There's never been a better time to learn about wine. Across the land, wineshops, bars, and tasting groups are springing up faster than Internet start-ups in 1999. You'd like to get in on the action, but—up until now—haven't found a fun, relatable resource to help you get started.

Welcome to Hip Tastes: The Fresh Guide to Wine. If you're picking up this book because you'd like to learn more about wine quickly, painlessly, and with a refreshing dash of humor and style, you're off to a great start. Hip Tastes packages practical wine knowledge that every budding enthusiast should know in a fresh format that brings wine out of the realm of stuffy critics and stodgy wine snobs and back down to earth, where it ought to be.

It's Time to get in on the Action!

In ten easy-to-digest chapters you'll learn how to sip wine like a pro, pair wines with food, order nimbly in restaurants, and throw fabulous wine tastings in your own home, among other fun tricks. Each topic is presented in detail alongside practical supporting information such as reliable producers, appropriate service temperatures, and bargain alternatives. So you can get back to your fabulous life, but know when to pick a Cava over a Prosecco and when a certain Sicilian red is just the thing to pacify your overbearing boss.

Who Am I?

I'm just a regular gal who, armed with my newly minted MBA and sommelier certification, segued from an otherwise completely normal career path into what I'm doing now. Which is, essentially, tasting and writing about wine for a living. That, and I also throw stylish monthly wine parties for adventurous enthusiasts through my San Francisco-based special-events company, HIP TASTES Events—the inspiration for this book!

During my short career as a so-called wine expert I've been profiled in the media and have worked as a private sommelier for employees at tony institutions like Deloitte & Touche and IBM. It all feels too wonderfully fabulous to be true, and I keep waiting for someone to tell me, Thank you, but the show's over, and it's time to return to the real world. Happily, no one has, so I keep doing my thing!

And now, I couldn't be more pleased to be bringing the spirit and enthusiasm of HIP TASTES Events to hip tasters all over the country with the Hip Tastes book. I hope you enjoy it, I hope you learn a lot, and I hope you view it as the beginning of a great journey you're taking. Because one thing I've learned when it comes to wine is that you never stop learning. Or, as the HIP TASTES Events tagline reminds us: You can never get enough of the good stuff.

How to Use This Book

You have a job. You have responsibilities. In short, you have a life.

As much as I'd like to picture you spending umpteen hours poring over this book, I know the reality is that we all have other important things to do besides learning how to become the next Tiger Woods of wine. That's why I devised Hip Tastes to deliver the key, really critical facts about wine quickly and memorably, so you can take it all in and then get straight to the good part: putting it to use in the real world.

Your CliffsNotes to the Wine World

The first chapter is called, fittingly, "A Crash Course: Your CliffsNotes to the Wine World," and includes what I've found during my own wine studies and on the job to be the most essential information for forming a good foundation in wine. In it you'll find up-to-date, concise information on everything from the history of winemaking and the key wine regions of the world to major wine styles and wine-naming rationales.

Once you've finished Chapter 1, the other chapters build upon the knowledge you've developed. In Chapter 2 you'll learn how to taste wine like a pro (and impress your friends/family/coworkers with your newfound skills!), and in Chapters 3 and 4 you'll learn about the major grape varieties of the world and their characteristics, so you can really mean it when you insist that no, thank you, you really prefer a Cab to a Pinot.

Chapter 5 will bring you up to speed on some of the other major styles of wine out there—bubblies and sweet wines—before Chapter 6 breaks down the mysterious world of wine and food pairing (clue: it's actually not that tough but requires mastery of a few rules). Other topics covered include entertaining with wine, shopping for the good stuff, and wine travel.

And when you're through with all that, you can comb through the Appendix to find lots of to-the-point tips on all sorts of other useful wine wisdom, at your leisure.

And You're Off!

In all, it's a whirlwind education in wine—which is exactly how I'd want it to be if I was back at the beginning of my own wine journey. Because, at the end of the day, the best part of learning about wine is putting your newfound skills to use. And the sooner you wrap Hip tastes, the sooner you can do just that.

From Chapter 6
Bon Appétit
Wine and Food

Now that you're familiar with the key food and wine pairing guidelines, let's talk about matching up the stuff in the context of the real world—today's eclectic global dining environment.

