Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine 2018 - Hardcover

Johnson, Hugh

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1784724076 ISBN 13: 9781784724078

Publisher: Mitchell Beazley, 2017

Synopsis

The brand new edition of the unrivalled and bestselling Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book.

Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book is the essential reference book for everyone who buys wine - in shops, restaurants, or on the internet. Now in its 41st year of publication, it has no rival as the comprehensive, up-to-the-minute annual guide.

Hugh Johnson provides clear succinct facts and commentary on the wines, growers and wine regions of the whole world. He reveals which vintages to buy, which to drink and which to cellar, which growers to look for and why. Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book gives clear information on grape varieties, local specialities and how to match food with wines that will bring out the best in both. This new edition also contains a color supplement on Syrah and Garnacha grapes.

About this title

Review:

Hugh Johnson is the Grand Old Man of wine writing. For nearly a quarter of a century--during which there's been an exponential growth in the number of Napa wineries--Johnson has been distilling the entire world of wine into Hugh Johnson's Pocket Encyclopedia of Wine 2000. This is the 23rd edition of this lively, biased, Eurocentric, and highly informative compact reference.

Johnson's foreword to this "micro-encyclopedia" (his term) states his intention to craft a nontheoretical, practical volume "designed to take the panic out of buying." He candidly declares his business interests in both Chateau Latour and Hungary's Royal Tokaji Wine Co., and admits that his information is culled from various sources. This edition begins with chapters on grape varieties, with information ranging from the astute ("Trebbiano: Mostly thin, bland wine; needs blending [or more careful growing]") and the contentious (his idea that Sangiovese has top-quality potential in California would probably come as a surprise to the Napa growers who've been struggling with it for years) to the incomplete (no mention of Zinfandel's relation to Italy's Primitivo) and the just plain wrong (Syrah and Petite Sirah are not the same grape). The "Wine and Food Matches" chapter is just as idiosyncratic. The best match for kippers? "A good cup of tea, preferably Ceylon (no milk, no sugar)." And hamburger? "Bulgarian Cabernet. Or Coke or Pepsi (not Diet)." By the time he suggests that you pour expensive Margaux claret on your strawberries, you may want to skip right to the alphabetized chapters, arranged by country, which comprise the heart of Hugh Johnson's Pocket Encyclopedia of Wine 2000. Wine terms, grape growers, wineries, geography, maps, opinions on top vintages, advice on when to drink them--this is the stuff that'll have your copy dog-eared and falling apart just in time for next year's edition. --Tony Mason

About the Author:

Hugh Johnson is the world's pre-eminent writer on wine. First published in 1977, his Pocket Wine Book sells hundreds of thousands of copies a year. His winning formula of insight, critical appraisal of the world of wine, plus valuable vintage news and wine recommendations has been often-imitated but never bettered.

With the publication of his first book, Wine, Johnson established himself at the age of twenty-seven as the most refreshing and authoritative voice on the subject. During the past four decades he has written books that have become landmarks on the subject, including his classic The World Atlas of Wine, co-authored with Jancis Robinson, his Wine Companion, first published in 2003, The Story of Wine and Hugh Johnson on Wine. In his spare time he writes about gardening from his home in London.

About this edition

• Publisher: Mitchell Beazley
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1784724076
• ISBN 13: 9781784724078
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336