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Delong's Wine Grape Varietal Table Now In Hong Kong!!

It's official, Grande Passione now distributes Delong's Grape Varietal Table, Maps, and Best Selling Wine Tasting Notebooks in Hong Kong and Macau!

These are excellent tools for any wine lovers to increase understanding which inevitably leads to exponential increase in the enjoyment of wine!

The Grape Varietal Table (Deluxe)

A wine reference disguised as a fine art print. Hang it anywhere you drink wine and you'll find yourself referring to it again and again.

- Clearly see the "big picture" of wine grape varieties and how they relate to one another.
- An attractive addition to any tasting room or wine cellar
- The accompanying reference book, The Wine and Grape Indexes, is the most comprehensive index available of the grape varieties used in worldwide wine appellations.
- Makes a great gift for all wine lovers. The Table and Index Book are packaged in an attractive and reusable gift tube.

Deluxe Version Includes:

- The Wine Grape Varietal Table. 24 by 36 inches printed on 110 lb. acid-free archival paper.
- The Wine and Grape Indexes. 4 by 8 inches, 88 pages perfect bound. Includes all worldwide appellations.
- Gift Tube. The Table and Index are packaged in an attractive reusable gift tube.

Price: HKD 275, inclusive of delivery in Hong Kong & Macau

Order Now!

Hardbound Wine Tasting Notebook

An elegant way to "hit the ground running" and learn about wine.

- The Wine Tasting Forms put the repetitive parts of a note in a convenient multiple choice for pros as well as acting as training wheels for beginners.
- Wine Tasting Terms helps you build your wine tasting vocabulary with quick explanations of where certain flavours come from. It includes practical details on identifying wine faults.
- How to Take a Wine Tasting Note walks you through the fundamentals of wine tasting.

Hardbound Edition Includes:

- Elegant black cover with gold embossing slips easily intou a coat pocket or purse.
- Sewn binding with marketing ribbon.
- Water and wine resistant wine tasting terms folds out from back cover.
- 2 3/2 x 7 3/4 inches, 160 pages

Price: HKD 120, inclusive of delivery in Hong Kong & Macau

Order Now!

Pocket Wine Tasting Guide

Simply the most concentrated form of wine tasting knowledge available anywhere.

COMBINES THE GUIDES FROM THE WINE TASTING NOTEBOOK IN A COMPACT PACKAGE:

- Wine Tasting Terms helps build your wine tasting vocabulary with quick explanations of where certain flavours come from. Includes practical details on identifying wine faults.
- How to Take a Wine Tasting Note walks you through the fundamentals of wine tasting. Win

Pocket Wine Tasting Guide Includes:

- Printed on durable, recyclable plastic paper
- Spillproof
- Tearproof
- Protective cover is the same size as a cover for a hotel key card
- 2 3/8 x 3 5/8 inches folded - unfolds to 10 x 10 inches

Price: HKD 40, inclusive of delivery in Hong Kong & Macau

Order Now!

Published by jc on August 30, 2010

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good books for the wset diploma (level 4)

a good friend asked my recommendations for good books to help her study the wset level 4 (diploma). here is my list, all links to amazon usa (and rest assured... i will not earn a penny if you buy the books using the links below...):

must haves

the oxford companion to wine - jancis robinson
impossible to pass without... since graduating, i have a love-hate relationship with the book... i had it autographed by jancis herself when she last came to hong kong, it is now a museum piece at home...

grapes & wines - oz clarke & margaret rand
comprehensive and really very good to understand each grape varieties. the writing style is a little "chatty" and casual. not sure everyone likes this when studying as there are sometimes more words than necessary. but then again, it might be fun to study this way once in a while...

how to taste - pierre casamayor
my all time favourite "how to taste" wine. definitely the best book on the subject that i have read so far and i credit this book with my passing the tasting part of unit 3 with high marks. it also covers tasting techniques for sparkling wines (unit 4) and fortified wines (unit 6). he is now my mentor and each time i come across one of his books, i buy them. unfortunately for my english friends, the one listed here is his only one in english...

