Customer Reviews

Oz Clarke S Grapes Wines C Np

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Completely updated, you can test this, learning the recent discoveries about the origins of Zinfandel and Primitivo grapes.(pag 293).
You can learn a little more about native portuguese grapes.
You would enjoy having a kind of glossary to "translate":
which grapes make which wines !,
so you can travel Europe strange names in the wine label, either from terroirs, clos, crus, vineyards, vignerons or wine-makers and evem fantasy names. Perfect for you, who love choosing wine by their grapes.
Schiffini, J. P. (Founder member of The Century Club)

Excellent resource for understanding grape origins,vintages, and vintners. Many pearls of knowledge that will lead to exlporing great wines.

I was very pleased with this book. It was in very good condition and the price was excellent. The book arrived very quickly after ordering.

Oz Clarke's Grapes & Wine takes a different tact than other large definitive coffee table-style wine books like Hugh Johnson and Janice Robinson's World Atlas of Wine, Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia, and Peter Forrestal's The Global Encyclopedia of Wine. Those books (and, indeed, Mr. Clarke's own New Encyclopedia of Wine) are organized based on countries and regions, while this book is organized by major grape varieties, which are arranged in alphabetical order.

As such (and despite what the title says), that makes this more of a guide to grapes than to wine. And that offers some advantages for a lover of, say, Chardonnay, who with this book can read and learn about they way the grape is used in California, France, and New Zealand, without having book markers protruding from three different chapters. The style of organization also allows for the history of a certain grape to be traced even when it crosses national borders, as is the case for every significant variety grown in the U.S. and many classic varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Nior, and Shiraz that have made names for themselves far from where they were originally cultivated.

But I believe the grape-oriented organization ultimately presents more problems than advantages.

From a purely logistical standpoint, it can be confusing because many grapes are known by different names in different places: what the Americans, Australians, and South Africans call Shiraz, the French call Syrah; what the French call Pinot Nior the Italians call Pinto Nero; and what people in one part of Tuscany call Sangiovese is referred to as Brunello, Prugnolo, and Morelino in other parts of the same region. Mr. Clarke solves this by listing the grape by its best-known name and making references to the others in the text (Shiraz and Syrah are listed in hyphenated form), but it might still be confusing to someone who became familiar with a grape by one of its lesser-known appellations.

Also, for a novice, it's not clear what grapes are tied to what kinds of wine in regions that don't reflect the variety on the label. So while the book does explain that red Burgundies are made from Pinot Nior and white Burgundies from Chardonnay, that Barolo and Barbaresco are both crafted from Nebbiolo, and that Chianti comes mostly from Sangiovese, the reader must first know these things before delving into the appropriate chapter.

But the most serious problem, I think, is that organizing chapters by variety presents a false choice: a light and crisp Chardonnay grown in New Zealand, for example, has more in common with the Sauvignon Blanc grown down the street than it does with a powerful and buttery Chardonnay from California. And what about regions known for blending varieties? In Bordeaux most wines are mostly Cabernet Sauvignon (Lafite Rothschild, Haut-Brion), but some very significant wines (Le Pin, Petrus) are made predominantly from Merlot.

That said, the book is packed with compelling writing and important and interesting information, and the photography is very strong (even if photos are for the most part a little small for my taste). This book, the last of three editions, was published only three years ago. Afterwards, editors divided the contents into two books: the aforementioned New Encyclopedia of Wine and Mr. Clarke's famous Encyclopedia of Grapes -- both of which I ought to be more familiar with. But after familiarizing myself with the high-level of Mr. Clarke's knowledge and his strong writing and at the same time being somewhat stymied by the way the book is organized, I can't imagine that the decision to divide these riches into two books wasn't a wise one.