Wine Book Review: Good, Better, Best

By Carrie Becker in Food on May 26, 2010 5:20PM

"More than 90% of wines purchased in the U.S. are under $15." This statistic is the foundation for wine writer and critic Carolyn Evans Hammond's Good, Better, Best Wines: A No-Nonsense Guide to Popular Wines. Hammond uses her expertise to offer guidance and recommendations in navigating an array of widely distributed inexpensive wines. From the start, the book offers great tools for gauging how to find, store and open inexpensive bottles, including paying attention to the region, the producer and the type of grape. However, the recommendations offered under her scale of good, better and best wines can be very hit or miss. We just can’t fathom recommending a jug of Carlo Rossi to anyone who is legal drinking age; we turned to the Rossi in college too many times to know better.

But, we sympathize with Hammond’s challenge and also find it less than desirable to be caught down the grocery store liquor aisle not knowing what to grab. That’s why we usually opt for buying wine from local wine shops that can steer us in the right direction.