understanding wine technology - david bird
written for the wset diploma in mind. excellent and covers everything needed for the unit 2 exam

viticulture, an introduction - stephen skelton
written by a master of wine. definitely useful for the unit 2 exam

the port companion - godfrey spence
complement the oxford companion of wine and covers all topics for the unit 6.

world wine atlas - hugh johnson & jancis robinson
this book is key to understand the various wine regions of the world. definitely a must to pass the unit 3 theory exam. it contains all that one needs to know about a region: description of terroir, examples of key wineries, notes on wine style, and other information key to a complete answer so dear to the wset examiners.

world encyclopedia of champagne & sparkling wine - tom stevenson
i have not used it for my unit 4 exam and i now regret it. very informative and contains all that is necessary about sparkling wines of the world.

decanter magazine
a key to unit 1 and unit 3 exam. covers wine regions but also current affairs issues and, although i am not aware of insider information here, i am quite sure the persons who design unit 3 questions choose topics in that publications.

very useful

wine by style - fiona beckett
excellent book to understand wines by style. she simplifies wines in different categories so that not only they can be understood in the way they can match with food, but also in the way they are made and what can be expected as a result. it helped me to tidy-up my wine notes.

oz clarke new wine atlas - oz clarke
excellent complement to johnson and robinson wine atlas. better maps and clearer information on each terroirs. although a bit "chatty" and that can be distracting.

wine grape varietal table - steve delong
a truly excellent map of grape varieties giving you the big picture of wine grape varietes and how they related to one another. they are organized in terms of acidity and body and gives the user a clear understanding of their specific style. i am the distributor in hong kong and macau for those interested...

the science of wine - jamie goode
for real wine geeks, to reinforce david bird's book. i found it very interesting and useful to beef up my wine production knowledge.

drinks - vincent gasnier
i found this reference books to be very useful when it came to practice tasting by myself and to understand the differences between various wines of the same style but from different regions of the world. for example, he organises a tasting of pinot gris/grigio wines and describe some from italy, from australia, and from alsace and clearly indicate what we should be expecting. useful tutor by reading i found.

whiskey: the definitive world guide - michael jackson
very very good book on all things whiskey. not only tasting notes from various regions of the world but also a definitive guide on how they are made and factors that affect style and quality.

the art and science of wine - james halliday & hugh johnson
excellent book that links wine making techniques to resulting wine styles. also covers terroir and viticulture and discusses how factors of nature can also affect wine style and quality. i enjoyed that book tremendously.

le nez du vin - jean lenoir
a very very useful and informative way to learn about aromas. the master kit includes 54 small bottles with aromatic oil together with a corresponding cards with explanation of the aromas, its origin and in which wines we can expect it. beware, the oils can damage your sense of smell if they are used too extensively (as i did...).

Published by jc on August 24, 2010

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a neat little wine book by debra meiburg

ever since i started my wine studies with the wset, i have been puzzled by winespeak. in fact, i should say that i have been rather baffled by it. most magazines i read are inconsistent and most of them use a language that is pretty out of touch with what wine lovers "at-large" relate to on their day-to-day wine experiences. no wonder people are easily charmed by the simplistic 100-points ratings of robert parker and wine spectator...

and so, it was with great delights that i read debra meiburg's neat little book last week simply titled "tasting wine with debra e. meiburg". ms. meiburg is one of the first 2 people in asia to have passed the very difficult theory exam of the master of wine and she is now well on her way to earn the title M.W. when she completes her thesis later this year.

the book simplifies and clarifies winespeak in a very charming and soft approach. it focuses on the essential and relates to anyone's day-to-day sensory experiences so that the reader has a sense of déjà-vu and ends the book feeling that wine tasting is in fact all very simple. which it is when you consider that it involves your senses and that is all we really need when we taste wine. each page focuses on a simple theme and has an "interactive sensory experience" to further emphasise the point. as a bonus, the book includes a simple little chart to get readers going on taking notes and "organizing" those in a simple little format so that a conclusion can be easily drawn without the help of robert parker or jancis robinson.

well done and highly recommended! i bought the book at watson's wine cellar in causeway bay (at the park lane hotel) and i also saw it at other watson's wine cellars around town.