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My top 10 wine books

The wineanorak's selection: these represent compulsory purchases for any wine nut. Please note I haven't listed any prices here. This is because the links will take you to the relevant entry in the amazon.co.uk catalogue, which will give the up-to-date price (usually substantially discounted): this may change at short notice.  

artsowine.gif (14026 bytes)The art and science of wine

James Halliday, Hugh Johnson

Mitchell Beazley, London, 1992 (ISBN 1 85732 422 6).


Reviews

wineanorak.com
This is a superb book! Written by two of the world's leading wine writers, one English and one Australian, it provides a scholarly yet readable account of how nature, art and science combine to make the wonderful diversity of wines there are in the world today. Possibly the greatest strength of this book is its balance between the old and the new, technology and tradition and respect for both art and science. Reading this book is a great pleasure, partly because it is beautifully illustrated and laid out, but also because it is well written and highly informative.

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wild.gif (15682 bytes)The Wild Bunch : Great Wines From Small Producers

Patrick Matthews

Paperback - 326 pages (20 October, 1997)
Faber and Faber; ISBN: 057119043X

Reviews
wineanorak.com
In this book Patrick Matthews sets out to explore the 'ureported wine revolution' as he calls it - the increasing number of small producers who are taking wine back to its regional roots, and in contrast to the legion of bland international-style wines that have flooded our supermarket shelves, are producing wines with real personality and flavour, often at quite reasonable prices. It is a laudable aim, and I for one am fully sympathetic to his cause. Matthews has done his research, he's well informed, and many of the chapters make gripping reading. I especially liked one of the later chapters, 'Cutting out the middle men', which gives a fascinating insight into the machinations of the UK wine trade. The book can also be applauded in that it is pioneering: in contrast to many wine publications it doesn't just go over the same old ground. My main criticism, however, is that The wild bunch feels somewhat unfinished: the writing style is at times quite hard work, and the transition from one subect or chapter to the next is jerky, lacking continuity. The copyediting is pretty poor too (see e.g. the footnote on page 11). If the author had just spent more time re-writing and polishing the book, and had the services of a good editor, I think he could have made it into a classic. As it stands, it is worth reading solely on the basis of the excellent concept and fascinating snippets, even if they are not laced together too carefully. A useful additional feature (which unfortunately will cause the book to date faster) is that each chapter comes complete with a list of recommended wines and their suppliers in the UK, which greatly enhances the utility of the book. A useful addition to any winelovers bookshelf

Synopsis
In this survey of what the author calls "the unreported wine revolution", he meets a new wave of growers and producers who are taking wine back to its regional roots and are concerned with authenticity and purity, rather than technology and marketing. Details of where to buy the wines are included.

The author, Patrick Matthews patrick_matthews@compuserve.com, 29 July, 1999
In The Wild Bunch I was looking for a fight. Too often, wine writers seemed to me to steer people towards the kinds of wines that make easy money for supermarkets rather than what I felt were 'real wines' -- handmade rather than industrially produced, free of additives and technical manipulation and with enough concentration to age. Such wines are available if you look for them and they're often surprisingly cheap. Of course it's the wine writers who get called on to review wine books, and I might have expected to be critically pummeled. Instead the experience was of being killed with kindness, and The Wild Bunch actually won the top award of 1998, the Glenfiddich drink book of the year. Generously, they were actually glad to see a colleague being allowed some freedom from the usual wine book formats, and they rather warmed to the book's enthusiasm for the quixotic obsessives who make wine because of passion for an (often) obscure region rather than because it seems financially prudent.

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jrcf.gif (5310 bytes)Confessions of a Wine Lover

Jancis Robinson

Paperback - 384 pages ( 5 November, 1998)
Penguin Books; ISBN: 0140235299

Reviews
wineanorak.com
I have to declare from the outset that from the moment I picked up this book I couldn't put it down again, and I was desperately sorry when I finished it. Jancis shares the story so far of her involvement in the wine trade, progressing from a newsletter editor to her current status as media darling and one of the most universally respected of all wine journalists. It is a beautifully written book, and is likely to prove utterly engrossing for any reader who has been bitten by the wine bug. Jancis scores very highly for getting the balance right between the old and the new. She has a healthy respect for traditions without taking cheap potshots at new developments, and she is a populizer without being a vulgarizer. She proves that it is possible to drink the world's finest without becoming a snob. Best of all she embraces change as a friend rather than treating it as an enemy. As for those who question whether she should be writing her autobiography at all, my response would be that as she has been in the wine trade since the 70s, and she has witnessed a major period of fundamental change over the last 25 years, which she chronicles beautifully. Put this book at the top of your shopping lists.

