Kevin Zraly Windows on the World Complete Wine Course (revised & updated edition). New York: Sterling Epicure, 2016.

I don’t know if Kevin Zraly has a theme song — a tune that they play when he enters the room or takes the stage — but if he doesn’t have one I would like to suggest “The Beat Goes On.” I think it fits him like a glove.

Windows on the Wine World

Zraly was instrumental in getting the wine beat going here in the United States through his work at the Windows on the World restaurant in New York and his high-impact teaching at the Windows on the World Wine School.

Zraly’s tenure at the restaurant lasted from its first day of business in 1976 (a key year for wine in America) until September 11, 2001. You know that date, I am sure, and it will make sense when I remind you that Windows on the World was located at the top of One World Trade Center.

The restaurant was gone after 9/11, but the beat went on. The school moved uptown, but didn’t really miss a beat until Zraly decided to retire from teaching this fall, after 40 years and more than 20,000 students. So now the school is gone, too, but the beat still goes on in the form of the latest edition of this book.

A Confidence Game

The Windows on the World Complete Wine Course is the closest thing that most people will have to taking the actual course with Kevin Zraly and it is valuable resource both for the wine novices that it was written for and for wine veterans, too.

Newbies learn enough about wine to develop the personal confidence they need to enjoy wine and not be unnecessarily intimidated by it. This confidence is vital to wine sales in restaurants and shops, too. Remember: no one has to buy wine and many do not because they are afraid of making a mistake.

Wine veterans will appreciate the book, too, because Zraly’s enthusiasm is totally contagious and reading it reminds us of why we fell in love with wine in the first place.

What’s new for this edition? The basic structure remains the same, which is a good thing. Zraly’s brilliant original strategy was to organize the class and then the book around a typical restaurant wine list — whites on this side, reds on the other, sorted by regions and so on.

You get key information about the regions and the wines plus suggested producers, food pairings, comparative tasting prompts and a lot more. Where some books seem to be written for technical WSET exam prep classes, Zraly aims to prepare his students for real world exams — choosing and enjoying wines at restaurants and shops.

More. Give Me More

The text has been updated along with the graphic design and I think both are great. Wine is changing so fast that it is hard to keep up (and impossible to be really complete), but this edition does a good job in both respects. The graphics work because the bright colors stimulate the mind’s eye and are used to convey information in a consistent style. Sue noted that the design allows a great deal of information to be packed onto each page. It is attractive and useful, not distracting as is so often the case.

I have always admired previous editions of this book, but I wanted more. More countries and regions and maps and — most important — more Kevin Zraly. More Zraly because it is his dynamic personal relationship to wine (and his student/readers) that makes this book great.

I think I will always want more in terms of wine regions, etc. — love to see information here about Portuguese wines besides Port and maybe Georgian wines now that I have visited here. But I understand that this isn’t an encyclopedia and, at 360 pages, it is already pretty big.

But what makes me happiest is that the sense that you are listening to Kevin Zraly, learning from him and getting excited by his excitement — that sense is fuller than ever before. More Zraly? Simply irresistible! That’s what makes the Windows on the World Complete Wine Course essential reading for all wine lovers.

Congratulations to Kevin Zraly on his achievements, awards, and contributions to wine in America. And thanks for this book, which extends his influence into the future. The beat goes on!

>><<<

“The Beat Goes On” is a Sonny and Cher tune (Sonny Bono wrote it), but I thought you might enjoy this version by the Buddy Rich band — it really swings. Cheers.