VINES, WINES AND GRAPES, THE WINE DRINKER’S GUIDE TO GRAPE VARIETIES

Jancis Robinson, Mitchell Beazley 1987.

The single most interesting factor in shaping the flavour of a wine is the grape variety it is made from. It is the key to appreciation, understanding and enjoyment of every wine we drink. Here for the first time is a book that illustrates the wine world from every viewpoint.

Each grape variety the wine enthusiast is likely to encounter is described in this unique work, which is part atlas, part wine-tasting guide, part gazetteer. The enthralling gamut of wine flavours is at last disentangled and delineated – by grape variety. Vines, Grapes and Wines shows exactly how to recognize the taste of a given grape and then rediscover it, subtly changed by climate, soil and human hand, in other wines the world over. The book shows a fully detailed atlas of the distribution of grape vines, with revealing and beautiful maps showing, for instance, how varieties have travelled the world and just what decisions great estates have made about what vine type grows in which field. The second key feature is a comprehensive illustrated gazetteer of the qualities and distribution of more than 1000 different wine varieties.

 The third – and this is the key to the book’s absorbing appeal and novelty – is the author’s up-to-date analysis of the complex web of relationships between the world’s grape varieties and the taste of wine.

Apart from a horizontal 6 cm slit to the dust jacket halfway up the at the front, (not that apparent) the cause of which also caught and slightly marked the front cover board underneath it, and the fact that the jacket has been price clipped, and other than for a small ink inscription at the top of the fep, the book is in good condition, clean and tightly bound. An excellent and comprehensive guide. 280 pages, large format, and with nice illustrations.

The book is large and heavy and might need parcel or surface post.