Mark Phillips' New Wine Book Can Be Summed Up in Two Words. Ice Cube

TV Wine Personality Mark Phillips Still in Boat-Rocking Business with New Edition of Swallow This, Available May 1

Mark Phillips has been called a lot of things, mostly by fellow wine critics, but “boring” isn’t one of them. “Traditionalist.” “Neocon.” Not those either.

 The best way to describe the host of Enjoying Wine with Mark Phillips and the upcoming, fully revised and updated edition of the book Swallow This: A Progressive Approach to Wine is “ice cube.” (Yes. Go ahead and put it in your wine.)

That’s “the Approach” in a two-word nutshell. Forget what you’ve heard before about wine. You’re not a rube for liking the wine you do, or the way you like it. In fact, a lot of critics who say different don’t know what they’re talking about. It’s empowering. And it’s a message that is more likely to increase your enjoyment of wine than the prim alternative.

In the book, Mark spends some time with wine basics, how it’s made, his tasting technique (don’t spit), etc. and then gives some advice on such common problems as when to microwave wine, why it’s silly to buy highly rated wine, what wine improves your sex life, wine choices for doing laundry, walking the dog, etc., how to blend wine at home to make it taste better, what one ingredient makes all wine and food matches work, and yes, the benefit of adding ice cubes to wine.