+- WineBoard (https://www.wines.com/wineboard)
+-- Forum: GENERAL (https://www.wines.com/wineboard/forum-100.html)
+--- Forum: For the Novice (https://www.wines.com/wineboard/forum-2.html)
+--- Thread: What's a good book to get? (/thread-19512.html)
- Machforce1 - 02-25-2002
I was browsing the book selection at Barnes and Noble, but there were so many to choose from! I wanted to get something fairly recent. There was a book from Sotherby's and a few more hard back, fairly large books that seemed very informative. They talked about wine selections and recent vintages and things like that. They were all very expensive too, ranging from around $45 up to $100. So has anyone found a really informative, recent edition wine book?
- Kcwhippet - 02-25-2002
A very nice one we've brought into our shop is The Wine Bible by Karen MacNeil. It's a huge book that took her about ten years to research and write. What's nice about it is that the data is easily accessible to both novices and experts alike. We sell it at full price of $19.95, but I'm sure you can get it at Amazon.com for less.
- Machforce1 - 02-25-2002
Yes, I saw that one there as well. I noticed Robert Parker had a book out too. I wonder if that's any good.
- Botafogo - 02-25-2002
I've got to object to THE WINE BIBLE in a big way (even though we know Karen and sell a lot of her family's wine, FIFE) as being horribly skewed in its coverage. Some examples:
First of all, even though Italy produces much more volume and incredibly more variety of wine than France (and dominates the import market in the US), the section on France is at least twice as large as that on Italy and gives much more coverage to areas other than Bordueax and Burgundy than is subsequently afforded the various zonas of Italy.
After giving Toscana and Piemonte ten to fifteen pages each and a fairly good pass at the Veneto she relegated the rest of Italy to two pages combined even though Puglia and Sicily each produce more wine than California and Australia combined. She then has six pages on TEXAS!
My interests aside, your average consumer is going to find a large selection of Salice Salentino, Primitivo di Manduria, Nero d'Avolo, VDTs from Regaleali, Corvo, A Mano and Planeta in a decent wine shop LONG before he is going to need to know who makes the best merlot in the Texas Panhandle...
Another: at least ten pages on Porto but only two pages on the great table wines of Portugal which are produced in much larger quantities and are increasingly important in the market.
She pretty much takes the party line of the large Champagne producers hook, line and sinker, blowing off the revolution in grower Champagnes from Grand Cru vineyards as well.
I am at home now but have been compiling a list of problems with this book that I will check when I go in to work.
I would recommend the latest edition of Burton Anderson's WINE ATLAS OF THE WORLD in place of this book. If she had called it THE GREAT BIG BOOK OF WINES I LIKE instead of the all inclusive sounding BIBLE, I would have less of a beef....
Roberto
[This message has been edited by Botafogo (edited 02-25-2002).]
- hotwine - 02-25-2002
If I could have only one wine book, it would be the Larousse Encyclopedia of Wine.
- Machforce1 - 02-25-2002
Hotwine, that's the book that interested me the most. The latest edition was on the shelf and I do believe it was a 2002 version. Just thumbing through it, I noticed it was very comprehensive.
- chittychattykathy - 02-26-2002
André Dominé, WINE