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Best Books ~ Celebrating World Book Day
Advice for the wine lover
© Michael Vaughan 2002
National Post Weekly Wine & Spirits Columnist
National Post • Saturday, April 20, 2002
(full unedited version)

 

With April 23rd just around the corner, I had hoped that my four-decade wine tasting opus might be finished. Alas, it’s still far from complete. It isn’t the million plus words I have published over the past three years, it’s the scratch and sniff section of the book that still doesn’t work.

Smells aside, it’s pretty hard to put a wine writer, any wine writer, in the same class as Cervantes or Shakespeare both of whom died on April 23rd. Nevertheless, we have our icons, such as Alexis Lichine, Michael Broadbent, Tom Stevenson, Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson, just to name a few.

They are all modern writers because, unlike the royalty of literature, those who toil with wine prose quickly discover that their works are soon out of date. It’s an occupational hazard.  Nevertheless, one does occasionally need some insights into the stuff being pouring into their glasses. So here are some solutions.

While no one book will give you all the answers, if I had to select a single source, it would be the second edition of The Oxford Companion to Wine ($89.95) edited by Jancis Robinson and published in 1999. The 819 pages weigh over 5 kilos. It brings a new sense of meaning to the expression “if books could kill.”

Hernia aside, this is by far the definitive reference manual for someone who is already immersed or at least extremely interested in wine. Good eyesight and a bright light are essential given the small print. For those wanting something more compact, there’s a newer, abridged, less expensive, soft cover edition called the Jancis Robinson’s Concise Wine Companion available at only $24.95.

Perhaps the most important wine book to appear last year was the newly revised edition of The World Atlas of Wine, Fifth Edition (Mitchell Beazley). Hugh Johnson first launched this classic in 1971 and it’s amazing to think that the first four editions have sold more than 3.5 million copies. He invited fellow Briton, Jancis Robinson to “co-author” this opus, which in fact meant, in Robinson’s words “basically do all the work and fully update the book.” Johnson did, however, review all her notes. The result is an extremely useful 352-page volume, which sells for $75.

While I might complain that not all the maps and/or copy are as comprehensive and detailed as I personally might wish, it is nevertheless an indispensable reference book for any oenophile. While interviewing Robinson at her Toronto book launch last fall, I asked whether the increasingly wide use of new standardized international winemaking techniques might infringe on the impact of terroir (soil and microclimate), which is, after all, the foundation of the Atlas. “There’s no question,” Robinson replied, “it’s becoming harder and harder to identify the characteristics that at one time were unique to one region! Knowing where things come from, however, will always be an important element in understanding the wine.”

Last year also saw the release of a very reasonably priced, albeit somewhat less comprehensive 910-page paperback called The Wine Bible (Workman, $29.95). Written by Karen MacNeil, director of the wine program at Napa Valley’s Culinary Institute of America, some 10 years was spent working on this book. It’s a good effort, serving both neophytes and fairly knowledgeable amateurs alike.  Unlike to books above, copious photographs, labels, boxed in text and maps help alleviate the rather academic aspect of the first two volumes mentioned.

MacNeil, who was in Toronto this week, gives us the straight goods when she says that it’s “often people who don't know a lot about wine who pay enormous amounts for it, hoping that price will be some sort of assurance." She also assures us to “take vintage charts with a big grain of salt.” While some sections are a tad sparse (i.e. there are few maps to North American wine regions) or even nonexistent (i.e. Brazil and Uruguay), it’s well worth the price.

Of course, dozens of other fine volumes remain. The Faber series on wine, for instance, includes some 19 definitive works by different authors. If you want to know everything there is to know about Madeira, for instance, then Alex Liddell’s Madeira ($30.99), is absolutely indispensable. Or if it is Port you are after, then Richard Mayson Port and Douro ($29.95) should not be missed.

There’s also the extensive Mitchell Beazley series of wine guides, which includes recent 2002 updates of Burton Anderson’s Wines of Italy (224 pages) and David Peppercorn’s Wines of Bordeaux. While very useful, I would be hard pressed to say that either are glorious reads. They lean in an encyclopedic direction and are rather terse and a tad abbreviated. With the exception of a few maps, they are almost lifeless. It’s a needless shame. Just a glance at the similar sized, much more attractive, easily readable 1984 Simon and Schuster edition of Burton’s work will reveal how much the current edition has slipped. Both are priced at $21.95.

Closer to home, British Columbia based John Schreiner has written a number of worthy books usually dealing with the wines of his home province. His most recent effort from last year tackles Canada’s claim to fame Icewine: The Complete Story (a Warwick softcover at $18.95). While Schreiner focuses on what’s happening in North America, he also traces the origins of icewine back to Europe from Germany and Austria, through Eastern Europe then to Canada, the U.S., eastern Australia and New Zealand.  

It is an entertaining and educational read with lots of good anecdotal material by the key players such as Inniskillin winemaker Karl Kaiser. This combined with thumbnail sketches of producers around the world provides a fine overview of what is now one of the most sought after wines. It’s worth noting that the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards recently named Schreiner’s 344-page book the “Best Book on the History of Wine in English”.

 

Copyright Food & Beverage Testing Institute of Canada 2004
Prior written permission is required for any form of reproduction
 (electronic or other wise) and or quotation.
Contact Michael Vaughan at
mbv@total.net