Wine encyclopedia? which one

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babydays

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Am fed up with Supermarket special offers and am interested developing a taste for wines.

Looking for a comprehensive book that sets out to describe every wine on the shelf!

Have had a spin through amazon and the choice is vast.

Does anyone have any suggestions for an intrepid explorer? Not as interested in the how it's all made as how it tastes!

Any suggestions happily received....

slainte!
 
there are a couple of good ones but Hugh Johnson is usually the guru, so anything by him is good. Also a lot of ratings for wine are done using Parker Points (PP) so anything by Parker is good. On the home front in '06 there was a small handbook out called '100 Best wines for Under €10' whcih gave a brief description of each wine and they were all readily available although for anything good now you need to go to the €12/13 range and above (excl special offers)
 
Hi
Richard and Judy have a really good wine book on their website for about 13 sterling (ish). I bought one and ordered another one before Christmas (for my sister) but they were sold out. I got an email recently to say they were back in stock. Its a great book!
 
thanks portboy (with an alias like that you sound well placed to advise on my query!),

I had come across a Hugh Johnson encyclopedia on Amazon but was getting lost in the myriad of offerings so that's great to hear your recommendation.
Tried googling the 100 best wines offering but can't seem to locate it. Am far away from book shops so will have to order whatever I'm looking for off the web.

Thanks Choosey.
 
Just had a look and the actual title of the book is '101 Great wines for under €10' and is written by John Wilson. It seems to be available in Amazon, I actually picked it up in an off-licence
 
I second the Hugh Johnson suggestion, that and Janice Robinson's World Atlas of Wine are usually ranked pretty highly.
Leo
 
Will go for Hugh Johnson then! Thanks a lot.
Will try the local off-license for the other - sounds like a great little book!
 
Got a couple of fun reads from the library including Matt Skinner The Juice - makes them all very enticing.

Portboy - would you recommend an on-line wine merchant (price and choice being the most important criteria for me)?

tks again!
 
I have used wineonline.ie a couple of times and found them quite good, and responsive to emails if you have any questions.

An online facility won't replace the advice of a knowledgeable individual in your local off license or wine shop though. In general these folks love to see enthusiasm and will be eager to help you discover new wines and explore what you might like.

You could start by telling them what wines you already like e.g. brands from the supermarket, or you could perhaps tell them you want to spend x amount on a mixed case of wines that represent some of the major grapes/countries etc.

This blog in the New York Times might provide some inspiration (you may need to register)

http://thepour.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/04/10/the-dining-table-wine-school/

The John Wilson book is good too. The structure of the Oz Clarke one takes a bit of getting used to.
 
For a straightforward (and pretty reliable) guide to wines available in Ireland, you could look at "The Best of Wine in Ireland - 2008" (ed Pat Carroll and John Wilson).


For more general and comprehensive wine books, I think the three best are :

World Atlas of Wine - Jancis Robinson
Oxford Companion to Wine - Also Jancis
New Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia - Tom Stevenson
 
muzaway,

that's a great little article and what a great, simple idea - to ask a wine merchant to put together a mixed case of wine as an introduction to the palate!
 
I would recommend doing one of the irish wine board courses - they are a lot of fun, and you will learn a tremendous amount and really very much enhance your enjoyment of wine. There are tutored tastings included so you can learn exactly what are the characteristics of the different grapes and regions Dont bother with the introduction course, go straight for the intermediate. Good luck!
 
I would recommend doing one of the irish wine board courses - they are a lot of fun, and you will learn a tremendous amount and really very much enhance your enjoyment of wine. There are tutored tastings included so you can learn exactly what are the characteristics (tast and nose) of the different grapes and regions Dont bother with the introduction course, go straight for the intermediate. Good luck!
 
Just to follow up - I eventually came across this fabulous book - 'How to choose wine - Vincent Gastnier' which provided a great starting point and more. It's a wonderful introductory book that I would wholeheartedly recommend for anyone wanting to know more about wine.

It's a hands on book giving you ideas on how to taste various wines in one setting to show what things such as 'tannins', fruitiness, full-bodied, complexity etc etc.

Also had a wine-tasting evening at home with 6 different wines provided by our local wine merchant - 2 different Cab Sauv, 2 Syrah/Shiraz and 2 Pinot Noir. A very enjoyable learning experience!

One more question - are there any wine chat sites (Irish or not) that you would recommend.

Of course the only problem with getting to know more about wine is that the taste buds now search for more than just the everyday wine!

PN - I'll definitely get myself into one of the wine board courses at some stage. They do sound great.
 
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