Category: Book Review

Today I’ll be hosting author Jason Murray Arnold on my blog. His debut book, “A Beginner’s Guide To Wine” published in June 2020 is available at Amazon.com.

Me: What inspired you to start writing The Beginner’s Guide to Wine?

Jason: I think, more than anything, it had to do with the fact that while I was learning to appreciate wine, I just couldn’t find a simple guide to start. I had to learn everything the hard way, by getting out there and asking questions. Sure, there are courses on wine, but they aren’t very approachable to the beginner. Too often, they contain information that you can’t begin to grasp while just getting started. The language of the wine world can seem like an entirely different language at first. I read that there are thousands of words used to describe the taste of wine. That can be overwhelming to the beginner. So, I’ve tried to make this book the answer to that problem. How can you understand wine when you don’t have years of learning and lack the experience that trying a few hundred wines brings?

During my career, I’ve had the opportunity to travel and try so many different wines. But the one thing I’ve learned when discussing wine with the people I’ve met along the way is that many of them felt exactly how I did when I began. They find even the basics of wine difficult to understand. I mean with all the fancy words, it’s no wonder that’s true. With so many different varieties of wine and so many different wine growing regions, it can be confusing. They find it difficult to understand what makes one red so drastically different from another. So I tried to explain these things, as easily as I could. The book is my attempt at making the world of wine understandable to the average person. My hope is that by the end of the book, the reader will appreciate everything that goes into making fine wine.

Me: Can you share a snippet that isn’t in the blurb or excerpt?

Jason: Oh, what to share? It’s hard to share just one thing. But I think I’ll share a bit an excerpt from my chapter on American wine. It’s about wines made in Missouri, which is something that very few people, even in the wine world, know much about. But it’s an area that grows a variety of grapes that you, otherwise, rarely see made into wines, which makes it special.

“Missouri is perhaps most famous for producing wine in the corridor known as the Missouri Rhineland. This winegrowing region was founded by German immigrants in the early to mid-nineteenth century. By the 1880s, Missouri was the country’s top wine-growing region. It was the Napa Valley of its day.

Today the state benefits from Missouri’s long summers and thin rocky Ozark soil. Missouri is even known as the cave state for its many underground caverns. There, wineries often utilize the natural cellars. Missouri’s most prominent variety of wine is the state grape, the Norton. But it also produces plenty of sweet wine with native grapes, such as the Concord. Most vineyards also plant French-American hybrids, such as Vignoles and Chardonel.”

Purchase here: Amazon.com 

Me: When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

Jason: I don’t think I ever planned to be a writer. In my professional life, I’m an accountant. I have both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in business. But, I’ve always been passionate about wine. It’s one of my favourite things in life. Wine is something that I appreciate like one would appreciate art. You can describe a particular wine in so many different ways. I suppose you could say each bottle is its own work of art. For me, writing this book was a labor of love. I wanted to share what I’ve learned with others.

Me: What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?

Jason: For me, most difficult part was deciding what information to include and what to exclude. Some things certainly seemed vital, but others more trivial. The Beginner’s Guide to Wine is supposed to be an introduction to wine, and if not for having an editor to reign me back in,  I could have gone on and on about all the finer details and nuances of winemaking. The final work, I hope, provides enough information to answer all questions a newbie would have without overreaching. One of the motivations for writing this book is to encourage the reader explore wine even further. I don’t want them to stop here.

Me: What is the most surprising thing you discovered while writing your book?

Jason: When I began this book, I had a pretty good grasp of the major wine grapes and the regions. I could describe the difference between all of them. But I really didn’t know a lot about the history of wine. That took research. From the famous story of Jesus turning water into wine, I knew that wine was around at least as early as Rome. But, I discovered, that it actually goes back thousands of years before that. That surprised me.

Me: Who is your favourite author and why?

Jason: I’d have to say my favourite author was Francis Scott Fizgerald. Not because he struggled with alcoholism, writing about a probation era in The Great Gatsby, but because of his incredible depictions of the Jazz Age. His work always seemed to me like the work of a romantic and the themes of youth, despair, and age resonate with us all. He’s a classic American author that deserves all the acclaim he’s received.

Me: What books or authors have most influenced your own writing?

Jason: There is a 1971 book by Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson called The World Atlas of Wine. I’d say that it was one of the first essential works of literature on wine. They revised it last year and it contains some of the most descriptions of wine and the regions in which it has grown.

Me: Writing can be an emotionally draining and stressful pursuit. Any tips for aspiring writers?

Jason: Well, if you actually want to finish the book, you have to just sit down and write it. You have to keep writing it. Too many distractions and too much planning can both kill your ability to actually get anything done. Words have to hit paper or you’ll never finish. But, I think that the most important thing is to write about something you’re interested in. If you’re not passionate about what you’re writing, it’ll be hard to find the motivation to finish.

Me: If you had to describe yourself in three words, what would they be?

Jason: Just three words? Methodical, meticulous, and sophisticated.

Me: Are you working on anything at the present you would like to share with your readers about?

Jason: Well, I’m going to start blogging about wine. Before this book, I really didn’t write much. But now, I don’t want to stop. I want to continue sharing knowledge about wine and diving deeper into specific topics. This book is just an introduction. Maybe I’ll write a book specific to Missouri wine. It’s an underrated wine region. And it’s the next obvious, move for me. I mean, that’s where I live and work. There are some great vineyards in my backyard.

You can contact Jason at jasonmurrayarnold@gmail.com or visit him at https://jasonmarnold.com/.

About the Book

This short book will serve as a guide to help you understand the basic types of wine and common terminology so that you can go from sounding like a beginner to a more refined individual. It will not make you an expert and certainly not an oenophile. That is something that requires years of tasting and practice. Yet, even the experts had to start somewhere. In this book, we will start with the basics, including the answer to that oh so important question, “what is wine?”

The beginner’s guide to wine is available in paperback and Kindle editions from Amazon.com

 

 

About the Author

Jason Arnold is a wine connoisseur, art collector, and accountant. A frequent traveler, he can be found scuba diving, skiing, and exploring the great outdoors while in search of finest wines. He enjoys pairing unique wines with exotic cuisine and finds the vine to one God’s gifts to humanity.