It's gonna tell you, British Columbia, Moldova, Czech Republic, Bulgaria,
Australia, Ukraine, United States,
Monterrey, Sonoma, Mendocino, Columbia Gorge,
all of those grow great Gewurztraminer. But where do you go if you want
to experience the essence of Gewurztraminer?
What is it guys? I'm Julien...
The French winemaking guy who makes wine videos,
here on YouTube,
Yes, wine video! So welcome back to
another wine video, even though we're not
going to be talking directly about wine
today we are going to be talking about
wine books!
So last week I published a complete
review of wine Folly's original first
book published in 2015, the essential
guide to wine, and today I'm going to be
telling you about the Magnum Edition.
So, this was more like the bottle edition I suppose, this is the Magnum Edition,
the Master Guide to wine as opposed to the essential guide to wine. So I'm going to
be telling you what is in this book, what
you should expect to find inside if you
are going to buy it. I'm going to give
you my genuine opinion on whether or not
you should buy it, or not! And I'm also
going to be telling you whether you
should buy this one for yourself or this
one for yourself, or maybe as a gift
depending on who you are depending on
your level of wine knowledge.
Obviously depending what I find what we
find together in this book. I also
started last week bit of a draw just to
thank you for supporting my channel so I
bought these two books, those two copies
and I'm going to be giving them to you,
sending them, shipping them personally to
you. It's just those two copies but one
of those you can have for you if you
enter the draw so make sure to stay
tuned till the end of this video where I
will tell you how you can win one of
those two at the end of this video. So
let's get right into wine Folly's Magnum Edition.
First of all you are going to be
finding over the first about 70 pages
the wine basics. It's going to be
covering everything from what is wine,
how you should handle wine, the
serving temperature, how to store wine,
how you should age wine, this sort of
things. It's also going to be going
rather deep into how to taste wine how
to approach wine in terms of tasting it.
You have your glass of wine in front of
you, how do you go about evaluating the
color, evaluating the smell, the appearance, the taste, etc. etc. Well...
this book told you last week was rather light
there was about 30 pages on all those
different aspects you getting seventy
pages on this one and those are 70 pages
that are packed full of information the
design was already good here but it's
been refined one step further I think
one folly that is famous for all of her
fantastic infographics, she's added more
and more and more and more infographics.
So those 70 pages at the beginning they
also include much more around wine,
aromas, alcohol, the body, the tannins, so
there's a lot more information. It goes
into a lot more details into a wealth a
wealth of information it's very
digestible. So that first part is
absolutely nailed. Cooking. It even goes as
far as, you know, what you can do with
cooking with wine, cooking with dry whites,
nutty, oxidized wine, so the sherry, the ports and all sort of things...
So I mean that's a lot of information you're
getting so first part definitely much
superior to this one. You can read this
book, those 70 pages with passion
beautiful. Moving on! After those first 70
pages what are you going to be finding
you are going to be finding from A to Z
a list of all the grape varieties, well,
the main grape varieties. There's about one
hundred and twenty pages of this here so
I'm guessing it's around 80-90 grape
varieties you are going to be getting
essentially one page per grape variety.
Some grape varieties have two pages.
On those pages from A to Z, I think it goes
from Agiorgitiko, a Greek red variety,
all the way down to Zinfandel. So
quite a few grape varieties you are
going to be finding a bit of a chart or
the body of the tannins, the acidity of
each wine. the main aromas that you are
expected to find in that type of varietal wine...
and you're going to be a bit of
information on which type of wine glass
you need to use. Is it a big red wine
glass or smaller white wine glass?
Temperature of serving, how long you
should decant it for, how much you expect
it to buy or how much you should spend
on it, and how long you should cellar it.
So it goes really really straight to the
point here, key information about each
varietal, some important grape varieties
such as the Cabernet Sauvignon have two pages.
One of my big regrets in this book
compared to this one: I was telling you
last week that I love the aroma wheels
that you can find in this book. Many of
the grape varieties here because they
only have one page for them don't have
these complete aroma wheels with all the
possible aromas that you may find in
this one it's only summed up to five he
expected aromas and that's a little bit
restrictive if you are a little bit
deeper, a little bit more knowledgeable,
if you've gone already a little bit
further into your wine knowledge.
This was one of the big pros that I found in
this particular book, one of the things
that I loved the most and it's been
taken away. It is present though
for the main grape varieties
such as Cabernet Sauvignon here.
So it will cover most of the wines that you
will find at the supermarket but it's
not going to go into the detail for the
smaller the lesser-known grape varieties,
which I regret...
