Rating: 
Summary: Truly an encyclopedia!
Review: A wonderful gift for the wine lover in your family, this book starts with the "history" of wine and is divided into geographical regions around the world. There are many illustrations and photographs detailing the winemaking process, grapes, various regions and wine labels, and much more. I bought the book to put on my coffee table (it's that heavy and thick!), but have spent much time reading through it and can say that one will learn a great deal about wine. The writing may be a bit dry, but overall, this is an excellent work on wine.
Rating:
Summary: Truly an encyclopedia!
Review: A wonderful gift for the wine lover in your family, this book starts with the "history" of wine and is divided into geographical regions around the world. There are many illustrations and photographs detailing the winemaking process, grapes, various regions and wine labels, and much more. I bought the book to put on my coffee table (it's that heavy and thick!), but have spent much time reading through it and can say that one will learn a great deal about wine. The writing may be a bit dry, but overall, this is an excellent work on wine.
Rating: 
Summary: Why buyers of the old edition should buy the new one!
Review: Buyers of the latest reprint will notice a change in the number of copies sold for the first edition (SOTHEBY'S WORLD WINE ENCYCLOPEDIA) from (erroneously) more than 100,000 copies to (a corrected) over 220,000 copies. Any author would want such a large number of buyers to purchase a new edition, but apart from the obvious fact that the world of wine has changed out of all recognition in the intervening 9 years, few specific points that may be persuasive are: ·Expanded from 480 to 600 pages ·All maps updated to include new appellations and wine areas ·Extremely comprehensive indexing (a major weak point in the first edition) ·Significantly expanded glossary ·New sections: illustrated comparison of vine-training systems; guide to regional oak-types ·Still the only single-volume wine book that goes from wine atlas through a technical explanation and style-guide for every single wine appellation (French: AOC, VDQS & Vins de Pays; Italian: DOCG, DOC, IGT & Vini da Tavola; Spanish: DOC, DO, VdlT & VC; Portuguese: DOC, IPR & VR; Germany: all Bereiche and Grosslagen described with best villages and best vineyards & producers in best villages listed; all US AVAs etc.) right down to individual producers and in many cases individial wines. The reader from Palo Alto is entitled to his opinion that it is a "not-so-comprehensive encyclopedia" but this author does not know of any other book that attempts this, let alone succeeds.
Rating: 
Summary: New Guide is Not So New
Review: I bought the 1997 (or brown covered) encyclopedia a few years back (which I love by the way) and decided to purchase the updated version to find new and updated information such as new wineries or ones that were upcoming and warranted coverage in the new book. I am so dissapointed. The only change I could find is a box containing information on wine quality from 1997 to 2000. Tom Stevenson didn't even change one word in his cover letter! Even the page numbers in each book have the same information! The winery ratings didn't change - or not from what I could tell. Unless I can actually see what's inside the next version, I will never purchase an version again. If you own an earlier version, do not purchase this book - it's a waste of money.
I rated it 2 stars, not because of the content, but because it is not updated as the cover indicates (see red circle). I do however question just how much Tom Stevenson puts into research with each book edition if nothing c
Rating: 
Summary: wide but superficial
Review: I'm a professional of wine working in Shanghai. I purchased this book in Amazon after the advise of a friend. I found the book to be interesting and a complete work, but I think his view sometimes lacks actuality. Although the author's mastery in wine tasting is out of discussion, his presentation of tasting is outdated: nowadays nobody can asses the origin of a wine just by tasting: the examples the author proposes are valid just in a ideal world without Australian Shiraz-Mourvedre, South African Cabernet-Merlot or Californian Zinfandel (otherwise rightly commented in his book).
I can't help but bring here the review of "Toro" wine growing area. The author dispatches this area with few words, the last of them to tell us "among the many dirty cellars I have seen in my life, this one in Toro is the filthiest". This is the only comment he makes about wine cellars on that area. I bought also "The Oxford Companion to Wine" and Robert Parker's sixth edition of Wine buyer's guide. In "The Oxford Companion to Wine", edited by Jancis Robinson, in this region "a small number of producers have fostered a move away from the heavy, bulk reds of recent times, notably Manuel Farina, Vega Sauco and Frutos Villar". Concise and accurate, like all the rest in this excellent book.
Mr. Parker has tasted the wines more carefully: this region" has adopted modern technology, and the results have been some rich, full-bodied, deeply flavoured, southern Rhone-like wine from wineries like Farina. They taste similar to the big, lush, peppery wines of France's Chateauneuf-du-Pape and Gigondas, and they represent astonishing values..." He found one of the wines produced there to be outstanding, and several others to be good.
Nobody would expect from a wine taster to have the last news from every piece of vineyard on the world, but the word from such a well-known, reputable professional is too heavy to be delivered so lightly.
Rating: 
Summary: Best single-volume general wine reference I know of
Review: In the "wine-drinking" countries (which excludes the US, by about a
factor of 10 per capita), a knowledge of wine at the casual level is
pretty widespread. When people want to know more, they turn to
an expert. This is typically someone who has spent his or her life
in some part of the wine trade and therefore whose livelihood has
depended on ability to satisfy, and accurately advise, customers.
