Can Peter Help Educate Us?

I’ve nearly exhausted my supply of wine books from my local libraries, so I’m soon going to have to start haunting used book stores so that I can afford both my wine and book habits.  For now, however, I still have a few more I can talk about, and the next one up is Educating Peter by Lettie Teague.

The premise behind this book is that Lettie Teague, the wine editor of Food & Wine magazine would teach a wine novice friend of her, Peter Travers, the movie critic for Rolling Stone, about wine to learn what it would take to get someone up to speed.  Most of us don’t have a Lettie Teague in our lives to tutor us this way or foot the bill for our wine education as she often did, but there are things you can learn from this book.  At the same time, a wine novice won’t get tons out of this book.  It provides some info and may make wine less scary, but it would be a bare bones starting point.  It is a fast read, however, and it might work really well for a wine-newbie who’s joining a wine tasting club so that they can learn some language and not feel quite so out of place.

Much of the book is divided into chapters based on regions, and she covers both old world and new world wine regions.  The part of the book I got the most out of was her clear articulation of the sub-regions of French wine regions like Bordeaux.  In fact, this alone has convinced me that I should pick up a copy of this book as a cheat sheet for regions.

As is so often the case with me, this book has once again made me want to take on Burgundies (as long as someone else is footing the bill since they can be so hit or miss ).  FYI, if anyone has great recommendations for wine shops where the proprietors can really help guide shoppers to “good” Burgundies (ideally that they’ve tasted rather than just what scored well) – or tell us when to just walk away and buy something else – I’m more than open to them.

At the end of this book, I’m left with two major impressions.  One is that I need to get together with some friends and do periodic tasting parties where we work through regions/sub-regions the way Teague had Peter do as he learned about wines.  Again, to make this happen, I need to get to know some really knowledgeable store owners who can help us find good, but diverse wines at a reasonable price point.  I’m also amused by all of the comparisons to movies and film making that Peter uses as he talks about wine.  They are mostly foreign to me, but a lot of fun to read.

All in all, if you’re looking for a light, fun read that might teach you a little something or inspire you to try some new wine, from new regions, or in a new way – this may be the book for you.

The Can Peter Help Educate Us? by Swirl, Sip, Snark, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.