Adecade ago,wine educators Mary Ewing-Mulligan and Ed McCarthy authored “Wine for Dummies,” and if sales are any hint, consumers do indeed feel like dummies when it comes to wine. Now in its third edition, “Wine for Dummies” has sold more than 1 million copies in 22 languages, including Korean and Serbo-Croatian. Five more titles in the “Dummies” series by Ms. Ewing-Mulligan and Mr. McCarthy have followed. With this battery of books, I assumed the couple had written themselves out on the subject of wine.

How wrong I was. Now comes “Wine Style” (Wiley, $24.95), which focuses on an issue too easily buried under a mountain of minutiae. In “Wine Style,”the authors ask: How does wine really taste in your mouth? Then comes the corollary query: How do you locate the wine that tastes best to you?

And never mind what the wine raters say. They’re scoring wine competitively, not matching it to your personal taste.Yet, for lack of other cues, consumers slavishly heed the scores.The authors write of having seen a customer hand a wine magazine’s “Top 100” list to his wineseller. The top four wines were unavailable, so the customer settled for no. 5. Handing over his credit card, he asked, “By the way, is that a white or a red?” The moral is that “quality alone is a silly reason for buying a wine,” the authors say. More critical to your enjoyment is “what it tastes like – a wine’s style.”

Ms. Ewing-Mulligan and Mr. McCarthy have winnowed down many disparate styles of white and red wine into four categories each. Somewhere within them, you’ll find the wine styles that suit you – and those that won’t. The whitewine quartet starts with lightweight or “fresh, unoaked” whites. The most popular example is Italian pinot grigio. One step up are the fuller bodied “earthy whites,” uncomplicated by oakiness. Macon, from southern Burgundy, typifies this style. Then come “aromatic whites,” which lead with their pronounced scent even as they vary in weightiness and range from bone dry to sweet. German Riesling typifies this style. The last category among the whites, comprises “rich, oaky whites,” with “smoky/toasty oak character,” as in the case of much California chardonnay.

The bite of tannin, or lack of it, is the key to the four categories of red wine style. Least formidable are “mild-mannered reds,” low in tannin and not very fruity, as in inexpensive Bordeaux.Wines in this style are the elevator music of winedom.A step up are “soft and fruity reds,” like the Beaujolais Nouveau 2005 to be released later this month.The third group is “fresh, spicy reds” which have a “certain edginess of personality,” like Dolcetto from Italy.At the top are the “powerful reds,” full-bodied, with “concentrated aromas and flavors,” and a “considerable tannic structure.” Most need bottle age to be at their best. Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon is the prototype.

The authors devote a chapter to each style, examining its impact on the palate and food. They don’t shy away from offbeat pairings, like earthy whites with Portuguese kale and potato soup.There’s a handy pair of pullout “wine style wheels,” incorporating the basics of each style. Additional chapters pinpoint rose and sparkling wine styles. The authors offer eclectic lists of recommended wines in all categories, including 328 examples of powerful reds from California, Washington, Australia, France, Italy, and Spain.

Though the authors try to steer clear of winespeak, they accept their limitations.They admit, for example that the concept of depth “is one of the most difficult aspects of a wine to describe because we know we risk sounding ridiculously abstract or metaphysical. Each wine has a shape in your mouth, and depth is an impression of verticality. (Sorry, we tried to warn you!)” So much wine writing seeming to issue from a priestly cast; these authors are refreshing in acknowledging their limitations.

“Wine Style”is an attempt to reorder wine decision making. “It really bothers the heck out of me,” Mr. McCarthy told me, “that so many consumers think only in terms of grape variety – ‘Lemme have a merlot or a chardonnay.'”

Thinking in terms of wine style, on the other hand, opens up the field to wines of many varieties and sources while holding on to the characteristics that please the consumer. “Wine Style” was also written as a reaction to what Ms. Ewing-Mulligan calls “the homogenization of wine styles.”

“A red wine isn’t meaningful now unless it’s big and rich and powerful and dark,” she said. “Likewise, if whites aren’t oaky and full-bodied, they aren’t worth their salt. It’s almost enough to strip our passion for wine!” For anyone afflicted by the same malaise, the wines recommended in “Wine Style” that exist only for pleasure, not for competitive glory, are a restorative.

“Wine Style” is useful reading, but I wouldn’t call it fun. Matt Skinner’s “Thirsty Work” (Running Press, $24.95), on the other hand, is a fun read. A handsome, young, shaggy-haired Australian, Mr. Skinner is sommelier at Fifteen, Jamie Oliver’s London restaurant that trains unemployed teens who’ve had it tough. Lively photos by Chris Terry are at least as prominent as the text, and that’s a good thing, because Mr. Skinner, unlike the authors of “Wine Style,” has little to nothing to new to say – although not for lack of trying. Call me jaded, but do we really need a chapter that begins, “Grapes Rock!”? Or a description of a grape that starts, “If you haven’t heard of Gruner Veltliner, where have you been?” Thank goodness for those appealing photos of wine folk, regions, and clever page design.