There are even highly respected standards such as the British
Master of Wine examination that will establish whether a person
genuinely knows the subject and can also smell and taste all of the
nuances that he claims to. (The MW exam is notoriously revealing
and would undoubtedly depopulate overnight the ranks of the
self-appointed US wine pundits, which may be why many of them
pointedly avoid reference to it.) In the US, which lacks most of
these traditions, any musician or sportswriter or lawyer can claim
to be a wine expert and there's a fair chance they'd get a Following,
self-perpetuating on the basis of popularity.Fortunately in the US, relying on such writers is not (yet) compulsory.
It is possible to get books by English-language writers of very high
caliber and experience, who mostly are in other countries (such as
Clive Coates, Serena Sutcliffe, Remington Norman, and Michael
Broadbent). Stevenson comes from this tradition, and although his
book is not as specialized as those of the other authors I've just
named, it is compensatingly broad. There is a desperate need for
accessible one-volume introductory wine books. Blake Ozias's "All
About Wine" served this need in the US, 25 or 35 years ago, but it
is badly out of date (not to mention out of print); it was a thin book
you could absorb in a few evenings. Stevenson's is different, it is
a genuine encyclopedia, combining succinct overviews of all kinds
of wine-making regions (including Texas and Mexico) with further
depth on producers and labels in the larger regions. The compact
snapshot on Beaujolais, for example, is superb, first laying out the
history and styles, then illustrating many producers that you will in
fact encounter in the shops. It distinguishes the deep, complex
wines that the region can make from the bubble-gum style that has
become more common recently. More generally, if you found a
random bottle of wine that you were interested in, there is a decent
chance you could look it up in Stevenson and learn much more. This is the best single-volume general wine reference I'm currently
aware of. I have recommended it to several people who wanted to
learn more about wine and all of them have been very satisfied.
Rating:
Summary: Best single-volume general wine reference I know of
Review: In the "wine-drinking" countries (which excludes the US, by about a
factor of 10 per capita), a knowledge of wine at the casual level is
pretty widespread. When people want to know more, they turn to
an expert. This is typically someone who has spent his or her life
in some part of the wine trade and therefore whose livelihood has
depended on ability to satisfy, and accurately advise, customers.
There are even highly respected standards such as the British
Master of Wine examination that will establish whether a person
genuinely knows the subject and can also smell and taste all of the
nuances that he claims to. (The MW exam is notoriously revealing
and would undoubtedly depopulate overnight the ranks of the
self-appointed US wine pundits, which may be why many of them
pointedly avoid reference to it.) In the US, which lacks most of
these traditions, any musician or sportswriter or lawyer can claim
to be a wine expert and there's a fair chance they'd get a Following,
self-perpetuating on the basis of popularity. Fortunately in the US, relying on such writers is not (yet) compulsory.
It is possible to get books by English-language writers of very high
caliber and experience, who mostly are in other countries (such as
Clive Coates, Serena Sutcliffe, Remington Norman, and Michael
Broadbent). Stevenson comes from this tradition, and although his
book is not as specialized as those of the other authors I've just
named, it is compensatingly broad. There is a desperate need for
accessible one-volume introductory wine books. Blake Ozias's "All
About Wine" served this need in the US, 25 or 35 years ago, but it
is badly out of date (not to mention out of print); it was a thin book
you could absorb in a few evenings. Stevenson's is different, it is
a genuine encyclopedia, combining succinct overviews of all kinds
of wine-making regions (including Texas and Mexico) with further
depth on producers and labels in the larger regions. The compact
snapshot on Beaujolais, for example, is superb, first laying out the
history and styles, then illustrating many producers that you will in
fact encounter in the shops. It distinguishes the deep, complex
wines that the region can make from the bubble-gum style that has
become more common recently. More generally, if you found a
random bottle of wine that you were interested in, there is a decent
chance you could look it up in Stevenson and learn much more. This is the best single-volume general wine reference I'm currently
aware of. I have recommended it to several people who wanted to
learn more about wine and all of them have been very satisfied.
Rating:
Summary: The ultimate tutorial and reference for novices & experts
Review: Sotheby's encyclopedia includes detailed maps, photos, diagrams, wine labels, ratings, and just about anything anyone would want to know about wine in a very user-friendly format. Absolutely the best wine book available.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful overview of wine regions & producers
Review: This book does a wonderful job of describing the various wine regions of the world, what styles the regions are known for, and who the major producers are. Although it would be too hard to outline specific vintages, the book does highlight specific varietals, cuvees, etc. that each producer is known for. A better all-around information book than Hugh Johnson's Atlas, in my opinion. Makes a good companion to a rating guide by Clarke, Johnson, or Parker.
Rating:
Summary: A not-so-comprehensive encyclopedia
Review: This book gives a fair treatment on Bordeaux and American wines, in which it gives a general review on each major chateau or producer. Although a tasting review on each vintage for those producers will make it even better. For other wine regions, including the great Burgundy, Rhone, Italy and Spanish wines, it only briefly review each appellation, without much useful information on producers, which is a great key in selecting those wines.
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