A reviewer of my wine writing has said that I provide a wealth of wine information with a delightful sense of humor.

I'm flattered.

I have been enjoying wine responsibly (emphasize "responsibly") now for many years on a fairly steady basis. I have drunk good wine, excellent wine, super-premium wine, homemade wine, boutique wine, bad wine, indifferent wine, sparkling wine, fortified wine, domestic, imported, red, white, rose wine. I have drunk it from most of the wine regions of the world, before, with and after dinner, without food and, on a few occasions, for breakfast.

I have concluded that next to sex, sin and social security more nonsense has been written and talked about wine than perhaps any other line of human endeavor. I think that anyone who has found wines that are "lumbering," "oafish," "chic", "obtuse," "shapely," or any number of similar terms simply isn't communicating anything but nonsense.

This is my effort to set the record straight. I start with the simple belief that a wine vocabulary needs (but certainly isn't limited to) only three words: "good" and "not good." Find one that's "good" judged by your personal taste and enjoy a lifetime of pure wine pleasure.

Subjects covered include a practical definition of just what wine is, some of the rules of wine, classifications of wine, wine tasting, tasting terms, wine pronunciation, cooking with wine, winery tours, wine in restaurants, and matching wine and food. It suggests and describes several wines an interested person might try.