Christmas book ideas

Tom Cannavan, 12/09

Inevitably there's a whole flood of wine-related books hitting the shelves in November and December to tap into the lucrative Christmas market. Here's a run-down on some that have landed on my desk and which have provided lots of useful reading material on a recent spate of long-haul flights! There's a link to Amazon UK against each title. Buying a book using these links earns wine-pages a small commission. Amazon currently has free delivery on all orders.

Life's Too Short to Drink Bad Wine
Author: Simon Hoggart
ISBN: 1844007421
Publisher: Quadrille
Price: £12.99
buy at Amazon for £6.48

Guardian readers will know Simon Hoggart as the most acerbic parliamentary sketch-writer in the business. He is also wine correspondent of the Spectator, and runs its wine club, giving it a couple of energetic plugs in this book. It's an alphabetical list book of the author's hundred favourite wine estates or types of wine (not wines, despite the subtitle '100 Wines for the Discerning Drinker', since there are no specific vintages). Entries range from Spain's Albariño to a generic entry on German wine to a host of individual producers, and there is an all-time Top Ten, again without any particular vintages. This is Hoggart's first wine book, and it falls, as many first efforts do, between two stools. On the one hand, it aims to introduce keen wine-buyers to some very illustrious names while, on the other, giving them much entry-level advice about what the labels say, how not to be afraid of sommeliers, how to open fizz, and so forth. Hoggart isn't much of a one for florid wine-speak, as he honestly avers, but relies more on gestural approbation - 'terrific', 'incredible', 'glorious'. That said, most of the advice is sound, there are plenty of entertaining personal anecdotes, and only the odd silly solecism. 'The test of a great champagne is its flavour after it's gone flat'. Try that with your next bottle of Pol Roger. (review by Stuart Walton)

Been Doon so Long
Author: Randall Grahm
ISBN: 0520259564
Publisher: University of California Press
Price: £24.95
buy at Amazon for £18.72

Those who've read the label notes on a bottle of Bonny Doon or Ca' del Solo, the twin labels of Californian winemaker Randall Grahm, will already know that things work a little differently on planet Grahm. This weighty, hard-backed book is subtitled 'A Randall Grahm Vinthology', and as Hugh Johnson says in the foreword "I was baffled at first. Then I saw his feelings about Chardonnay turn into biting satire and his views on scoring explode into righteous wrath, while all the time he was laughing - sometimes hysterically - and I laughed too. Then I started to ponder. So, I promise, will you." This is a singular new addition to the annals of wine writing, flitting between prose and poetry, comic strips and serious research, celebration and invective. Learning how Randall dealt with not being invited to participate in the 'New York Wine Experience' is hilarious, and typical of the off-the-wall but incisive mind of one of wine's great originals. Fabulous stuff, and a beautifully produced and illustrated book.

Andrew Jefford's Wine Course
Author: Andrew Jefford
ISBN: 1845977238
Publisher: Ryland Peters
Price: £19.99
buy at Amazon for £12.25

OK, first thing to say is that this book has been out for several months but I just never got round to reading or reviewing it. Covering similar ground as existing books by the likes of Jancis Robinson and Michael Schuster is not an easy task, yet Jefford is a hugely respected writer and one of the world's deepest thinkers on the subject of wine, so anything to which he puts his name will have merit. Here 20 chapters split into sections called 'The Tools', 'The Elements' and 'The Journey' which cover both the mechanics of how to taste and what to look for, but also as befits a writer like Jefford, much background information and more in-depth analysis of why wines from various grapes, regions and cultures taste as they do.

Absolute Corkers
Author: Ned Halley
ISBN: 1845298535
Publisher: Constable
Price: £7.99
buy at Amazon for £4.74

Having had the pleasure of spending a week in Ned Halley's company on a trip a couple of years ago I can tell you he is great fun with a whimsical and often outrageous mind that has turned itself to writing over 30 books, including many for children. But in that time he has also been a wine columnist and writer, and this excellent stocking filler paperback is an amusing and very easy to read collection of anecdotes and funny stories with a vinous bent. One of those terrific little books for dipping in and out of, it nevertheless is well-researched and reveals something surprising - even illuminating - on every page.

The Best Wines in Supermarkets
Author: Ned Halley
ISBN: 0572035357
Publisher: Foulsham
Price: £7.99
buy at Amazon for £5.04

Mr Halley has been busy, and the second of his Christmas books is a much more orthodox, and I have to say, much less successful wine buying guide. That's not to say there is anything wrong with his choices or opinions, it's just that the days of wine recommendation books in print really are long gone. The jacket says "offers enough wines of character to last you a whole year", but event a cursory bit of research shows that many recommended wines are already out of stock or have changed vintage. Such is the reality of print publishing lead times: the web is the only way forward for this genre.

Pocket Wine Book 2010
Author: Oz Clarke
ISBN: 1862058636
Publisher: Pavilion
Price: £9.99
buy at Amazon for £5.56

Slugging it out each year with the Old Master, Hugh Johnson, Oz's version of the annual Pocket Wine Book probably wins on approachability. Johnson is erudite and essential, but Clarke's enthusiastic, passionate and fun style really does comes through even in a book such as this, essentially a densely-packed, A - Z treasure-trove of information on wines, regions, producers and styles. For an entry like 'Penfolds' for example, not only is there an update on the status and position of the company and its wines, but a run through of best wines, vintages and styles, all tersely packed into a quarter page. Great, great value and a useful companion.

Let me Tell you about wine
Author: Oz Clarke
ISBN: 1862058652
Publisher: Pavilion
Price: £14.99
buy at Amazon for £8.73

As the most prolific of the UK's wine book authors, it's no surprise to have a second title from Oz in my Christmas list, and it is really rather good. It's Oz at his best in many ways, demystifying wine and offering a beginner's guide that is sensible, useful, yet easy to read and delivered without any pomp or undue ceremony. Everything from how to open Champagne, to how to get the best from restaurant wine lists, to a run-through of the world's great regions is covered in this illustrated hard-back. There's nothing here that hasn't been covered before by others, but if you are looking for a general purpose beginner's or reference guide to wine, then look no further as this presses all the buttons.

The Finest Wines of Tuscany
Author: Nicolas Belfrage MW
ISBN: 1845134877
Publisher: Aurum Press
Price: £20.00
buy at Amazon for £12.48

Michael Edwards' The Finest Wines of Champagne is currently my 'Book of the Month', and from the same series of titles co-published by The World of Fine Wine magazine comes this terrific look at the wines of Tuscany and central Italy. The format and structure is very similar, with Jon Wyand's excellent photography bringing each producer and estate to life, and Nicolas Belfrage's words so obviously coming from the heart of someone who so clearly lives and breathes these wines and the people who make them. Immensely detailed, this book - as befits a Word of Fine Wine title - packs an enormous amount into its 320 pages.