• By CHERAMIE SONNIER
• Advocate Food writer
• Published: Jul 29, 2010

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At last, someone has written a wine book in such an easy-to-understand, friendly style that the person just starting to learn about wine won’t be intimidated. Best of all, the reader will have fun while gaining plenty of useful knowledge, such as how to read a wine label, how to taste wine, how to visit tasting rooms, and how to find a good, affordable wine.

All of that and lots more is found in “What’s a Wine Lover to Do? 334 Essential Oenophile Pointers and Tips” by Wes Marshall (Artisan Books, $17.95, paperback).

The author, wine columnist for the Austin Chronicle, also writes for Wine & Spirits, Wine Enthusiast, Appellation America, Imbibe, and Wines & Vines. He also is the author of “The Wine Roads of Texas.”

His goal, Marshall writes in the introduction of the 372-page “What’s a Wine Lover to Do?,” is “to offer advice for readers with an interest in wine. The information is designed to help people who are just starting to drink wine, continuing to offer useful information even after you gain enough confidence to be comfortable trekking through a wine list at a high-end restaurant.”

Marshall organizes his book by 334 questions divided into 10 sections: Buying Wine, Reading the Label, Grapes, Wine Regions, From Grape to Glass, Wine and Food, How to Taste, Serving Wine, Storing and Aging, and Wine Travel and Learning. There also is a four-page glossary that mostly covers the various grapes, although it also includes terms like “frizzante,” which Marshall explains is an “Italian-derived term for a wine with very light bubbles.”

I particularly like the section on matching wine with its best food. Marshall says, “Wine is food” and is used to cleanse the palate. He includes charts that offer suggestions for pairing sparkling wines with everything from fish to sauerkraut; pairing wine and cheese; how to pair wine with dessert; and even which wines work with fast foods. Try a Zinfandel or Chianti Classico with pizza, Marshall says.

The book also features recommendations from other wine experts. It is filled with more than 200 color photographs, illustrations and maps.

Its format allows for either cover-to-cover perusing or for use as a quick reference. Either way, “What’s a Wine Lover to Do?” will soon have its readers confidently sniffing, swirling and choosing affordable wines.