The Wine Snob's Dictionary: An Essential Lexicon of Oenological KnowledgePaperback, 14 October 2008

A nicely structured, lightly acidic addition to the handy Snob's Dictionary series, decoding the baffling world of winespeak from A to Z.

Wine Snob. The very phrase seems redundant, doesn't it? When faced with this snobbiest of snobberies, the civilian wine enthusiast needs the help of savvy translators like David Kamp and David Lynch. Their Wine Snob's Dictionary delivers witty explication of both old-school oeno-obsessions (What's claret? Who's Michael Broadbent?) and such new-wave terms as malolactic fermentation and fruit bomb. Among the other things Kamp and Lynch demystify:

Finish: the Snob code-term for aftertaste. (Robert Parker includes the stopwatch-measured length of a wine's finish in his ratings.)

Meritage: an American wine classification that rhymes with heritage, and should NEVER be pronounced meri-TAHJ.

Terroir: that elusive quality of vineyard soil that has sommeliers talking of gunflint, leather, and candied fruits

Featuring ripe, luscious, full-bodied illustrations by Snob's Dictionary stalwart Ross MacDonald, The Wine Snob's Dictionary is as heady and sparkling as a vintage Taittinger, only much less expensive... and much more giggle-inducing. Cheers!