Starters

The beginning of any meal almost invariably involves foods containing lots of salt (think nuts, cheese, chips, and pastry-based starters like miniquiches). Because salt amplifies our perception of tannin in wine, your best bets here are crisp whites and low-tannin reds. The brisk acidity in good starter wines plays the same role as salt—both serve to make your mouth water, something that puts you in the perfect state to enjoy the rest of your meal.

Starter Wines. When getting started, reach for a Loire Valley Sauvignon Blanc or a superlight and crisply acidic Muscadet from the same region, an Alsatian Riesling, a trocken ("dry") Riesling from Germany, a refreshing Italian white like Vermentino or Verdicchio, or a Spanish Albarino. Low-tannin reds, including food-friendly Pinot Noir. Barbera, Cabernet Franc, and Gamay are also good bets if going red is a must.

Quick Note on Substance and Body. Save the big guns—full bodied or complex wines—for later in the meal, opting instead for more simple, straightforward wines with your starters. Just as you wouldn't devour a rich ossobuco concoction before a delicate seafood risotto, you're best off starting things with the lightest wines and working your way up through the weight spectrum as your meal progresses. Besides, as with a good plot line in a movie, you want to build up to the climax rather than start with it!

Salads

Inherently difficult with wine, salads present a unique challenge to diners. Green—and pretty much all vegetables, for that matter—tend to make wines taste metallic, especially reds. In nine meals out of ten I'd stick to white wine when it comes to anything of the vegetable persuasion. Among whites, the best wines for salads and veggies are those with crisp acidity and —ideally—a hint of greenness to them. If the salad has nuts, like pine nuts or pecans, feel free to step up your wine selection to a white with a little more body, like Pinot Gris.

Salad Wines. Portuguese Vinho Verde ("green wine") is a great and easy-to-remember choice for salads as is Austrian Grüner Veltliner, which has a peppery flavor that works terrifically with the bitterness found in greens. Sauvignon Blanc—especially from New Zealand—is a nobrainer here as well, with its grassy and vegetal notes (in fact, it's often described as tasting of asparagus and green peas!).

Fish

There are many fish in the sea, as the popular saying goes, and as you might imagine, there's a correspondingly numerous collection of fish dishes to go along with all of these swimmers. This has as much to do with what kind of fish you've got on your plate (e.g. shellfish versus sea bass) as with how it's prepared: Even the most neutral fish butter reduction sauce, a piquant chile lime glaze, or whatever other sauce de jour a chef can cook up. Frying, another popular avenue for fish preparation, also calls for unique pairings. No matter what, if your fish is packing some serious influence thanks to its cooking method or sauce, you'll need to consider that as well as the kind of fish when pairing it with wine.

Fish Wines. Fried fish, with its richness and oily texture, calls for a white wine with some sweetness (to counteract the richness) and high acidity (to cut through the fat); my favorites are German Rieslings of the Kabinett level as well as off-dry sparkling wines. Demi-sec Vouvray (Chenin Blanc) from the Loire Valley in France is another great choice, since Chenin packs some serious acid alongside its sweetness.

Simply prepared shellfish and most varieties of white fish work well with light-to medium-bodied whites of a not too assertive nature, so skip the New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and reach instead of its more mellow French counterparts, Sancerre and Pouilly-Fume. Crisp Chardonnays (generally speaking, those from the Old World and cooler new World locales) work here as well. For the richest fish, like lobster and scallops, feel free to step it up to full-bodied whites like new World Chardonnay, Viognier, and anything from Alsace.

Pasta

Like many a fish dish, pasta concoctions run the gamut of styles, weights, and flavors. This is because pasta, a somewhat neutral substance on its own, takes on the inherent nature of whatever sauce is put on it and runs with it. Simple pasta dishes prepared with little more than olive oil and dash of freshly shaved parmesan are the most neutrally flavored, while heartier renderings made with rich meats and stewlike sauces tip the scales in the other direction.

