This chubby book of almost 500 pages is basically a book of reference, and reviewers do not normally read reference books. They dip into them; they sample them; they test them; and they re‐test them, finally coming up with an assessment of their accuracy and worth. This one proved to be the exception to the rule. After the intro and the prelims I began to read the prose of a section headed: “The look, smell and taste of wine”. Then I read on; and on; and on. For here is an easy‐to‐read, beguiling, detailed and highly informative book about all aspects of wine. It is also an opinionated book, but why not? Wines are all a matter of personal taste, so opinions are bound to differ. Some prefer the sweet white wines of Bordeaux or Germany; some have been heard to say that wine must be red and it must be French; some swear by claret, others prefer burgundies; and many others like the Chardonnays of the New World, be it California or Australia; and nowadays countries such as Bulgaria, Romania, Chile and even Uruguay have come into the reckoning.
But whatever one’s taste, Susy Atkins and Simon Woods have written much to add to one’s knowledge. Atkins was deputy editor of Wine magazine for three years, but is now freelance and contributes to numerous journals and guides. She has also worked at a winery in Australia. Simon Woods is also a freelance writer, and he too has worked in the Yarra Valley of Victoria and the Barossa Valley of South Australia. Between them, they give advice in this book on buying, storing and serving wine, they define grape varieties, and make suggestions on the right wines for the foods we eat. The main body of this 1998 Guide consists of an A to Z guide of wine‐producing countries from Algeria to Zimbabwe, with France being given special treatment with coverage of its 11 separate wine‐growing areas. In addition to describing and assessing the various wines of each country, the authors list and comment on the pick of the producers.
Part III of the Guide is where to buy wine and it consists mainly of an alphabetical list of merchants, their addresses, phone numbers, facilities, tasting programmes, and wines to look out for at their establishments. This is of necessity a select list, a very select list, it should be added. Being alphabetically arranged, you find you are in Leeds one minute, and Bristol the next. This can be unhelpful, until you reach page 466 and discover a gazetteer of wine stockists arranged geographically. This is useful, though it does draw attention to the selectivity of the list of merchants. Only two listed in the whole of Essex, only one in Cornwall, only two in East Sussex; and so on. But when Atkins and Woods find good merchants, they really go to town about them. In Clitheroe they wonder if Byrne’s is the best stocked wine shop in Britain, then later they aver that Lea and Sandeman’s, with three branches in London, “remains one of the best places in the capital, no the country, to buy great wine”.
One could go on and on quoting from these enthusiastic and knowing writers. Most oenophils, wine‐buffs to you, think they know everything there is to know about wine, but I defy any who assert that, having perused this book, they have not learnt something new about the subject.
