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If the wine world has someone who is its rockstar, that person has to be Andrea Immer Robinson. One of less than two dozen women master sommeliers, Andrea has taken her passion for wine, taught thousands and thousands of people, and made a nice business out of it. She wrote a book, Great Wine Made Simple: Straight Talk from a Master Sommelier, back in 2000 or so. For whatever reason, I never picked it up and read it. Man, that was a dumb mistake.

I received the updated and revised edition of the book for Christmas this year. I’m now kicking myself for not getting it sooner. If you don’t acquire it, you’ll eventually be kicking yourself. Take my word for it: avoid the pain and get this book now! Order it through Amazon.com (and help this site in the process), pick it up at your local book store. I really don’t care, just get it.

What makes this book so great? First, it is very, very well written in a conversational style. If you’ve heard Andrea speak at a seminar or caught her on one of her TV show episodes, you’re going to feel like she’s sitting across the table from you talking to you. She includes some asides about her own wine mis-adventures, and she puts you at ease.

Another reason this book is great is that she has accomplished what so many of us have been trying to figure out: how to best teach people about wine. I’ve said all along that to learn about wine, you need to drink it. But in this book, Andrea not only gets you drinking wine, but she does it in a way that provides logical structure, a frame of reference, and building blocks for later learning. This is the approach I wish I had taken with all of the teaching I did for IU South Bend, the podcasts, etc. Damn–I found this book too late.

Do yourself a huge favor: get this book within the next week and start reading it. Do the wine tastings she lays out for you. You will find your wine knowledge rocketing ahead.

I know–some of you are wondering why I would want to rave about a resource that, in theory, should cut into the audience for my own wine education offerings. The answer is very simple: I want you to learn about wine, and when I find a resource, I’m going to tell you about it. While I love it when I get emails from people who tell me they’ve learned a lot from my podcast or book, the most important thing is to get you learning about wine, regardless of the source.

Don’t delay: go get this book as soon as possible. Use it as a complement to my stuff. Use it in place of my stuff. Whatever you want to do. Just don’t be dumb like I was and ignore this book for ten years.

Watching two wine enthusiasts do a blind tasting of Champagne might sound like as much fun as watching paint dry. Or maybe as exciting as watching golf on television. Of course, if you’ve played golf, you have a bit more appreciation for what’s on your TV. The same goes for wine tastings–if you have tried Champagnes (or any other wine for that matter) then watching experts go through the process is not as dull as it sounds to non-winos.

Jamie Goode (who is one of the definite A-list wine writers and bloggers) sits down with his brother-in-law on New Year’s Eve to taste a group of Champagnes and sparkling wines. It’s amazing how much you can learn by watching a session like this. For example: Jamie observes that the citrus quality to one of the wines means it’s probably a blanc de blanc style.

Watch, enjoy, and learn!