Pasta Wines. Let the sauce be your guide in selecting a wine for your pasta. Olive oil-based pastas are the most flexible; the key with these is to make sure you don't overpower the dish. Stick to light-to medium-bodied whites and light reds. If your pasta's made with a white sauce—which usually involves cream or butter— reach for a suitably full-bodied white, like Chardonnay, Marsanne, or Pinot Gris from France or Oregon. Pastas made with tomato-based sauces call for medium-bodied, fruity reds like Dolcetto, Barbera, or Chianti. Those with meat-based sauces, on the other hand, need something stronger: In these cases reach for robust, earthy reds without too much tannin, such as Brunello di Montalcino, Chateauneuf-du-Pape from France's Rhone Vallet, or Sicilian reds made from the newly hip Nero d'Avola grape.

Beef and Game

Finally, the "big stuff"! These hearty dishes are the climax of the evening and what you've been building up to over your earlier courses. It makes sense, then, to serve a suitably climactic wine. But it bears noting that not all meats are made the same: Although everything in this category is rather rich, some—such as lighter meats, quail, and chicken—are a significant step down in strength from their most meaty peers, which include bug game like boar, moose, elk, and venison. And, as with everything else that graces the table, you need to take the dish's cooking method into account here as well.

Generally, roasted meats are the most succulent and wine-friendly of the beef and game bunch. Slow cooking allows these meats to show their rich and savory flavors to best advantage while maintaining a delicacy of flavor ideally suited to wine. These meats work beautifully with classy reds with some age to them, as the delicate flavors of the meat won't mask the complexity these beauties have developed over time.

Beef and Game Wines. Roast lamb is a classic match to old Bordeaux (for a hip substitute try an older Napa Cab or Italian Super-Tuscan), and roast quail is a gorgeous pairing with top pinot Noir, such as aged red Burgundy. Merlot works beautifully with a delicate filet mignon. And anything grilled or of a seriously concentrated nature (think about the big game items here) calls for a younger, more concentrated red. This is the time to pull out the big guns—Aussie Shiraz, young Bordeaux reds, Argentinian Malbec, Chilean Carmenere, California Zinfandel, hearty reds from the south of France...you get the idea. The bigger the better!

Dessert

As you know after reading chapter 5, there are lots of sweet wines out there to choose from. For the most concentrated sweet desserts, such as flourless chocolate cake and ice cream, you'll want to reach for the most powerful dessert wines, including but certainly not limited to port and Muscats from Australia and France. Desserts of moderate sweetness and intensity, such as crème brulée, call for a similarly medium-bodied sticky; Sauternes and ice wine work great here. The lightest sweet things, which include pastry-and fruit-based desserts, partner terrifically with the lightest sweet wines; my favorite, Moscato d'Asti, is a dynamite choice, although sweet German Riesling (especially Spatlese) also works swimmingly.

From Chapter 8
Wine at Home
Storage and Must-Have Wine Gear

Keeping a few key items on hand and learning some basic rules of thumb about serving wine can dramatically improve your wine-at-home experience.

Stemware Made Simple

While drinking from high-quality wineglasses like those made by celebrated Austrian glassmaker Riedel will improve your wine experience, drinking from run-of-the-mill stems won't necessarily detract from it. Especially for parties and large groups, using generic wineglasses or the faddish new stemless versions is completely acceptable and practical, especially given the sometimes prohibitive cost of higher-end stemware. And as a result of wine's growing popularity in the United States, a number of retailers and warehouse stores have begun selling both types of glasses (both high-end and more generic versions) in bulk, making it more affordable than ever to stock up on a good number of glasses for these occasions.

And unless you're serving sangria, it's preferable to drink wine from a glass with a bowl, whether it's attached to a stem or not. The reason is that the bulbous shape of a wineglass allows aromas to waft up and collect in the upper portion of the glass, where your nose can take them all in. Tumblers and water glasses are ill fit for the job due to their tendency to slant gradually outward, which allows the aromas to escape. Also, they make it almost impossible to swirl the wine, which is what really promotes the release of all of these great scents! So, if you've gone to the effort and expense of buying nice wine for your guests (or just for yourself!), then do everyone a favor and serve it in suitably bulbous glasses.

Whites Versus Reds: A Tale of Two Glasses

Generally, red wines are most enhanced by large glasses that give them lots of room to come to life (cue vocab: breathe). Most white wines, on the other hand, don't need as much stoking to show off their full aromatic and flavor potential, and as a result they're usually served in smaller glasses. Technically speaking, good white-wine glasses hold at least eight to twelve ounces of liquid, while red-wine glasses ideally hold from twelve to twenty-four ounces, and sometimes more.