by Leonard S. Bernstein
The author, a New York clothing manufacturer who has published poetry and a travel book, may or may not like wine. He may or may not know a lot about it. This book, he says, "is not a treatise about appreciating wine; there are countless books—even, heaven knows, Adult Education courses—for that. This is a guide to Wine Snobbery. This is concerned with impressing people. Follow these suggestions and you will intimidate the sommeliers in America's finest restaurants. Ignore them, and you will be laughed at in Burger King." Bernstein explains about clearing the palate, letting the wine breathe, the correct wine words, vintages, the ceremony of the cork, sending back the bottle, old is good, new is bad. He tells amusing stories about the ultimate wine snob, an imaginary figure he calls Reginald who drops chateaus the way some people drop names. Bernstein has written an unpretentious little book with a good ear. (Morrow, $10.95)
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