This new collection by the acclaimed novelist-and, according to Salon, “the best wine writer in America”-is generous and far-reaching, deeply knowledgeable and often hilarious.

For more than a decade, Jay McInerney’s vinous essays, today featured in The Wall structure Street Journal, have already been praised by restaurateurs (“Filled with small programs and surprising and unique flavors, educational and delicious at the same time” -Mario about The Juice: Vinous Veritas Batali), by esteemed critics (“Amazing, witty, comical, and frequently shamelessly candid and provocative” -Robert M. Parker Jr.), and by the press (“His wine judgments are sound, his anecdotes witty, and his literary references impeccable” -The NY Times).

Here McInerney provides a master course in the nearly infinite types of wine as well as the people and areas that produce it all the world over, from the historical past towards the often complicated present. From such legendary châteaus as Margaux and Latour and Palmer to Australia and New Zealand and South Africa, to brand-new contenders in Santa Rita Hills and Paso Robles, we learn about terroir and biodynamic viticulture, what Champagnes are inexpensive (or decidedly not), even what to drink over thirty-seven programs at Ferran Adrià’s El Bulli-in all, an array of grapes and wines styles that is extensive and thirst inducing. And conspicuous throughout is usually McInerney’s trademark flair and expertise, which in 2006 prompted the James Beard Foundation to grant him the MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award.