Gen Y? How to buy, choose and drink wine
Heard it Through the Grapevine - Matt Skinner
Sara Schwarz
Matt Skinner - Heard it Through the Grapevine [©Hachette Australia]
I wish Matt Skinner had been around a dozen years ago when I stumbled into the wine trade. Armed only with an Arts degree, an interest in all things food and the desire to earn more than $10 per hour, as I sat in boardrooms surrounded by winemakers, I became increasingly intrigued with all things ‘grape’.
Pre Google (was there such a time?) and pre the likes of Matt Skinner, wine books written in a straight-forward manner seemed to be few and far between. Most books seemed to me to be written by men with big red noses for other men with big red noses who already knew why wines from Burgundy were so fantastic, how a wine became corked and how all those tempting aromas and flavours made their way into the bottle I was drinking.
Which is why I love Matt’s new book – Heard it Through the Grapevine. Matt Skinner, of Jamie Oliver / Fifteen fame, like me, was raised in suburban Australia and not having grown up in a ‘wine family’, Matt didn’t visit his first winery until his early 20’s. Imagining wineries to be giant laboratories filled with men in white coats and hard hats, he, like I, was pleasantly surprised to discover they were as much working farms as they are places where science and art intermingle.
Matt has an obvious passion for wine and a desire to constantly learn more. He also has a desire to share this knowledge. In this, his latest book, Matt has consolidated his experiences and knowledge into a straight talking, photo filled and easy to follow, journey of discovery – and it is well worth a read.
The key to Heard it Through the Grapevine is the book’s simplicity. It breaks down wine into five main areas – Shopping; Drinking; Eating; Sleeping and Wellbeing. Within each enticing chapter, much of the mysteries of wine are tackled – such as how to read a wine label (trickier than you think when European wines are involved), when and why a decanter should be used and why champagne and hot chips make such a dynamite combination.
Published in Great Britain and largely targeted towards the UK domestic consumer market, where Matt has a large following, I would still recommend this book to anyone and everyone who has any kind of interest in wine – from casual drinkers through to those already working in the industry. This is a book you can dip into time and time again to check a fact or to learn something new and while the majority of us may never consider seriously investing in wine (see Chapter Four – Sleeping), it is interesting to learn a little about it just in case you spot an absolute bargain at your local wine warehouse!
Heard it throught the Grapevine, by Matt Skinner is published by Mitchell Beazley, 2008. RRP A$39.99. Heard it Through the Grapevine is available to VisitVineyards.com subscribers and Members from our book partners Seekbooks at 12.5% discount (postage extra).
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