Customer Reviews

Christie's World Encyclopedia of Champagne & Sparkling Wine

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book mentions every sparkling wine you've ever heard of and many more that you haven't. I own several other good champagne books, but if I could only choose one, this would be it. My favorite feature: Stevenson mentions the best wines for each vintage -- something no other book I've found does. Highly recommended.

The only book I have found that covers California sparkling wines in depth and provides comparative notes to French Champagnes. Has a lot of weird stuff in it like sparking wine made in India and Kenya. Stevenson is quite witty and acerbic in some of his comments and pulls no punches.

This is the bible about all what you always wanted to know about champagne. Who invented it (Dom Perignon), who is the oldest wine producer in the Champagne (Gosset), which is the oldest champagne company (Ruinart) and which is the best champagne (Krug)? Find out all about the difference between Grand Crus, Premier Crus and Grand Marques. But also learn all about the history and the production process of the methode champagnoise. Lastly, there is a comprehensive list of all French champagne houses, including a brief description and rating, as well as a concise overview of the other sparkling wine regions in the world which, however, are not allowed to call their produce champagne anymore nowadays. The real champagne is restricted to the world-famous region East of Paris.

Champagne connoiseurship is probaby one of the most hedonistic pursuits (or occupations) anyone could dream of. Although clearly opinionated, the reviews are agreeable and, as far as books specializing in Champagne go, probably the most complete. It's not a book that tries to evaluate individual wines on a 100 point scale, but it gives relative ratings for the domaines as well as certiain luxury cuvees. It's not for everyone, or even every wine enthusiast, but it is indispensable for any Champagne nut.

GRAPE GRIPE: The book presents products from Malta (with a nine year tradition in champagnes), but does not mention any of the Romanian ones (with a 157 years tradition).

TRIVIA: Romanians had the first wine prohibition when the king had the vineyards burnt down to sober his army up as the Romans were approaching (first century A.D.). They have a local grape variety that has been cultivated continuously for the last two millenia. Romania wass the fourth country to produce champagne (chronologically) and is currently ranked ninth by the vineyards area.

CONCLUSION: While this book is an excellent lecture, calling it an encyclopedia is a bit misleading. I wonder what other information is missing...

As a wine connoisseur, I am stunned to see an unexplainable omission in this book: there is NO mention of Romania, even though it was the fourth country in the world to produce sparkling wines (btw, that's what champagne is, a sparkling wine named after the region...) after France, Russia (Ucraine) and Germany. In 1862 the first commercial sparkling wine business is established in Timisoara, with many more to follow, including Bucharest in 1913. How is this possible and how can it be overlooked, since there were exports of "bubbly" to England (the author's country) from Romania going back to the 1920's... Besides, wine growing was always native to Romania since times immemorial - unlike many of the countries listed. Kenya makes the list (1992), and Israel (1980) and Malta (1995)...and England (1976)! The "experts" have outdone themselves this time. Perhaps they should hire fewer wine-tasters and more historians when they write a "World" Encyclopedia next time ... SO, when's this glaring omission going to be corrected, Mr. Stevenson ?
And one more thing - you surely must be joking when you put together in the same sentence wine, or wine-producing (any wine!), and England. It's no secret that the British were the customers of the French since day one, and when thet temporarily dried up, the English became Spanish customers (translation=Rioja, that which almost passes for the Bordeaux (your beloved claret) you couldn't secure any longer). So, if I had a choice of sparkling from,say ...England, and Zimbawe, I'll choose Zimbawe - they have more experience in making "bubbly". They started exporting in 1975 (was that a good year for a Zimbawe vintage, Tom ?), so they preceded England by one year.
Nice book, fine graphics .. and an inexcusable mistake.