There has never been a book like The Oxford Companion to Wine. From the novice to the connoisseur, wine lovers will be enlightened, informed and enchanted by this delightful one-volume guide to the world of wine. Beautifully designed and unrivalled in its scope, it is edited under the keen supervision of Jancis Robinson, heralded by The Wine Advocate as "perhaps the most gifted of all wine writers writing today," and one of the few journalists to pass the notoriously difficult Master of Wine exams. Going deeper than traditional buyer's guides and wine atlases, the Companion sought out contributions and advice from more than 70 authorities from around the world, including more than a dozen Masters of Wine. Its 3,000 alphabetically arranged entries range from brief entries--What is a blanc de noirs? Where is Chateau Latour?--to fascinating longer essays on the intricacies of wine scoring, wine aging, and the nuances of judging a wine's color, aroma and flavor. The sumptuous illustrations include 32 stunning full color plates and 31 maps of every major wine region.

As readable as it is comprehensive, the Companion recognizes wine in all its many roles--as a commercial commodity, as a complex and subtle work of art, and, of course, as a source of great pleasure. Ranging from Abruzzi and armagnac to Zimbabwe and Zinfandel, from Dionysian revels in ancient Greece to today's leading wine research centers, the entries explore all aspects of wine appreciation, the wine trade, and wine-making, including the very latest advances in viticulture and enology. All technical terms are fully explained, and the hundreds of useful drawings and photographs illustrate key processes. From the Napa Valley to Burgundy to China's Shandung peninsula, here are in-depth discussions of the climates, personalities, and grape varieties that have shaped the great wine regions of the world. Other single subject entries include the great winemakers, vintner's terms, hundreds of individual grape varieties, and some of the important names in the wine world, including American wine judge Robert Parker, and Michael Broadbent, head of Christie's Wine Department.

The Companion's stellar cast of contributors and consultants include wine correspondents, judges, wine merchants, historians, practical scientists, specialists from some of the world's leading institutions for the study of wine, including Professor A. Dinsmoor Webb of the University of California at Davis, and even a barrel broker. Other contributors include American wine educator and writer Harriet Lembeck, Thomas Pinney, author of A History of Wine in America, and Zelma Long, President of Simi Winery and the second woman ever to enroll in the Department of Enology at Davis.

Destined to become the ultimate reference on wine and wine-making, The Oxford Companion to Wine is the perfect volume to enhance a lifetime's enjoyment of the beverage Ernest Hemingway called "one of the most civilized things in the world."

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

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.