Cheers! All you need to know about wine

Jamie Morton | 29th October 2009

He may have just compiled an A-Z guide on everything budding vinophiles need to know, but Karl du Fresne still reckons he's no "wine geek".

The Masterton resident and renowned journalist and columnist last night launched his New Zealand Wine-Lover's Companion - the kind of book he would have found handy when he began taking an interest in wine.

He writes in his introduction that wine books at that time were "often written in a language that newcomers to wine may have found puzzling, perhaps even intimidating, and they tended to bombard the reader with more technical detail than the casual wine enthusiast really needed".

He said serious "wine geeks" might harrumph that the book doesn't tell them anything they don't already know, "which is just fine".

"It is not a book for wine geeks, who are already well catered for. It is aimed at people who enjoy wine, are intrigued by its diversity and would like to know more about it, but not to the point of becoming obsessive."

Mr du Fresne, whose son is now a winemaker in California, has been enjoying wine for more than 40 years, but it wasn't until 1992 that he decided to begin writing about it.

His first series of articles chronicled Martinborough's emerging wine scene, just as it was starting to make a splash on the world stage.

He continued blending his loves of writing and wine through a weekly newspaper column and, two years ago, with time to think on a flight to China, began listing a range of entries that were eventually included in his 227-page guide.

The book delves into New Zealand's wine history, features passages on colourful characters of the industry such as Te Mata Estate's John Buck, deciphers slang such as "ABC" (anything but chardonnay) and also includes entries on international varietals and winegrowing regions.

A passage is even dedicated to wine speak, which "to the uninitiated can seem at best esoteric and abstract; at worst pompous and pretentious".

It was for the "uninitiated" that Mr du Fresne must have also included the entry Embarrassment: "the fear of looking silly by mispronouncing a wine name or ordering an inappropriate wine to go with a restaurant meal deters many people from being more adventurous in their experimentation with different styles of wine".

He said best way to combat this was to "admit you're not sure how a wine's name is pronounced but you'd like to try it anyway. You're far less likely to look foolish by admitting ignorance than by feigning knowledge".

But his most important piece of advice could be found further along the "E" section, under "Enjoyment", which ultimately sums up his thoughts on wine.

"Enjoyment should be the objective of anyone who drinks wine. Thankfully you don't need to know a lot about wine in order to enjoy drinking it, any more than you need to understand how a car works to enjoy driving it.

"The best advice about wine is that if you enjoy it, it's a good wine."

*The New Zealand Wine-Lover's Companion is on sale now at Hedley's Booksellers, Masterton.