Hugh Johnson's Pocket Encyclopedia of Wine 1987 [antikvár]

Introduction This is the tenth annual edition of what I suppose must have become the world's most-consulted wine reference book. These ten years have been the most tumultuous in wine's long history. The general trend has been steadily better quality from more and more proficient producers in more and more regions. Some of the exciting themes have been an astonishing run of good vintages in Bordeaux, the most imported wine region of all, the appearance of beautiful new wines from places where ten years ago there were none, and on the darker side some well-publicized (and in one case truly tragic) scandals. I described this book in its original Introduction as an exercise in crowding angels on a pinhead, or students into a telephone box. That was in 1977, when I thought it was pretty ingenious to use symbols and a few abbreviations to make a pocketable encyclopedia. Looking back at the first edition I realize that I was hardly squeezing at all compared with later efforts. Experience has taught me how to get angels to stand on other angels' shoulders, how to pick pygmy students, starve them and then shove like a Tokyo train-filler. This book is admittedly 48 pages longer than its prototype, but it contains at least twice as much information: on properties, appellations, brands, vintages, drinkability, values and the rest. If the grammar is sometimes so terse as to be nonexistent, it is at least consistent with my object: to waste no words, to be up-to-the-minute, to be as thorough and complete as possible — all in the cause of helping you get the most possible pleasure from wine. The arrangement of the book is intended to be as helpful as possible when you are buying a bottle, whether you are on the nursery slopes or an old hand with a bad memory. You are faced with a list of wines or an array of bottles in a restaurant, wine merchant's or bottle store. Your mind goes blank. You fumble for your little book. All you need to establish is what country a wine comes from. Look up the principal words on the label in the appropriate country's section. You will find enough potted information to let you judge whether this is the wine you want. Specifically, you will find information on the colour and type of wine, its status or prestige, whether it is usually particularly good value, which vintages are good and which are ready to drink — and often considerably more . . . about the quantity made, the grapes used, ownership and the rest. Hundreds of cross-references help you delve further.