Mike De Simone and Jeff Jenssen, known as The Wine Guys, have written a new book entitled White Wine: The Comprehensive Guide to the 50 Essential Varieties & Styles. The award-winning duo introduced their book at an event hosted by Pinot Grigio Della Venezia. Regine T Rousseau, the brand ambassador for Pinot Grigio Della Venezia and a very close friend of Mike and Jeff, was the moderator.
The event was made possible by the Consorzio Tutela della Venezia DOC Pinot Grigio. Venezia Pinot Grigio is the second largest DOC in Italy. The Director of the Consorzio, Flavio Innocenzi, spoke about the wines of Pinot Grigio DOC Venezia and how the Consorzio was very happy to support Mike and Jeff’s new book. He announced that after the talk there would be a tasting of 127 wines from Pinot Grigio Venezia.
The tasting included some examples of the new Rosè Pinot Grigio, a wine I had not tasted before.
Jeff Jenssen and Mike De Simone
I have known Mike and Jeff for a number of years and on occasion I have enjoyed drinking a bottle of wine or two with them. Their books have won a number of awards and I was very interested in hearing their talk.
They told us that after writing their award-winning book on red wine, they felt the next step was to write a book on white wine. However they were in for a surprise when they went to their publisher. He did not want a book on white wine. He felt that the more serious wine drinkers do not drink white wine and he did not think the book would sell.
Mike and Jeff disagreed. They felt that white wine has grown in popularity in recent years. Many people are eating lighter and white wine tends to match lighter food better. Younger drinkers are gravitating toward lower-alcohol wines as well, a category into which many white wines easily fall. There are also many high quality white wines like White Burgundy, German Riesling, Tokaji Azsù, Condrieu and Champagne. They wanted to write a book for anyone, amateur or professional, who is interested in wine. Fortunately, they were able to find a new publisher who agreed with them and so the book was published.
Unlike many wine books that start with geography, the authors tell the story of white wine through the grapes and styles themselves. Every book has space constraints, so they chose the 50 white grapes (in alphabetical order) which they believed to be the most popular and available at a local wine store.
The second portion of the book covers “Styles and Blends,” such as Bordeaux, Marsala and Prosecco.
The same white grapes varieties are grown in many countries but they listed the grapes by country of origin. There was one exception — Pinot Gris — whose country of origin is France. They listed it as Pinot Grigio because they feel that the Italian name is much more popular.
In answer to a question from the audience, the authors said they tasted the wines blind. All of the wines were in the same price range. The book features a price guide: Bargain up to $20, Value $21 to $40, Special Occasion $41 to $90 and Splurge up to $100.
Mike and Jeff’s new book is a valuable tool and reference source for anyone interested in white wine. It’s the perfect companion to red wine book, Red Wine: The Comprehensive Guide to the 50 Essential Varieties and Styles, co-authored with Kevin Zraly.
I am looking forward to the next book from the Wine Guys.
A last salute as we felt to try and taste the 127 wines with Mike, Jeff, Flavio Innocenzi , Marina Nedic of IMME who organized the event and Regina T Rousseau.
Someone asked how do they choose the producers they listed in the book. Their first choice was the producers who’s wines they liked the best.
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Charles Scicolone on Wine 