The Wine Trials: 100 Everyday Wines Under $15 that Beat $50 to $150 Wines in Brown-Bag Blind Tastings

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
6,000 glasses of evidence that will change the way you buy wine: Hide the label...and the truth comes out. Acclaimed Fearless Critic Robin Goldstein has gone around the country serving 6,000 glasses of wine from brown paper bags to experts and everyday wine drinkers around America. Here, in print for the first time, are the shocking results, including full-page reviews of the 100 wines that beat $50 to $150 bottles in the blind tastings.

Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

If Truth Be Told June 29, 2008
12 out of 12 found this review helpful

The strongest aspect of this book is its wry, irreverent destruction of the myths propagated by the self-appoInted oenologists of the world. I was personally gratified to discover on their list as under five dollars a favorite in our household, Crane Lake Sauvignon Blanc, for which I was once charged eighteen dollars in a restaurant - an extravagant markup typical in the States and made issue of in the text. Like many in this world, I am sure, I am also grateful to be able now to ask for a bottle of Freixenet with absolute certainty as to its pronunciation, as well as with knowledge of the difference brut and extra dry. All in all The Wine Trials makes buying wine, especially when it is to be served to guests, both reassuring and more fun.

5 out of 5 stars

Delivers on its Promise May 21, 2008
10 out of 15 found this review helpful

I first read about this book from Eric Asimov, wine writer for the New York Times, in his "The Pour" blog. Mr. Asimov had mixed feelings about the book before even reviewing it. Seeing as the fundamental theory of the book runs fully in the face of the current wine establishment (that more expensive wine = better wine), the authors set out to objectively prove that widely available wines can be both inexpensive and very enjoyable, in a full range of styles (Old Word Heavy Reds, New World Light Whites, etc.). You can read a fuller review of this great and thought-provoking book on my food and wine blog, [...]

5 out of 5 stars

Excellent Buying Guide For The Average Wine Drinker June 22, 2008
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

If you have ever walked into a grocery or liquor store to buy a bottle of wine and felt completely at a loss as to what's worth trying and what's not this is the book for you.

Pros: Large selection of wines under $15.00 taste-tested by over 500 volunteers. There is a section which ranks the taste-tested wines within each wine category and another alphabetical section which assigns a one-page review for each taste-tested wine. If you are into it, there are several sections on the background of and process used for the taste-testing.

Cons: The book is too big to slip in your pocket and use unobtrusively when actually shopping for wine. An included tear-sheet or separate quick-guide listing the wines ranked within each category would be helpful.

4 out of 5 stars

Why you should buy this August 19, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

Skip or skim the first 62 pages (wine tastes are subjective, the industry is complicated, our trials were conducted fairly, we are oh-so-clever and funny, yada yada yada) and dive into the lists and the alphabetically organized reviews.

Now, carry this into your favorite wine shop and ask the clerk/purveyor/manager to help you find the wines you've already flagged on pages with post-it stickers or spit or thumbtacks. My wine guy was delighted to see that I had this book... and he also used the "best of" selections to guide me to a couple of other inexpensive and less well-known varieties that he (correctly!) told me were good. No shame there!

Keep a pen with you to note your own opinions and facts in the book. For example, it turned out that the sparkling wine winner listed at twelve bucks actually cost me only $8.99 at World Market. Certainly that's worth writing down, don't you think?

Last advice of all: Buy multiple copies and keep the extras on hand. I just ordered my fourth because this makes a GREAT gift when you pair it with, say, two or four or six or so bottles of the wines in the book. (The volume of wine accompanying the book depends on the volume of your regard for the intended recipient. Or what's left in the current paycheck.) I'm bringing it as a hostess gift to my next dinner party... 'cause we still have that kind of tradition here in the South. ;]

4 out of 5 stars

Just what I've been looking for July 29, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

The best thing about this book for the beginner is that it gives you a lot of wines to choose from that should be easy to find and enjoy. In the past I either wasn't able to track a particular wine down, or once found, hesitated to pay the asking price given the mixed results I'd had to date. As a result I didn't find many wines I liked.

So far, I've tried a half dozen wines recommended in the book and been very happy with them. They were a lot better than the random choices I made from the same grocery store shelves. All in all a good place for the novice to start.

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