Open the pages of this guide and you uncork the exciting world of wine. Award-winning wine writer Joanna Simon steers the reader through a tantalizing range of styles, grape varieties and wine-producing regions and offers refreshingly down-to-earth advice on how to buy, taste, serve and store wine for maximum enjoyment. Most of us would like to try a wider range of wines but are perhaps reluctant to make an expensive mistake. Joanna Simon helps readers to experiment with confidence and taste new wines that are similar to those they already enjoy. So for instance, if you like Australian Chardonnay, you may also like white wines from Navarra in Spain, Chilean Semillon, or South African Chenin Blanc. Covering over 70 grape varieties, the typical flavours of key varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Riesling are examined in depth. There are expert tips on buying, storing and tasting wine, along with advice on food and wine pairings, essential vintage charts, a glossary of terms and a useful pronunciation guide. Sumptuous location photography of the vineyards, wineries and cellars perfectly captures the miraculous process that turns the humble grape into something spectacular in the glass.

Joanna Simon is the wine correspendent for The Sunday Times and an author of a number of successful books on wine and food. Her book, Discovering Wine has sold more than 250,000 copies. She won the Glenfiddich Wine Writer of the Year award in 1992, the Wine Guild of the UK's Michel Lynch Bordeaux award in 1995 and the 1997 Premier Cru wine writing award in 1997.