The Oxford Companion to Wine

by Jancis Robinson (Editor), Julia Harding (Editor)

Overview

Published in 1994 to worldwide acclaim, the first edition of Jancis Robinson's seminal volume, The Oxford Companion to Wine, immediately attained legendary status. The book has won every major wine book award including the Glenfiddich and Julia Child/IACP awards, and Robinson hasa received writer and woman of the year accolades for its editor on both sides of the Atlantic.

Combining meticulously-researched fact with refreshing opinion and wit, The Oxford Companion to Wine offers almost 4,000 entries on every wine-related topic imaginable, from regions and grape varieties to the owners, connoisseurs, growers, and tasters in wine through the ages; from viticulture and oenology to the history of wine. Tracing the consumption and production from the ancient world to the present day, the Companion is a remarkable resource for gaining further appreciation for a beverage whose popularity has only increased with time.

Now exhaustively updated, this third edition incorporates the very latest international research to present over 400 new entries on topics ranging from globalization and the politics of wine to brands, precision viticulture, and co-fermentation. Hundreds of other entries have also undergone major revisions, including yeast, barrel alternatives, climate change, and virtually all wine regions. Useful lists and statistics are appended, including controlled appellations and their permitted grape varieties, as well as wine production and consumption by country.

Illustrated with maps of every important wine region in the world, useful charts and diagrams, and stunning color photography, this Companion is unlike any other wine book, offering an understanding of wine in its many wider contexts - notably historical, cultural, geographic, and scientific - and serving as a truly companionable point of reference into which any wine-lover can dip, browse, and linger.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198609902
Publisher:	Oxford University Press, USA
Publication date:	10/01/2006
Series:	Oxford Companion to Wine Ser.
Edition description:	Third Edition
Pages:	840
Product dimensions:	11.16(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.91(d)

About the Author

About the Author:
Jancis Robinson writes a regular column on wine for the Wine Spectator, the world's biggest-circulation wine magazine, and The Financial Times. Voted The Wine Writer's Wine Writer by her peers for Britain's Observer and dubbed "Undisputed mistress of the kingdom of wines" by France's Madame Figaro, she is regularly asked to lecture and judge all over the world. The Oxford Companion to Wine is her eighth book.

Table of Contents

Preface

Editorial Reviews

"The greatest wine book ever published," trumpets The Washington Post on this tome's cover. One can hardly disagree. First published in 1994, The Oxford Companion to Wine established itself as a nonpareil one-volume guide to every aspect of wine from growing and buying; to drinking and discriminating; to the high-end auction market and fraud. Wine Spectator wizard Jancis Robinson and her team of 70 international experts write engagingly in more than 3,000 alphabetically arranged entries. A must-have for every wine connoisseur.

This A-Z guide covers all aspects of wine, from vine density to bottling. Jancis Robinson...offers colorful photographs, maps of wine regions, diagrams that explain various wine-making processes, and much more.
— Brill's Content

Dimitra Kessenides

This giant tome is likely to become "the" standard reference for wine in the whole world....If you were going to have a one book wine library, this would have to be it.

Book Report

Completely revised from the acclaimed 1993 first edition, The Oxford Companion to Wine arrives with 500 new entries to reach a total of over 3,500 in alphabetical form. As anticipated, Robinson's compendium has become the definitive reference book for the wine world, covering nearly all aspects of wine-making, wine appreciation, the science and history of wine and numerous listings of individual estates and appellations. The Oxford Companion to Wine has won every major wine book award and overall this book continues to be a magnificent achievement.
— Foreword

Seth McEvoy

The first edition of Davidson's award-winning Oxford Companion to Food appeared in print in 1999. With the second edition of this culinary classic, food writer and publisher Tom Jaine takes editorial charge. While keeping true to Davidson's distinctive and entertaining writing style, Paine has updated many of the approximately 3000 original entries in the book and added 70 new topics (e.g., "Globalization," "Olives"). Covering everything from individual ingredients and cooking techniques to food celebrities and national cuisines, the authoritative and engaging The Oxford Companion to Food is one of the best basic culinary reference books available. In the latest update of The Oxford Companion to Wine, first published in 1994, not only have hundreds of the book's original 3000 entries been revised but over 400 new entries, such as "Coastal Region," "Heritage Varieties," and "Icon Wine," have been added to this superb reference book. Wine expert, journalist, and author Robinson and her contributors continue to write with zesty enthusiasm about everything from the different varieties of grapes to the world's great wineries and geographic areas of production. Bottom Line Both of these reasonably priced classic books are highly recommended for academic and public libraries, especially those that do not already own previous editions; The Oxford Companion to Wine remains the essential wine resource for most any library's collection. John Charles, Scottsdale P.L., AZ Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Acclaim for The Oxford Companion to Wine:

"Jancis Robinson has become the Julia Child of wine."—Newsday

"This giant tome is likely to become 'the' standard reference for wine for the whole wide world.... It really does cover it all and in depth. If you were going to have a one book wine library, this would have to be it."—The Wine Trader

"Easily the most complete compendium of wine knowledge assembled in modern times."—The New York Times

"A required reference for anyone who is serious about wine."—Frank J. Prial, The New York Times

"One of the definitive reference books on the subject."—Anthony Dias Blue

"I heartily recommend this book as the cornerstone of any wine library and guarantee it will engance your wine appreciation for many years to come."—W.I.N.E. Monitor

"This may be the most important book on wine to appear in the past 20 years....The very existence of this book stands as evidence of the significance of wine in our culture....This volume will enhance the usefulness of every other wine book by providing authoritative explanations of the nuts and bolts that others treat only in passing."—The Washington Post

From the Publisher