If Wine Could Talk – Kara Joseph

Published By: Indigo Rivers
Pages: 224
Date Released: 21/09/2021

Unlike most soon-to-be college graduates, Kara Joseph found something in wine she couldn’t quite explain. It had nothing to do with the penny wise nights down at the local pub or the off campus mixers. It called to her. It brought people together. The mystery and unshakeable feeling that it was more than just a drink led her on a journey toward becoming a sommelier, taking on Napa Valley and New York City, and finding the answers in wine she desperately yearned to discover. Pursuing wine as her passion brought Kara adventures, struggles, and an insatiable desire to understand wine to the core.

Thanks to Indigo Rivers for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.

I didn’t know this was a non-fiction memoir x wine guide. If I’m honest, when I received my advanced copy of it, I assumed it was a gentle chick-lit type book about a woman her 30s who lives in London and depends too much on wine whilst she watches her contemporaries settle down in their careers and love lives. So this came as a complete surprise.

Kara Joseph writes with such passion that a glass of wine becomes more than a glass of wine. I do like the odd white or rose wine (I find red too rich), but I’m definitely more of a gin girl. Having said that, I will appreciate any wine I drink now more than “just” having a glass.

I’ll be honest, the extent of my wine knowledge is being able to identify a red, white or rose – although someone said you can now get orange or blue wines which slightly disturbs me.

This book is informative and technical but approachable; even someone with zero knowledge of wine is able to follow Kara on her journey. The integration of her personal story gives a human relatable side to the technical wine talk.

What I did find amusing though, was when I told my mother I was reading a book about wine, she looked at me quizzically and said “can’t you just drink the wine?”