere it Italy, Tuscany being one of the most famous wine growing regions in Italy. Visitors to Florence, a great city, are well advised to try some of the local Chianti.If readers of this review have found what they think is the perfect bottle of wine for under ten dollars, please leave me your suggestion in comments. Thanks.Five stars for this excellent and beautifully illustrated introduction to wine.

I find myself drinking more wine now and less beer, so decided I needed to wise up. I read Jancis Robinson’s 24 Hour Wine Expert which I enjoyed. This book, despite it’s quirky title has been a great follow on. Not overly technical, and easy to read in a ‘pick up / put down’ way. The sections are short, to the point and factual.A good book, in my opinion, if you want to get a basic knowledge of wine. Doubtless I will move up to something more advanced in time. (Any recommendations?)

A lovely book, easy to read, very easy to understand.

ワインの本は100冊以上購入していますが、このまで分かりやすく、綺麗にまとまっているものはありません。素晴らしくできています。お勧めです。

The design is totally ruined. The pages are messed up.

I was a bit skeptical when I first opened this book - although I like to think of myself as rather familiar with most aspects associated with wine, I did find the book easily accessible and even useful, however I did find it a little bit patronising at times.This 270 page hardcover book covers all aspects of wine, with chapters covering:the vocabulary one needs to know to describe the wine;how to pair wine with food;how to select a bottle in the shop;how to open, serve and store it;provides an overview of the production;discusses the importance of the soil;covers the main grape varieties and wine regions of the worldThere is a lot in there and most of it is rather superficial due to the sheer breath of topics. Receiving such a book may therefore be a bit offensive if the recipient already knows a few things about wine - it is much more for those who are just starting out in their exploration of the grape.Great book, buy it for yourself or carefully choose the recipient to avoid insulting someone by implying they need this dummies book of wine.