The Art of Decanting: Bringing Wine to Life

by Sandra Jordan and Lindsey Lee Johnson

Wine is much more than a beverage to be enjoyedit's an experience that has a culture all its own. The Art of Decanting explores these rituals, tracing the evolution of wine presentation and its rich lore. Author Sandra Jordan, of Sonoma's acclaimed Jordan wines, unearths unusual practices in wine history and sifts through centuries of rituals and accoutrements such as wine furniture, vessels, corks, corkscrews, glassware, and specifically decanters,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811856798
• ISBN13: 9780811856799
• Release Date: October 2006
• Publisher: Chronicle Books
• Length: 132 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 8.3" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Book Review

This book is better than the title would lead you to believe. Good photos and an entertaining writing style made it a fairly compelling way to get a lot of good information about wine lore; not just decanting.

Informative book

This is an informative book. It is not just a hardback book on decanting wine, but this book also gives a nice history of all the accessories used when serving wine (such as coasters, wine buckets, wine tables, etc). The "menu" located in the back of this book is not very useful. In fact, I would not even recommend trying those recipes,(even if I were an advanced cook). The photos are wonderful, especially the historical photos. This book was written by Ms. Jordan , who works for Jordan Winery, so almost all the wine bottles shown in this book are from the Jordan Winery. But to me, that's OK because the historical information and the decanting information are what are really worth reading anyhow. In other words, I would take the information expressed in this book and apply it to any wine bottle used,(when you're presenting wine at your table).

A Compact and Unique Treasure

This charming book discusses the mystique of wine and wine tasting and includes furnishings, glassware and recipes. The language is lyrical, the photographs are beautiful, and the information is enlightening. Whether a novice or connoisseur, this compact gem has something for everyone who enoys wine.

The perfect hostess present

A sumptuous present for less than the cost of a bottle of wine, Sandra Jordan's "Art of Decanting" is a pleasure to look at, informative to read, and creates just the right mood for building friendships over a shared decanter of wine. And she is right about decanting. I thought it was a lot of hooey (if that is the technical term), but I pulled an old wedding-present decanter out of the back of the closet and followed her directions. In a blind testing of the same wine decanted and straight from the bottle, you could tell the difference even before tasting by the perfume in the glass of decanted wine. I bought several copies of the books for friends right away.