Franklin Parker's Wine Guide WNG-400 User manual

Wine Guide
P ARKER ’ S
ELECTRONIC
P ARKER ’ S

Electronic Publishers

Electronic Publishers
Mt. Holly, NJ 08060 USER’S MANUAL
WNG-400

1
About this
Wine Guide
Introduction
This wine guide is both an educational and a
wine buying manual; it is not an encyclopedic
listing of wine producers and growers. It is in-
tended to make you a more formidable, more
confident wine buyer by providing you suffi-
cient insider’s information to permit the wisest
possible choice when a wine-buying decision
must be made.
The finest producers and growers of the
world’s greatest viticultural regions are evalu-
ated, as well as most of the current and up-
coming releases in the marketplace. If you
cannot find a specific vintage of a highly re-
garded wine, you still have at your fingertips a
wealth of information and evaluations con-
cerning the best producers for each viticultural
area.
At the heart of this book is an impartial and
comprehensive consumer’s guide to the
world’s finest, most consistent producers, and
you should be confident in the knowledge that
you will rarely make a mistake (unless, of
course, the vintage is absolutely dreadful) if
you go with a producer judged “outstanding”
or “excellent.” (From Parker’s Wine Buyer’s
Guide , 3rd ed.)

2
Contents
Key Guide Function Keys.....................................4
Other Keys..........................................5
Direction Keys ....................................5
Installing the Batteries........................6
Viewing a Demonstration ...................6
Disabling the Demonstration..............7
Setting the Shutoff Time.....................7
Using the Menus ................................8
Tips for Beginners ..............................9
Searching by Name............................10
Searching by Criteria..........................11
Understanding Wine Ratings .............12
Highlighting Words to Search ............13
Viewing Viticultural Information..........14
Viewing Maps .....................................15
Another Way to View Maps ................15
Rating General Vintages ....................16
Getting
Started
Locating
Wines
Using
Other Topics

3
Finding Drinkable Years .....................17
Finding a Single Drinkable Year.........17
Viewing Other Topics..........................18
Advanced Tips....................................19
Specifications .....................................20
Product Care ......................................20
FCC Notice .........................................20
Copyrights, Patents, and ISBN .........20
Limited Warranty ................................21
Index...................................................22
Some screen shots in this User’s Manual
may vary slightly from what you see on
screen. These variations do not mean
that your electronic reference is malfunc-
tioning.
About the
Illustrations
Contents
Appendixes

4
Key Guide
Function Keys
Shows a help message.
Shows the previous menu.
Shows the Wines menu.
Shows the Glossary menu.
Shows the Regions menu.
Shows the Maps menu.
Clears your search.
Turns the product on or off.
Makes an entry.
CLEAR
HELP
MENU
GLOSS
WINES
RGNS
MAPS
ON/OFF
ENTER
You can turn this product off at any time.
When you turn the product on again, you
return to the last screen you viewed.
Resuming
Where You
Left Off

5
Key Guide
Direction Keys
BACK
PREV
NEXT
SHIFT NEXT
PREV
+
✻
SPACE
SHIFT +
SHIFT + Q ...
Backs up a step or erases a letter.
Move in the indicated direction.
Shows the text of the next or previous
menu item. At menus, lightens or dark-
ens the screen contrast.
Page up or down.
Pages down.
Zoom up or down.
Shifts top row of keys to type numbers.
Shows a complete menu item in text or
types a period.
Accents a typed letter.
Types an apostrophe.
Other Keys
.
ACNT
’
✻ Hold SHIFT while pressing the other key.

6
This product requires two CR2032, 3-volt
batteries. If the batteries are not already
installed, here is how to install them.
1. Turn the product over.
2. Place your thumbs on the arrow.
3. Slide the battery cover off.
4. Install the batteries with their plus
signs facing you.
5. Replace the battery cover.
The first time you use this product, a brief
demonstration appears automatically. You
may also want to adjust the screen con-
trast. NOTE: You can adjust the contrast
only when menus are in view.
1. Press ON/OFF.
2. Press CLEAR to stop the demo.
The entry screen appears.
3. Press MENU and then press NEXT
or PREV to adjust the screen con-
trast.
Installing
the Batteries
Getting Started
Viewing a
Demonstration

7
You probably do not want to view the
demonstration every time you turn this
product on. Here is how to disable it.
1. If not at the menus, press MENU.
2. Press the arrow keys to highlight
the Other menu.
3. Highlight Disable Demo .
4. Press ENTER.
The shutoff time is how long the product
will stay on if you forget to turn it off.
1. Highlight
Set Shutoff on the Other
menu.
2. Press ENTER to select it.
3. Highlight a time.
4. Press ENTER.
Getting Started
Setting the
Shutoff Time
Disabling the
Demonstration

8
Getting Started
Using
the Menus Most functions in this wine guide are acti-
vated by using menus. Here is how to
navigate the menus.
1. If not at the menus, press MENU.
2. Press the arrow keys to highlight
the menu at the far left.
3. Hold SHIFT and press or to
zoom to the bottom or top of the
menu.
4. Hold SHIFT and press NEXT or
PREV to page down or up.
5. Start typing a word.
As you type, menu items are high-
lighted. NOTE: You do not need to
type capital letters or spaces. To
erase a letter, press BACK.
6. Press ENTER to view a highlighted
item.
7. Press CLEAR when done.

9
Getting Started
Tips for
Beginners ✓The flashing arrows at the right of the
screen show which arrow keys you
can press to view more.
✓At virtually any screen, you can view a
help message by pressing HELP. To
read the message, use the direction
keys. To exit help, press BACK.
You can also read an overview of the
main functions and keys by selecting
Tutorial from the Other menu.
✓Some wine names and other menu
items are followed by ellipses because
they are too long to fit on one line.
At any highlighted menu item, press
.
to view the complete item.

