Amazon.com Review
As the brash, opinionated editor of the 2002 edition of the
Good Wine Guide, Robert Joseph--founder of
Wine magazine, columnist for the [London]
Sunday Telegraph, and Web site host--presents a glossy volume as unctuously meretricious as an over-oaked Chardonnay. With more than 300 hardbound pages, the
Good Wine Guide 2002 will never pass as one of the numerous "pocket" wine guides saturating the market, but it does share similar traits, albeit in puzzling proportions. Barely more than half the book is devoted to an A-to-Z of the entire world of wine, including terminology and producers (the entries for some of which being egregiously flip), while Joseph dedicates a whopping 18 pages to the preferred padding of pocket guides everywhere--food and wine matches. A risky chapter devoted to state-by-state retailers excludes California giant Beverages & More, but includes the defunct (later partially resuscitated) Wine.com; it's a lost gamble. Better are features such as full-color pages depicting wine labels from around the world and how to read them. And if California "White Merlot" does become the next big thing, it'll just prove that Robert Joseph is better at prognostication than presentation.
--Tony Mason
--This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
edition.
Review
Acclaimed wine writer and co-launcher of the world's biggest wine competition, "International Wine Challenge", Robert Joseph, brings all the information you will ever need about wine between the covers of this highly informative and often entertaining guidebook. From the background and insider's view of the industry through how to choose, store, and serve wine, to food/wine recommendations and an extensive 2003 wine catalogue including competition winners. The guide is well laid-out and easy to understand, intelligent enough to appease wine connoisseurs and simple enough for the novice. This is an ideal gift for all those interested in vinous facts and flavours. - Lucy Watson
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.