(這篇文章之前出現在Vintage雜誌)
市面上有很多有關葡萄酒的書，有的專注在葡萄品種與產區的介紹，有的則以評分或”幾顆星星”來表示酒的品質，提供喝酒的人快速簡便的方式分辨酒的好壞。但是一瓶好的葡萄酒並不一定是來自某一個有名的產區，也不是因為某一個酒評家給的高分，而是喝到的人因他的顏色、香氣或口感而感動。馬特‧克拉瑪這本書會使你對葡萄酒有不同的觀感。
馬特‧克拉瑪是美國知名的葡萄酒作家，也是美國酒品雜誌WineSpectator的專欄作家。這本”Making Sense of Wine”是1989年出版後馬特所做的第一次修訂(1989 的版本有中譯版，名稱叫做「葡萄酒好喝的祕密」，梁永安譯，大地地理出版社1999年3月出版)。除此之外馬特還著作了Making Sense系列，除了這本書外他還寫了另外兩本:Making Sense of Burgundy 和 Making Sense of California。
馬特在這一本書的序言特別提到90’年代整個葡萄酒界變化很大，從釀酒方式到產區甚至連顧客程度都跟往常大不相同，而好酒的定義也在這短短的十年當中慢慢改變，所以需要將這本書做一些修正並增加一些資料來呈現酒界的現狀。
這一本書分成兩大部份，第一部份主要探討的是葡萄酒的背景與酒界的現狀，其中對於目前美國人對葡萄酒界的整體影響與各葡萄酒產區所面臨到的困境有深入的見解，而馬特也在這本修定版增添一章有關21世紀葡萄酒的新趨勢。第二部份探討葡萄酒在人們生活中應有的地位，特別是與餐餚結合時或保管收藏時，同時也釐清不少喝酒人的迷思。
馬特說他在1989年寫這本書時想要探討的是葡萄酒永恆的真諦，不過經過這些年科技的進步與時空轉變，不少他認為不會改變的都已改變了。或許永恆的是人們對好酒的渴望，而好酒的秘密還是在葡萄酒裡。
“Kramer is an intellectual guerilla among wine writers. This is fresh thinking; a new challenge.” Hugh Johnson
Wine talks, in the language that most of us are not familiar with. Wine communicates, not in sounds or words, but with its color, her aroma and his taste。Only if you master the language of wine you can truly appreciate it. “Making sense of Wine” is a book about the background of that language.
This book is the revised edition of Matt Kramer’s 1989 classic “Making Sense of wine”. Matt Kramer is currently a columnist in WineSpectator and has written numerous books, including other Making Sense series such as Making Sense of Burgundy and Making Sense of California wine. The 1989 edition was translated into Chinese a few years ago.
In previous edition Matt focused on exploring the enduring aspects of wine, but during past decade much has happened in the world of wine and against such backdrop he felt he needed to reevaluate this book to incorporate what he called “the most transforming ten-year (1990’s) span in the history of fine wine”.
This book has two sections: thinking wine and drinking wine. In the “Thinking Wine” section Matt talks about the connoisseurship and terroir, also mentioning the authenticity of wine and its unpredictability. In the “drinking wine” section Matt talks about theory behind food and wine match, the cellaring of wine and the presentation of wine。There is also a chapter on the current situation in the world of wine appropriately titled “Twenty-First Century Fine Wine – The consequences of Success”。
Strip away qualified and unqualified ratings, peculiar combination of alphabets and obnoxious snobbishness, wine is actually not as complicate as you think. So start learning the language of wine with this book!!!
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