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  Wine-mine review - May 2002
Digging up great ideas for wine lovers...
This month we reviewed a book: The Sensational Liquid
 For many people, the bottom line in wine tasting is simply "Do I like what's in my glass?" All well and good, but if asked to elucidate, the mouth can go dry and inspiration suddenly disappears. Into this breach steps Malcolm Gluck with his take on the art of meaningful wine appreciation.
If you can get used to the author's uniquely colloquial (and often hyperbolic) style, there is much of value beneath the surface of the book. Gluck covers a variety of topics, including the contribution of the senses to analysing wine, grape clues, and telling good wine from bad; he also provides a useful compendium of reference texts, each accompanied by his review of the same. The book is peppered with a fascinating array of photographs by Robin Grierson, some of which would not look out of place in an art book, and these enhance the sensory focus of the text. The pictorial treatment reveals an imaginative and often humorous view of a subject which is more usually displayed in an academic fashion. At the same time, the images reflect the book's passionate yet light-hearted approach.
Gluck draws from the work of a wide range of experts and wine writers to inform his opinions, but despite faultlessly giving credit where it is due, there is an unfortunate tendency for him to damn with faint praise before holding forth himself. On one notable occasion he prints communication from Dr Ann Noble of the University of California at Davis, whose Aroma Wheel (designed to assist tasters to define their responses to wine) is reprinted in the text. Gluck gives his frank appraisal of it, she asks for rebuttal as she feels the appraisal amounts to "getting slammed", he obliges. You can't say fairer than that! The reader gets the impression that Gluck works on the principle of saying more or less what he wants, knowing that he has done the research, taken a personal stand, is willing to offer the right of reply to anybody who requests it, and therefore is beyond reproach. Many would beg to differ, but such chutzpah can be admired even if it is not the author's most endearing quality.
Those familiar with Gluck's work for the "Guardian" newspaper will already be aware that he has a highly individualistic view of wine, and is more than prepared to get on his soapbox where issues such as cork taint are concerned. This habit is transferred to the book, his pet topics highlighted in text boxes, from which he sets down his argument. There is a place for such debate, but for readers it creates a distraction from the more important work emerging in the main body of text. You either enjoy this style or you don't; with Gluck there is no sitting on the fence.
However if you can live with boldly expressed opinions, this book certainly turns the conventional tasting texts on their heads. It's probably best to sip judiciously from it than to try to finish it in one sitting, and it will be the more palatable for doing so.
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| Title: |
The Sensational Liquid: A Guide to Wine Tasting |
| Author: |
Malcolm Gluck
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| Price: |
£20.00 |
| Type: |
book |
| ISBN: |
0340713100 |
| Publisher: |
Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1999 |
| Rated: |
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