Educating Peter is a fantastically fun read for the novice wine lover looking to understand more about wine. The book will empower the reader with basics to wine regions, vintages, types of wine and their blends, and more. Best of all, Lettie Teague has accomplished this in a totally non-snooty way, making anyone feel safe of grasping wine and turn into an (almost) wine expert.
When it comes to wine, Peter (that is, Peter Travers, movie critic at Rolling Stone) is a bumbling fool. He loves his "fatty" Chardonnays and attributes all other wines to the noted directors and actors he has interviewed. Chianti? Sure, that's one of "Marty Scorsese's favorite wines." New Zealand wines? Peter Jackson (director of Lord of the Rings) thinks the reds of NZ are no good.
Through Peter's mishaps and misguided senses, we learn about wine right along with him, falling in love with new varietals and regions.
Peter's gifted cases of wine from years back were stored next to the basement radiator. We learn this is a big no-no because it cooks the wine and ruins it, as does storing it over the stove (a celebrated storage place in most homes for go-to bottles).
We endure Peter's often silly epiphany's on how to remember his newfound wine knowledge: the film Citizen Kane is likened to a first growth Bordeaux and Riesling is like a filmmaker who relies on a good story rather than big names. We also put up with Peter's strange obsession with hail throughout the book.
When I started reading Educating Peter, Peter's quirks drove me mad. Sure, I thought, I know very little about wine, but this man is an idiot! And all of Peter's memorization techniques, attributing every movie in his memory bank to something about wine, were inane and bordered on show-offy. Was this man real?
But I soon gave up and took all these idiosyncrasies to heart. I realized everywhere Peter shares his wisdom in wine-movie pairings or makes a lame joke, I was more likely to recall what was discussed. I would sail to work the next day discussing Peter's silly comments, soon realizing I had an epiphany of my own: I remembered more when Peter had made one of his declarations than not.
The book is a great introduction to most of the wine regions of the world, though some regions seem to be glossed over. For one, the chapter on Italy is in desperate need of more information. Other chapters seem to just open up when the subject suddenly changes. And some regions just list wines to try instead of breaching the topic at all. But in the wines and regions that are discussed, we see Peter's and our absorb interest grow as everyone learns more.
The book is organized in four sections. The first, an overview to wine, terms, storage tips and other basics about wine and wine-making. From there, we enter Old World Wines and get a fantastic starter into France and its' regions and to a lesser extent Italy, Spain and other regions. New World Wines broadens the discussion into South America, Australia and regions in the United States, while the fourth section rounds out Peter's new wine knowledge (and our own) with first use of this information at restaurants, wine stores and a "final exam" for the reader to test their own knowledge.
This book is a great introductory into wine. I applaud Teague for her efforts in making the topic of wine accessible to so many, while remaining light hearted and funny throughout. Educating Peter is a fantastic book for the wine novice that can easily be reread again and again and passed around to friends who adore the subject but are looking to understand more. Which is where my own copy will now go…
Be warned: building a knowledge in wine can cause a huge emptiness to the bank account.
