Wine book reviews
The Wine Opus (Opus Vino) 

(Dorling Kindersley, 2010 - in the USA this is published as Opus Vino)

A huge book, written by a team of the wine world's rising stars, with 4000 producer profiles and information on key wine regions globally.

Just when we thought serious consumer publishers had forgotten about wine, here comes this significant new reference work on the leading wineries worldwide. It's a heavy old doorstop of a book, but it needs to be, in order to be properly comprehensive. The world of wine is big these days.

I must declare an interest here: I was one of the writers selected by editor Jim Gordon to contribute. My sections are those on Portugal, Australia and New Zealand, and - like the other authors - I've tried to include producers who are rising stars, as well as the more established classics.

There's nothing terribly novel about the format: the book travels the wine world. Each country and major region has an introduction, with maps, and then there are short pen portraits of the key producers. Production and design is first-rate: the information is very attractively laid out.

What is novel about the book, though, is that the authors know their regions, and the book has a very contemporary, up to date feel (this is helped by the fact that the production process was very short - I only submitted my final copy in late spring). It's written to be accessible to all, and I've already found the sections written by others to be really useful where I have consulted them. Gordon's policy of largely picking younger, 'emerging' writers seems to have paid off, and I think this book will be a great success.

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