By the Book

Anyone who loves wines is likely to turn to books about wine for information and for pleasure. Wine lovers remain a very literate group, and books are still the best source of wine knowledge. The popular press has responded to growing interest with wine columns in virtually every newspaper and magazine. Wine magazines have even established themselves so thoroughly that some consumers are afraid to act without their advice. All the periodical materials seems to have the “this just in” disease, a disease which although not fatal to a publication, poisons its content. The magazines have to have a hot new story, they can’t put out an edition that admits “nothing much has changed since last week”. Books are different, more thorough, less driven by short-term fads, and (at least in the case of the best of them) more literate.

Hugh Johnson’s “World Atlas of Wine” is the most organized, best written, and most artful book about wine. Now in its fifth edition, the world atlas has been wine’s finest learning tool for almost 30 years. Introductory chapters provide an overview of winemaking and the culture of wine. Mr. Johnson’s love and respect for wine are balanced by a practical sense of what makes the wine trade click. Reading the first 50 pages of this book should give a beginner a comforting insight into the enjoyment of wine. Experts too, will benefit from reminders of just why wine is so wonderful and so worthy of study. The bulk of the atlas is just what the name implies, a gathering of maps of wine regions. Wine and place of origin have had a strong link since the Greek age. No important wine exists that does not owe something of its style and quality to the place it is grown. The maps in this book are a true wonder. Every important wine region is included (the current edition has notably expanded coverage of "new world" vineyards). In the case of the great wine regions of the world, increasingly specific maps take the reader to the level of single vineyards and estates. Each map is accompanied by succinct, well-written text about the wines from depicted regions. One beauty of all this is that the reader can dip into the book at any point and read interesting text with illustrative maps as an aid. The book really is a joy for casual reading. On the other hand, a reader with a particular wine in hand can use the index and gazetteer to find the most descriptive portion of the book. This is the combination of great maps and the best-written text of any wine book.

“The Oxford Companion to Wine” edited by Jancis Robinson appeared in 1994 and is already in an enormously successful second edition. This book is the best encyclopedic wine reference. Revised in 1999, the companion contains over 3,400 entries written by an impressive assemblage of wine experts. If you are hooked on wine, you will enjoy just dipping into this book and reading random articles. However, there is no doubt about it, the main use of the Oxford Companion is in looking up information about wine regions, wine terms, wine history, and in short, any wine topic. The writing in this book is not all of a piece (as in Hugh Johnson’s Atlas), but the articles are variously written by experts. Remarkably, the whole thing is up to date on changes in law and local custom. You can even look up the term "Supertuscan". It is equally possible to look up the term "malolactic fermentation", the French region of Beaujolais, the grape Grignolino, or the history of wine in Roman times. Any term not listed alphabetically in the text is likely to be found with just a little logic on the part of the reader. As with any encyclopedic book, an enthusiast can follow a trail from one entry to the next almost without end.

There are now a number of “pocket guides” to wines of various regions. The British publisher, Mitchell Beazley, has an excellent series edited by various experts for various regions. In each case the information is more detailed than a more general work can provide. These books also make an effort to list major suppliers and independent producers of special merit. Blessedly they forgo a formal rating system. Hugh Johnson also edits the “Pocket Wine Book” which packs an incredible amount of information into a truly pocket-sized edition. The latest version bears the improbable vintage of 2005.

Drink the wines and read the books. It is immensely more fun to read about what you enjoy than to search for what you read about!

12/04

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