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jrwc.gif (13998 bytes)Jancis Robinson's Wine Course

Jancis Robinson

Paperback - 320 pages ( 2 September, 1999)
BBC Consumer Publishing (Books); ISBN: 0563551313

Reviews
wineanorak.com
Intended as a companion to the BBC TV series, this book actually has little in common with the programmes, which were Jancis' imaginitive and personal snapshots of the different grape varieties, each episode focusing on a different grape by looking at the region that achieves the best with that variety. Instead, the book is a comprehensive introductory wine course that gives the wine novice a thorough grounding in the basics. If this all sounds a little dry, it isn't—Jancis in print is much as she is on telly; witty, sophisticated and eloquent. However, to anyone who has read around the subject of wine a bit, the book covers a lot of familiar ground. An ideal starting point in your reading about wine.

Book Information
Based on her wealth of knowledge and experience, Jancis Robinson helps you choose the right bottle of wine from the huge range available today. In acomprehensive guide to the wine-producing countries of the world, she captures the flavour of each region's wines and gives her own recommendations for the best names to look out for. To make selection even easier, she describes the distinctive characteristics of hundreds of different grape varieties.

Designed to ensure that you get the most out of every glass, Jancis Robinson's Wine Course covers everything from how to taste and store wine, to deciding what to serve on special occasions, and the best-value bottles to order in restaurants. With an updated vintage guide including the best regions in 1998, choosing your wine has never been more interesting and enjoyable.

"She has an encylclopedic grasp of her subject and doesn't put a foot wrong ... a splendid introduction to the world of wine..." -- Stephen Brook, Decanter Magazine

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jroxfcom.gif (13398 bytes)The Oxford Companion to Wine

Jancis Robinson (Editor)

Hardcover - 848 pages (21 October, 1999)
Oxford University Press; ISBN: 019866236X

Reviews
wineanorak.com
(Review of the first edition.) The ultimate wine reference book. Editor Jancis Robinson has called on a large team of some of the most knowledgable wine experts from around the globe to produce over 3000 alphabetically arranged entries covering all manner of wine-related topics. These entries are nicely laid out in a substantial (and weighty)  book, which is nicely illustrated by a mixture of line drawings, black and white photographs and a few colour plates. Comprehensive and scholarly, yet at the same time readable enough for leisurely browsing. This is a compulsory purchase for anyone who has a serious interest in wine. The big question for those who own a copy of the first edition is whether it is worth splashing out on the newly released second edition, which has been substantially revised

Amazon.co.uk
Wine head girl Jancis Robinson publishes a new edition of her acclaimed Oxford Companion to Wine, coming as close as anybody is likely to in achieving the unachievable goal of a detailed, comprehensive, single-volume work of reference covering the whole world of wines. Just how daunting the task of keeping up with the now practically supersonic pace of development in many areas of the wine industry must be is indicated by the need, only five years after the first edition, to issue another with updated versions of about half the 3,000 entries. It is an awesome achievement. Wine is now a modern, global industry: Jancis Robinson and her team of contributors require--and deliver--expertise in a really astonishing range of disciplines.

Practically every field of human knowledge seems to have something to contribute. From geology and soil chemistry, through forestry and the nature of the different woods used for barrels and the harvesting of cork bark, to the cultivation of the vine, its training and pruning, and the techniques of fermentation; the list extends even into areas of cutting-edge science such as DNA fingerprinting (which finally in 1997 unravelled the mystery of the parentage of the Cabernet Sauvignon grape--no, wild horses wouldn't drag it from me, you'll have to buy the book). This is not to mention the thorough coverage of wine regions and grape varieties, the role of wine through history and its presence in art, the glossary entries. One could go on and on. This is a stupendous feat of organisation. More than that, it is throughout well written and lively, and in possession of a healthy quantity of attitude. --Robin Davidson