10
Locating Wines
Finding a wine is easy. Simply type its
producer, winery, or name. Usually you
need to type only a few letters to highlight
what you want.
1. Press WINES.
Or select
Wines from the Topics menu.
2. Press CLEAR.
3. Type the name of a winery (e.g., fetzer ).
To erase a letter, press BACK.
4. Press ENTER twice.
5. Select a wine type.
6. Select a year.
7. Press or SPACE to read.
8. Press CLEAR when done.
Searching
by Name

11
Locating Wines
Searching by
Criteria You can locate wines by their variety,
country, vintage, price range, and other
criteria. You can even locate wines that fit
more than one criteria. In this example, we
will find highly rated wines priced under
$10.
1. Press WINES.
2. Select
Price Range from Locate .
3. Press ENTER to select (Under $10) .
A check marks your selection.
4. Press BACK to go back to the Locate
menu.
The bullet shows that Price Range is
selected.
5. Select Rating Range from Locate .

12
Locating Wines
6. Select
90+ as the rating range.
The asterisks show that no wines
priced under $10 are rated 95+ or 100.
7. Press to view the matching items.
You can select more criteria now by
first pressing .
8. Select a producer and then a wine.
9. Press BACK repeatedly to back up.
The wine ratings in this guide are those
of Robert M. Parker, Jr., the author of
Parker’s Wine Buyer’s Guide .
He writes that a rating of 90-100 is the
equivalent of an A in school, “given for
outstanding or special effort.” Ratings of
80-89 equal a B: “Many of the wines that
fall into this range are great values.” 70-
79 represents a C, or average mark. Be-
low 70 is a D or F, “the sign of an
unbalanced, flawed, or terribly dull or di-
luted wine.”
Understand-
ing Wine
Ratings

13
Locating Wines
Highlighting
Words to
Search
When reading wine descriptions or other
topics, you can highlight varieties, terms,
and certain other words and then search for
other occurrences of them in this guide.
1. Press WINES.
2. Press ENTER twice to view the
description of the first listed wine.
3. Press SPACE to page down.
4. Press ENTER to start the highlight.
5. Press repeatedly to highlight Pinot .
6. Press ENTER to search for the word.
A list of producers of Pinot wines
appears.
7. Select a producer or press BACK
repeatedly to go back.

14
Viewing
Viticultural
Information
Using Other Topics
You can read about quality consider-
ations, buying strategies, and other sub-
jects regarding various wine-producing
areas around the world.
1. Press RGNS or select
Viticultural
Information from Topics .
2. Select an area (e.g., Alsace ).
3. Select a subject (e.g., Introduction ).
4. Press or SPACE to move down.
5. Press BACK repeatedly to back up.

15
Using Other Topics
This wine guide includes detailed maps
of important wine-producing areas and
growing regions.
1. Press MAPS.
2. Select a country (e.g.,
France ).
3. Select an area (e.g., Alsace,
Northern ).
4. Press SPACE to page down.
5. Press BACK repeatedly to back up.
Viewing
Maps
You can also find maps by selecting
Viticultural Information from the Topics
menu, selecting an area, and then select-
ing a map.
Another Way
to View Maps

16
Rating
General
Vintages
Using Other Topics
You can find general vintage ratings for
selected growing regions. NOTE: Accord-
ing to Robert Parker, Jr., these ratings
should be regarded as very general with
many exceptions.
1. Select
General Vintage Guide from
Topics .
2. Select an area (e.g., Bordeaux ).
3. Select a growing region (e.g.,
Graves ).
4. Select a vintage (e.g., 1970 ).
5. Press BACK repeatedly to back up.

17
Using Other Topics
Finding
Drinkable
Years
You can find the best years in which to
drink Bordeaux, California Cabernet Sau-
vignon, Red Burgundy, and Rhone Valley
wines by various producers and of vari-
ous vintages.
1. Select
Drinkable Years from Topics .
2. Select a variety (e.g., Bordeaux ).
3. Select a producer (e.g., Ausone ).
4. Select a vintage (e.g., 1975 ).
5. Press BACK repeatedly to back up.
To find wines that are drinkable in a spe-
cific year, first select
Drinkable Years
from Topics . Next, select Drinkable from
Locate . Then select a year, press , and
follow Steps 2-5 above.
Finding a
Single Drink-
able Year

18
Using Other Topics
Viewing
Other Topics You can become a true oenophile (i.e.,
wine connoisseur) by reading the other
topics in this guide. Select them from the
Topics menu and then select their menu
items. Here are brief descriptions.
Glossary explains wine tasting terms
from
acetic to woody .
How To... tells you how to buy, serve, and
store wine, as well as providing other use-
ful information.
Cellaring a decade or more recom-
mends wines by area and variety worth
storing for ten years or more.

19
Using Other Topics
✓Deselecting a Subtopic
You know a menu item is selected
when a check mark appears next to it.
To deselect an item, press ENTER
when the checked item is highlighted.
✓Typing Numbers
To type numbers, hold SHIFT and press
a key on the top row of letters (Q-P).
✓Selecting a Topic
You can select some topics, such as
the Glossary, either by pressing its
function key (GLOSS) or by selecting it
from the Topics menu (
Glossary ).
✓Viewing the Next or Previous Item
When a wine description or other topic
is in view, press NEXT to view the next
description or item or PREV to view
the previous one.
Advanced
Tips