DIVERSITY IN WINE. EMPOWERMENT OF WINE DRINKERS. We believe that choosing a wine for its taste is the only sensible approach to wine buying, and we decided to write Wine Style in order to make that approach easier for wine drinkers. But several other issues influenced our decision. These issues involve the background picture of how wine is made and sold today. The global wine market is extremely competitive because of excess production and declining global consumption. In countries where wine consumption is on the rise, such as the U.S., wine marketers are doing everything in their power to grab their share of the existing action. They are engineering the taste of their wines to resemble best-selling brands, or to appeal to powerful wine critics. They are designing eye-catching labels. They are creating clever new brands overnight to capitalize on the latest trend or to appeal to certain demographics. As a result, wine drinkers seem to have more choices than ever—but in reality, many of their choices are actually just copycat wines. For wine lovers like us, who thrill in the diversity of tastes among the world’s wines, this situation is distressing. In writing Wine Style, we saw an opportunity to draw attention to the full range of tastes that wine can have, and celebrate wine’s diversity. We also saw an opportunity to drive home the importance of personal taste. Illogical as it is, many wine drinkers turn to the opinions of others—critics, salespeople, waiters—in selecting a wine because their own experience is too limited. They trust that the wine someone else recommends as the “right” wine or the “best” wine will taste good to them. Sometimes, the advice steers them to a wine they like, but often it doesn’t. The person recommending the wine has his or her own taste, as well as a different amount of experience in wine drinking, which his taste reflects. We believe that the only solution to this dilemma is for wine drinkers to become more aware of what they like and don’t like in wine, so that they can communicate their preferences more clearly. A classification of wines according to their taste, rather than by their grape variety or region, provides wine drinkers with a sensible template for exploring their own preferences. Armed with awareness of their personal tastes in wine, wine drinkers can communicate more effectively with sommeliers or wine merchants and get a wine that they will like. We want everyone to enjoy wine as much as we do. We don’t want anyone to get stuck drinking a wine that he or she doesn’t like, just because some expert said that it was a great wine. We don’t want wine drinkers to become pawns of wine marketing hoopla. We want to help wine drinkers know and express their own likes and dislikes, so that they can find wines they truly enjoy. Diversity in wine. Empowerment of wine drinkers. These were our behind-the-scenes motives in writing Wine Style. We hope that by creating a classification of wines according to how they taste we have taken a step toward accomplishing these goals.	WINE STYLE classifies and describes wines by different tastes, or styles – including four for reds and four for whites – to make it easier for you to identity wines you like. You’ll also find the wine regions and grape varieties that commonly fall into each style to help you narrow down your choices, as well as detailed lists featuring suggested wines. Included as well are tips in pairing wine with food and a pull-out wine wheel to help you remember the styles and find new wines to try.