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The Wine Atlas

Oz Clarke

Hardcover - 304 pages (12 October, 1995)
Little, Brown & Company; ISBN: 0316146978

Reviews
www.wineanorak.com
A cynic might accuse Oz Clarke and his publishers Websters of blatantly ripping off Hugh Johnson's winning formula. This book follows exactly the format of Johnson's classic 'World atlas of wine', with introductory chapters leading through to an atlas-style survey of the world of wine. However, Websters have given an intruiging twist to their Atlas, by producing a series of beautiful handpainted panoramic vineyard maps of each of the major wine regions, which succeed in bringing to life the various vineyard areas. In addition, Oz Clarke writes well in a lively style, and the layout and accompanying photographs surpass even the high standards set by Johnson's fourth edition. Hugh may have been here first, and both atlases are of a very high standard, but if forced to choose between them, Oz Clarke wins by a whisker.

Harvey Steiman, Wine Spectator, 15 December 1995
'The most exciting worldwide collection of wine maps ever'

William Leith, Mail on Sunday, 17 December 1995
'Clarke has judged it just right... I've never read a wine book like it.'

Roger Voss, Wine Magazine, February 1996
'I admire the energy which comes from every page, the enormous feeling of discovery which Clarke always generates, and which makes him such a fine advocate for wine.'

Book Description
Winner of the Julia Child/IACP Drink Reference award, Oz Clarke's Wine Atlas is unique in its approach to the world of wine. It captures the beauty of the world's great vineyard areas in more than 70 spectacular, handpainted panoramic maps.

Fundamental to the understanding of wine is a sense of place. Knowing which country, which region, which hillside and even which vineyard a wine comes from adds enormously to the pleasure of drinking it. Through its unique cartography and Oz Clarke's lively prose, this revolutionary atlas illustrates and explains the vital connection between the land, the winemaker and his wine and shows how different landscapes as well as the skills of the winemaker contribute to the extraordinary range of flavours found in wine.

Synopsis
Fundamental to the understanding of wine is a sense of place. Knowing which country, which region and which vineyard a wine is from adds enormously to the pleasure of drinking it. This atlas shows where, why and how vines are grown and wines produced around the world, mapping the major wine countries and putting the wine areas in a regional and global context. It continues with thematic maps that highlight factors of soil, climate, economics and society that determine patterns of wine production and consumption.

From the Author
The aim of this Atlas is simply to transport you right into the heart of the world's great vineyard areas - something that no wine book has ever attempted before. This is achieved by providing a grand aerial tour using breathtaking panoramic landscape maps.

Initially I wasn't sure I could face writing this huge book, but as soon as my publisher showed me the prototype panoramic map of Chablis, I knew I had to. This is the only wine book that puts you right in the vineyard - and that's where it all begins, in a way what it's all about. And this instant conversion led to 300,000 words of passionate description of the world of wine I love.

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ocpwb.gif (5473 bytes)Oz Clarke's Pocket Wine Book 2001

Oz Clarke

Hardcover - 297 pages (14 September, 2000)
Little, Brown & Company; ISBN: 0316853992


Reviews

Amazon.co.uk
One of the most useful portable all-round guides to wines, vintages, producers, grapes and wine regions, Oz Clarke's Pocket Wine Book has always been a fount of down-to-earth wisdom and good sense. The 2001 edition comes along and is no exception. Seasoned punters who have gone the course with Oz will know what to expect--trenchant views, clearly expressed; encyclopaedic knowledge lightly worn; and second-hand access to what is said to be one of the finest noses in Europe. For an expert of his standing, Oz Clarke can be very refreshing at times. (On fizz: "I sometimes think it doesn't matter what it tastes like as long as it's cold enough and there's enough of it".) Ease of use is among the great virtues of this little book: there's no point flicking back and forth among the cross references when you're standing in a crowded supermarket wine department. It's simple to find what you want among the 1,600 entries once the single page of How To Use rules has been absorbed. New sections added for 2001 include a fascinating and highly eclectic selection of personal favourites, and a series of Wines of the Year categories--in effect, Top Tips, such as "World Class Wines that Won't Cost the Earth", "Regions to Watch" and so on. Self-recommending, therefore, as always. --Robin Davidson