Another regret that I have on those pages,
on this book: Wine Folly The Essential Guide,
for each grape variety
was pretty superficial. On every grape
you had the key information. Go and watch
what I said about this book. Key
information. It was very superficial but
it was at least going straight to the
point. What I find in this edition. I find that
it goes a little bit deeper you get
maybe a little bit more explanation for
those detailed reviews but it's... a little
bit more detailed, but no detailed enough...
that it actually helps you understand the grape all that much.
I find that it's actually a little bit
confusing when you read the page about
Cabernet Sauvignon I'm gonna read you
briefly the intro to Cabernet Sauvignon:
"the world's most popular wine in a
natural cross between Cabernet Franc and
Sauvignon Blanc that originated in
Bordeaux." It doesn't even say France
there but anyway.
everyone knows Bordeaux is in France.
"Wines are concentrated and age-worthy,
the rich flavor in high tannin content
of Cabernet Sauvignon make it a perfect
partner to rich grilled meats, peppery sauces,
and dishes with high flavor" so
this at this point it doesn't even say
where are the most popular the most
famous you know Cabernet Sauvignon wines
made or grow you are getting a bit of a
chart on the different countries and
regions that grow it but if you look at
this chart you're getting quite a lot of
mixed lots of stats or you know you can
see every country that produces it and
you can't really see the main areas if
you look at where it is grown in France
on that chart, it's going to be telling
you that it's grown in Bordeaux,
in Bergerac, and in Languedoc Roussillon.
Obviously Cabernet Sauvignon is grown in
Bergerac but Bergerac is rather obscure I
mean I know about Bergerac because I'm
French but it's quite a small
appellation, rather obscure. How many
people know about that. Obviously Cabernet Sauvignon is grown in Languedoc
Roussillon but it's not very good,
generally speaking, for Cabernet Sauvignon there.
There are some rare exceptions... So it
mixes Bordeaux, Bergerac, and Languedoc-Roussillon...
only talking about France, while obviously
Cabernet Sauvignon is Bordeaux...
you know if you think Cabernet Sauvignon,
in the old world, well it's obviously Bordeaux!
And nowhere is it obvious on this page that Bordeaux is the area in the world,
where you want to look for some of
the very best Cabernet Sauvignon.
It even goes as far as listing a few
countries so, Chile, Napa Valley
California and South Australia. Giving you a bit of an explanation on
those three regions/countries. Talking about Cabernet
Sauvignon in those countries so nothing about France, which is...
quite staggering!
Chile? Yeah! Excellent cabernet sauvignon in Chile.
Obviously Napa Valley, but there's
also fantastic other regions in the US!
And South Australia. When it talks about
South Australia, it talks mainly of Coonawarra,
and mainly of South Australia.
Coonawarra, some fantastic Cabernet Sauvignon, on those red irony soils, produces
fantastically good Cabernet Sauvignon in
Australia, in South Australia,
but some of the best Cabernet Sauvignon
in Australia come out of Western Australia,
in Margaret River. So obviously
this is kind of knowledge that you
acquire with time when you look at this
you're sort of thinking okay...
South Africa, Italy, Argentina, China, Australia,
Spain, Chile, United States, and France
grow some Cabernet Sauvignon. you got
regions like Maipo, Coonawarra,
Castilla-la Mancha,Hebei, Xinjian,
Mendoza, San Juan,Veneto, Sicilia,
Tuscany, Stellenbosch. All of these
regions grow Cabernet Sauvignon. But where
do you start? Where do you start?
well if you're starting with Cabernet
Sauvignon well you should go Bordeaux
the left bank you should obviously go
California Napa Valley but you know
experience around Sonoma Sonoma County
as well a bit under on the Central Coast
as well most definitely if you want to
experience Paso Robles obviously but
then you do want to go a bit in
Australia and you try a few Chileans and
yeah maybe Italy. Tuscany yeah. I don't know...
I wouldn't go there so much just
you know for the archetypical... anyway...
You get the point!
Chenin, great the aroma is here really
really good when Chenin you get some
quince, yellow apple, pear, chamomile and
honey. That's just really really great.
Another example: page on Gewurztraminer,
so one single page on Gewurztraminer.
"Treasured for its intense floral aromas,
Gewurztraminer has thrived for
centuries in Europe. Wines are best
enjoyed on their youth, when acidity is
highest."
Yeah I guess I guess that's true, you
getting some late harvest in some aged
Gewurztraminers that can be
fantastic as well, but anyways we will
would say that it's fine. Again you look
at where it grows on the chart,
Yeah, a bit more in France here, a bit more in 'other', a bit more in Italy, but it's gonna
tell you: British Columbia, Moldova
Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Australia,
Ukraine, United States, Monterey, Sonoma,
Mendocino, Columbia Gorge, all those grow
great Gewurztraminer but where do you go
if you want to experience the essence of
Gewurztraminer? California makes some
great Gewurztraminer. In British Columbia
also I'm sure there's some great ones, in
Australia, in New Zealand, but I would
start with Alsace, right? I would... I mean
Alsace, maybe Germany if you want the archetypal
Gewurztraminer. Well start with Alsace, and nowhere is it going to tell you...
where to start here. So a little
bit confusing. One last example on this...
