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 Below are my top tips for books that would be an ideal way to spend your Christmas book tokens. The books are available at a discounted price from Amazon UK. |
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home book reviews |
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January 2007's book ideas Tom Cannavan, 01/07
There are links to Amazon UK against each title. Buying a book from Amazon using these links earns wine-pages a small commission. Amazon currently has free delivery on all orders totalling £15 or more. 
The Wine Report 2007Editor: Tom Stevenson ISBN: 1405316691 Publisher: Dorling Kindersley Price: £9.99 buy at Amazon for £6.59 I have to declare an interest here as I contribute to this annual guide. Nevertheless, I am thrilled to be involved with the most innovative and for me, the best, of the annual wine guides for the serious wine lover. Compiled by over 40 authors as a round up of news and opinion on their specialist regions, this authoritative book packs a mass of expert information into a massive 672 pages. Many commentators regard it as the indispensable guide, complete with vintage guides, recommended wines, and the sort of in-depth information on all the world's wine regions that is available nowhere else that I know of. Each chapter also includes the expert's top 10s for Best Quality, Fastest Improving and Best Value producer. Astonishing value, and yes, indispensable. 
The Oxford Companion to Wine 3rd EditionEditors: Jancis Robinson ISBN: 0198609906 Publisher: Oxford University Press Price: £40.00 buy at Amazon for £23.98 (free delivery) The extensive updates (hundreds of brand new entries and all remaining text completely revised) must have been a massive task for Jancis Robinson and her expert team of contributors. This is an absolute bible for the serious wine enthusiast. More than 4,000 entries cover every aspect of wine, from history and evolution, to viticulture, to explanations of the most obscure technical wine terms. Everything is imbued with a tremendous sense of authority but carries a lightness of touch that bears testimony to Robinson's vast knowledge and ability to distil and present complex subjects clearly and concisely. The book is fully illustrated with maps, technical diagrams and photographs. It is always digestible, despite the minute detail which some subjects deserve, and are given. Essential. 
The World's Greatest WinesAuthors: Michel Bettane and Thierry Desseauve ISBN: 1584795573 Publisher: Stewart, Tabori & Chang Price: £24.95 buy at Amazon for £16.46 (free delivery) "Lavish", is descriptor for any new book (on any subject) that can be bright red warning flag. Often it indicates a book where the quality of glossy paper, even glossier photography, and heavyweight binding cannot compensate for inadequacies in the content. But to be fair on the hugely influential authors of this book, world authorities Bettane and Desseauve, although The World's Greatest Wines is a more coffee table browser than serious reference tome. In it, the authors choose their favourite wines from amongst the world's elite estates, and tell us something about the place, people and wines. 600 elegant pages and 170 colour plates. It is not comprehensive, and you may well argue with the choices they have made, but it is a most enjoyable book to flick through at one's leisure. 
Need to Know? WineAuthor: Julie Arkell ISBN: 000720468X Publisher: Collins Price: £9.99 buy at Amazon for £6.59
Julie Arkell is a hugely enthusiastic communicator on wine, and here she brings her unstuffy, approachable style to bear in a book for Collins' 'Need to Know?' series.
This is a practical guide to wine, not dealing with the esoteric, and aimed more at the newer enthusiast with a thirst for learning about how wine is made, how to recognise
a wine's aromas and flavours, how to taste, wine and food matching and so on. This sort of book has been done a thousand times before of course, but Julie's style and
the user-friendly layout and illustrations of this series make this one of the better attempts at the genre.
This US book is regarded as a classic in the States, and is one of the all-time best-selling wine books. This new edition is being made available in the UK for the first time,
and is a refreshing and welcome addition to the wine bookshelves. Zraly is a sommelier who created one of the world's best wine lists and a whole business around it, at
the Windows on the World restaurant, destroyed in the tragedy of the World Trades Centre collapse in New York. The book, a thorough course on understanding and appreciating wine,
may be slightly US-centric in some of its material, but it is a terrific and successful wine course by any measure. Zraly peppers each page with nuggets of anecdote, information and
amusing facts that not only make the book a breeze to work through, but cleverly instil lots of knowledge as you do so.
Slugging it out each year with the Old Master, Hugh Johnson, Oz's version of the annual Pocket Wine Book wins on approachability, illustrations and simplicity of presentation
(basically a very long A-Z of wines, regions, producers, etc. plus short reference chapters) whilst the Johnson version probably still pips it to the post on the sheer erudition and
concise, fact-packed nature of its content. Both books are actually put together by teams of researchers and contributors, yet Clarke's enthusiastic, passionate and fun style
comes through in his book, just as clearly as Johnson's wry humour and perceptive analysis does in his. Which you choose will largely depend on who's style you prefer, and whether
or not the extra readability of Clarke is worth more than the density of information in Johnson.
Sub-titled 'The History of Wine Drinking in Britain', I enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would, fearing initially that it would be bone-dry in style. Instead,
author Jon Hurley (who works in the wine trade but who's previous book was on the history of bare-knuckle fighting) has written a very thorough and comprehensive
history book, but has peppered his text with irreverent tales of dirty goings on in the wine trade, frauds and back-firing marketing ploys, that keeps it engaging and easy
to read. There are nicely done illustrations, from paintings and photographs to labels and advertising materials that bring many of the points in his timeline to life.
The Kladstrups also wrote 'Wine and War' a tale I really enjoyed that looked at how winemaking survived the Second World War. This book follows in a
broadly similar vein, being sub-titled 'How the World's Most Glamorous Wine Triumphed Over War and Hard Times'. Here, the timescale spans from Attila the Hun up to
1945 again, meeting as it does notable characters who influenced, or were noticeable champions, for Champagne, from Dom Pérignon to Louis XIV of France,
to Napoleon Bonaparte. This is a worthwhile follow-up to Wine and War, though perhaps with a slightly narrower appeal.
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Windows on the World Wine Course
Pocket Wine Book 2007
Pocket Wine Book 2007
A Matter of Taste
Champagne
