Tasting Pleasure: Confessions of a Wine Lover

Although she is not as well known here as abroad--readers may remember her PBS-TV Wine Course of 1996, however--and her book is perhaps a bit too British with such discussions as wine sales at the Sainsbury grocery chain, Robinson's memoir will nevertheless delight and inform oenologists and those who enjoy armchair travel. This Master of Wine, a distinction she earned in 1984, virtually stumbled into her metier after she graduated from Oxford in 1970 with a job at a wine and spirits magazine. Robinson is a jaunty writer who imparts her expertise with ease. Here she tours the vineyards of France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Australia and California (where, with a touch of show-biz pizzazz, she visits Francis Ford Coppola's Napa Valley wine estate), and along the way explains the qualities that distinguish the finest wines, introduces winemakers and gossips about major figures in the trade. Robinson also writes a bit about her domestic life with her husband, former London restaurateur Nick Lander, and their three children. The information shared in Robinson's book verifies why this columnist for the Wine Spectator and editor of the Oxford Companion to Wine has become such a popular and respected connoisseur. (Oct.)