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| The Wine Trials: 100 Everyday Wines Under $15 that Beat $50 to $150 Wines in Brown-Bag Blind Tastings | 
 enlarge | Author: Robin Goldstein
Creator: Alexis Herschkowitsch
Publisher: Fearless Critic Media
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $8.92
You Save: $6.03 (40%)
New (18) Used (4) from $8.92
Avg. Customer Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 1334
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5 x 1.1
ISBN: 0974014354
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.22
EAN: 9780974014357
ASIN: 0974014354
Publication Date: May 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 A valuable guide September 27, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Robin Goldstein is a gadfly. He's notorious for submitting a wine menu from a fictitious restaurant to Wine Spectator magazine and earning the magazine's "Award of Excellence." Yet the "reserve wine list" from his menu listed wines earning some of the lowest scores from the magazine over the previous 20 years.
"The Wine Trials" takes on the commonly used 50- to 100-point wine rating system. Goldstein asks whether the ratings are biased by price, label, and advertising. His tests show that they are, sometimes hugely.
Goldstein wanted to know how cheaper wines - below $15 - rated against more expensive ones, in the $50 to $150 range, and each other in blind, brown-bag tastings. Over several months in 2007 and 2008, he held tastings of 560 wines for everyday wine drinkers and experts. Many of the cheap wines excelled and surpassed the expensive ones.
The result is a set of ranked lists of 100 wines for under $15 by general type -- heavy red, light red, heavy white, light white, etc. -- and by location -- Europe and the "New World" (the Americas, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand). Each of the ranked wines also gets its own description. I've tried several of the top-ranked wines, and they are delicious, some from small, unadvertised labels and some from big producers.
As a buying guide, this is a very useful book, by far the most useful I've seen in a long time. Goldstein's jaundiced look at the wine business, especially the conventional wine rating business, is a bonus.
The book doesn't pretend to be anything like Karen MacNeil's "The Wine Bible" or others in that category. You won't find here detailed descriptions of individual wine grapes, wine growing regions, famous bottlers, characteristics of the terroir, or that kind of information. "The Wine Trials" is all about the unbiased drinking experience. These two books, "The Wine Trials" and "The Wine Bible," have different aims and complement each other well. But just to find inexpensive, drinkable wines, "The Wine Trials" is more useful.
Fun book, although I wish there was more complete data September 8, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I enjoy the premise and concept of this book, and have been happy with the recommended wines that I have tried so far. Descriptions are short, tangible, and accurate. I have enjoyed the challenge to some of my opinions, and plan to host a blind tasting with friends in the near future. This book is a quick read and a handy reference, and each review includes a picture of the bottle, which is great for someone like me with a visual memory.
I was disappointed that there were not complete lists and rankings of the wines tested, but I guess there needs to be some material for a sequel, which I plan to purchase. Would have been five stars with a list for each category.
Wine Trials September 6, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The book "The Wine Trials: 100 Everyday Wines Under $15 that Beat $50 to $150 Wines in Brown-Bag Blind Tastings" is a valuable guide for wine drinkers that ignores the mystique associated with high priced wines and offers a straight forward blind taste test. The results of the test show most people would prefer wines under $15 over $50 to $150 wines.
A great book to peruse before shopping for that next dinner wine.
 muckraking yellow journalism August 23, 2008
3 out of 28 found this review helpful
For an author that is not a wine critic, nor trained in wine tasting, wine fermenting etc. it is shocking to see so many false statements, innuneono etc. tossed at the wine industy. The wine selected were not fully blind tested. They were staged for the unsuspecting public. In most instances he did not go to wine tasters for opinion, but rather folks off the street whom were not educated in wine tasting.
This is the same "author" that recently pulled hoaxes on major magazines, laughed about it, just to sell this book.
Book is not worth a plug nicle or a bottle of Ripple.
Fantastic Guide! August 21, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is hands down the best book out there for the casual value-conscious wine drinker. Goldstein and Herschkowitsch have hit the nail on the head. The book uses honest reports from blind tastings staffed by regular people and experienced tasters. The book uses data from these tastings to tell you how to shop for quality wines when on a budget. You can see that the big vineyards have no influence on the ratings, as some of the highest rated wines are from small producers. I take it with me now on every trip to the wine shop. Well Done!
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