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parker.gif (9362 bytes)Parker's Wine Buyers Guide

Robert Parker

Hardcover (15 January, 2000)
Dorling Kindersley; ISBN: 0751388238

Review of the third edition, wineanorak.com
Robert Parker is a hugely influential wine writer famous for his 100 point scale for assessing wines. You can guarantee that if Parker gives a good score to a previously little-known wine it will sell out rapidly and prices will subsequently sky rocket. Some love him but others object to the way one individual's taste can have such a profound effect on the world of wine. None the less, the guide makes fascinating reading and the man is concerned with searching out good value wines as well as describing wines that few will ever get to taste. Whatever people think of his powerful influence on the wine world, he is undoubtedly a competent and hard-working individual who has earned his fame and fortune. One quibble I have with the guide is a purely personal one—he devotes very little space to Australian wines, and none to the wines of South Africa. Perhaps this will change with Australian wines beginning to break through into the US marketplace. Take his scores with a pinch of salt and accept that he can get it wrong occasionally, and Parker's guide deserves a place on your bookshelf.

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swets.gif (16568 bytes)The New Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia

Tom Stevenson

Hardcover - 600 pages ( 9 October, 1997)
Dorling Kindersley; ISBN: 0751303135

Reviews
Amazon.co.uk
Tom Stevenson's new edition of his Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia is a formidable achievement. Five years in the preparation (Stevenson had planned for three but found himself overwhelmed by the incredible changes a decade had brought to the world of wine), it is a real master work, putting Stevenson up there among the gurus--Jancis Robinson, Oz Clarke, Hugh Johnson. Genuinely encyclopedic in scope and organisation, this is a publication that delivers what it promises: comprehensive information about all aspects of wine, in a beautifully clear structure and layout. It's wonderfully illustrated, too, with many evocative pictures of vineyards and wineries around the world.

As so often with the current crop of all-encompassing blockbuster wine books, the reader is likely to end up bemused by the sheer quantity of information, and the range of disciplines, that the modern wine writer must master. Not so very long ago a few elegant cellar and tasting notes might suffice. These days, the wine writer's skills must encompass geology, geography and soil chemistry; the myriad grape varieties and the best way to train, prune and harvest each of them in different climates; the qualities of the different types of oak used for barrels--French against American against Russian. And that's all before you even start making the wine, let alone tasting it. Tom Stevenson has all this at his fingertips. As a reliable guide for the novice, and an unfailingly informative companion for the connoisseur, The New Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia will be hard to beat. --Robin Davidson

Synopsis
Using maps, photographs and charts of individual wines, this encyclopaedia guides the reader around the complex world of wine production whilst advising on the best wines and vintages. New information includes a "Best Wines" chart and a section on recognizing faults in wine.

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hjatlas.gif (17694 bytes)The World Atlas of Wine

Hugh Johnson

Hardcover - 320 pages ( 8 September, 1994)
Mitchell Beazley; ISBN: 1857322681

 

Reviews
www.wineanorak.com

The fourth edition of a classic, first published in 1971. The book begins by giving some perspective, tracing the history of wine and following through with chapters on the vine, designing a vineyard, terroir, grape varieties, weather, making wine, wine tasting and serving wine. The rest (and great majority) of the book is concerned with putting wine firmly in its geographical context, largely by means of maps of all the main wine regions across the globe (and many of the minor ones too). Superbly designed and conceived, nicely illustrated and beautifully written, it is hard to overestimate how significant an achievement this book is. Hugh Johnson may have been around for ever, but his writing comes across as intelligent and fresh, and his perspective combines a respect for tradition with a balanced acceptance of modern trends and developments. At his best when dealing with potentially controversial issues, he always seems to give a fair and accurate precis of the issues involved. Although I've classed this book as a reference work, it makes pleasurable browsing, and is another 'must buy' for any self-respecting wine nut.

Synopsis
An introduction and companion to wine history, appreciation and identification. This edition takes account of changes in the wine world. New and revised maps have been added to the region-by-region gazetteer, artwork and illustrations have been replaced, and the text has been rewritten.

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