Today is a big day here at The Wine Economist. August 4 is the official release date for my new book,  Money, Taste, and Wine: It’s Complicated!  

It’s Complicated!

I really enjoyed writing Money, Taste, and Wine and look forward to reader reactions to it. The early reviews have been very positive and the book even spent some time as #1 among pre-release books in its Amazon category.

Money, Taste and Wine started out as an attempt to write something that would help wine buyers make sense of the complicated wine wall that we all confront when we go to make a purchase. So many brands, so many regions, so many grape varieties. Yikes! No wonder people try to simplify and the common denominator they sometimes focus on is price. This leads to “The Wine Buyer’s Biggest Mistake,” which is the first chapter of the book.

The Wine Buyer’s Biggest Mistake

What’s the biggest mistake? Confusing price and quality, of course. We all know it is wrong. We’ve all fallen for the “higher price = higher quality” trap at one point or another. Having pointed out the big mistake, I offer a solution in a chapter called “Wine Drinker: Know Thyself.”

Once I got rolling I realized that there were dozens of different ways that money, taste and wine get mixed up — sometimes the result is divine and sometimes not so much. Before I knew it, I had a book! I will paste the table of contents below so that you can see what topics are covered.

You will find Money, Taste, and Wine at all the usual online and brick-and-mortar locations. Click on the Amazon, IndieBound, Powell’s or Barnes & Noble button to order your copy today (talk about Shameless Self-Promotion!).

It is a Mistake to Write a Book About Complicated Wine?

Is it a mistake to write a book about wine’s complicated nature in a world where many people are looking for “Wine for Dummies” simplicity? I hope not! Certainly this blog, The Wine Economist, seems to attract readers searching for a more complex understanding. Looking forward to hearing what you think of the latest effort. Cheers!

Money, Taste & Wine: It’s Complicated!

Table of Contents

Part I: Buyer Beware!

1. The Wine Buyer’s Biggest Mistake

2. Anatomy of a Complicated Relationship

3. Wine Drinker, Know Thyself

Part II: Get a Clue! Searching for Buried Treasures

4. Dump Bucket Wines

5. Treasure Island Wines

6. Bulk Up: Big Bag, Big Box Wines

7. Sometimes the Best Wine is a Beer (or a Cider!)

Part III: A Rosé is a Rosé? Money, Taste & Identity

8. More than Just a Label: Wine’s Identity Crisis?

9. Wine Snobs, Cheese Bores and the Globalization Paradox

10. Anything But Champagne

Part IV: What Money Can (and Can’t) Buy

11. Restaurant Wars

 12. Follow the Money

13. Invisible Cities, Imaginary Wines

 14. Groot Expectations

Acknowledgements

Selected References