Matt Skinner: Heard It Through The Grape Vine

By JULIETTE ROSSANT Your soon to be legal-age son or daughter suddenly wants to know about wine. What do you do? There are plenty of dictionary size books that teach you how to enjoy wine, pair it with food, and speak with some amount of authority and passion on the subject –while they put you to sleep. What they really need is a very general guide that excites their imagination and gives them the tools to learn more. Turn to Matt Skinner. He's the wine guy's answer to Bobby Flay or Jamie Oliver or any other hip bloke – in fact, he came to the UK from Melbourne, Australia to be Jamie Oliver's wine steward at Fifteen restaurant in London. Now he runs all the wine operations for the Fifteen group worldwide, has an Australian TV show, and wrote Thirsty Work and other wine books. Heard It Through The Grapevine: The Things You Should Know to Enjoy Wine (Octopus 2009) is Matt's version of wine for "dummies". It is smart, fun, visually exciting, and completely unintimidating. From bright graphics and photographs (including the cover, which shows Matt in a T-shirt, dispelling the caricature of a condescending sommelier instantly) to the straightforward and often humorous titles on each page, this is a fast paced, fun book for young people starting to explore wine. The first section on Shopping includes Where to shop for wine (p. 17) with a fun page on supermarkets, independent wine merchants, the internet and finally Buying wine in a restaurant: But come on! Every smart wine buyer in town knows the old "second cheapest bottle trick" and as a result many less scrupulous buyers price the second-cheapest bottle to be the most profitable one on their list Promise me that you won't do that again. (p. 28) Then Matt turns to the bottle and what's in it. There is a marvelous graphic (p. 46) that explains the cost behind a $20 bottle of wine and a $10 bottle of wine and a good essay: What makes one bottle more expensive than another? (p. 47). Matt is just as clear when writing about Tasting Wine with sections like You'll need to use your eyes (p. 78), You'll need your nose (p. 80) And, of course, you'll need your mouth (p. 83) with two photos of Matt drinking and tasting wine. Rather than simply swallowing it, give it a good swish around your mouth. Try to suck in a bit of air at the same time- without dribbling. It's kind of like whistling in reverse. (p. 83) Matt speaks directly to the reader, explaining in simple terms and taking the mystery out of a complex subject. There are plenty of photos of Matt, young people eating and drinking – no doubt some of Jamie Oliver's food – and there is plenty of color, orange, blue, and fuchsia. Matt even includes suggestions for pairings for food popular with young people (and the not-so-young), Riesling and Thai Food, Rose and Mozzarella, and Sangiovese and pizza (pp. 122-9). Super Chef won't be surprised to find Matt joining Jamie on the Food Network or another channel giving wine-shy Americans a taste for the grape. Previous articles: [Cookbook Reviews - complete] Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, blogging, food blogging, cookbooks, cookbook reviews, Matt Skinner --> back to Cookbook Reviews --> back to Super Chef