"Zinfandel a fruit forward yet bold red that's loved for its jammy fruit
and smoky, exotic spice notes. Originally
from Croatia. Zinfandel is related to
Croatian #1 red, Plavic Mali."
I think the Zinfandel description on this book
talked about Primitivo, how Primitivo
the cousin of Zinfandel is grown in the
southern part of Italy of course I'm
sure they have demonstrated with DNA
tastings that Zinfandel is actually more
related to Plavic Mali than to Primitivo
but everyone when you think about
Zinfandel, well, you think it's the same
grade as Primitivo in Italy. You are much
more likely to find a Primitivo wine
at your wine shop's shelves than a Plavic Mali! There's lots of Primitivos,
fantastic Primitivo in Italy. It's not
going to tell you anywhere here to go
and look out for Primitivo if you want,
if you like Zinfandel, but you're
looking for an alternative. It's going to tell you 'also try', there is a bit of an 'also try' section here.
Plavic Mali, not easy to find, Grenache, yeah Grenache I guess
is another big bold red wine but it's
quite distinct from Zinfandel, but anyway....
Carignan, Castelão, and Frappato.
Where's Primitivo? Anyway... so those are
again very well made just like
we're here but I find it tries to go a
little bit deeper but it results a
little bit confusing maybe if you don't
know much about one you're not gonna
notice those things but if you do those
120 pages here are not all that good
last part of the book what are you going
to be finding you are going to be
finding wine regions with loads of wine
maps in one maps a bit of descriptions
of each country short description but it
was much shorter and much much lighter
on the previous book it goes a little
bit more into the detail and what I love
about the magnum addition for each
country here it is going to tell you
which wants to explore if you're going
in Argentina it's going to tell you well
try wines from the Uco Valley from Lujan
de Cuyo, and you know Patagonia Pinot
Noir some Tempranillo. so this is this is
yeah well done on this Madeline this is
great it's a huge improvement on this one.
So better maps, a bit more
description and more importantly in each
country you are getting some of the key
wines there was a little bit of this but
it was extremely light. Now you're having
some more detailed information...
So as a conclusion. Wine Folly's Master Guide, all of the initial part, first 70 pages
are fantastic I think. While here I told
you that you only had 30 pages you could
read them in half an hour/45 minutes
this is a book that you can actually read.
Read before you going to bed, or you
can read it one hour here, one hour there...
just to read you can go through the book
and read it, just to increase your wine knowledge.
If you curious about wine you
can actually read this book it wasn't
the case here. So great improvement.
The design is much better you're getting
much more content on this book as well.
But last week I said I would perhaps buy
this book if only for those aroma
charts and for those individual wine pages
that you had, that are succinct
and brief but you get some key
information and all the aromas in this
middle part. Here I wouldn't buy this book
for this at all!
If you want, like I said last week
if you want to just explore the world of wine
go to your favorite wine shop
buy a bottle of wine, randomly or you
know follow your wine shop expert advice,
come back with a bottle of Mencia from
Spain for example and say okay I bought
a bottle of wine from Spain, what is it
about? You can have this book as a
reference on your bookshelf and check it
out. And I said if you do this with each
and every wine that you taste, checking
out the aroma wheels, you will actually
learn quite a lot by using this book. 
All in all, well, depending what you want if
you want a book to read and improve your
wine knowledge, have this reference book there's
a lot more wine and food pairing in here
as well, so if you want to read about
wine and learn a little bit more to get you
started on the way, on the road,
to learning more about wine, this is a great
wine book. If you want more to have a
wine that you can check out every once
in a while and have on your bookshelf,
this is going to be a much much better book.
So this is going to last you a
little bit longer as well, because you
can always get back to it for a reference,
whereas this one, once you've read it,
in my humble opinion, you'll be
done with it! So maybe you need both at
the end of the day. I think both of them
are great books, beginner's books. They
don't go to very to deep, I said this
last week already, which is fair enough.
As I said last week I love how
Madeline Puckette simplifies wines, I love
both those books and that's why I want
to give them to you. How do we go about
entering the draw? So I can pick one of you,
randomly, to send those two books to.
Leave me a comment down in the
video description.
Subscribe to the channel and let me know
in the comments that you've subscribed to
the channel, and that you would like one
of those books. I will pick the comments from last week's video,
and this week's video, all of those, and pick
randomly two winners, and I will sign
those books with a little note and send
those books directly to you...
I hope this video was useful and I will see you soon...
in the wonderful world of wine!
Au revoir... Bye bye!
Santé. Cheers...
