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Jancis Robinson

Wine Grapes: A Complete Guide to 1,368 Vine Varieties, Including Their Origins and Flavours Hardcover – November 6, 2012

by Jancis Robinson (Author), Julia Harding (Author), Jose Vouillamoz (Author)

338 ratings

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Winner of the James Beard Award for Best Beverage Book, Named "Best Drinks Book" by Wine & Spirits magazine, Faiveley International Wine Book of the Year, OIV Best Viticulture Book

"A fantastic Christmas present for any wine geek, and one that will provide an endless source of fiendish questions for quiz-setters" —The Guardian

An indispensable book for every wine lover, from some of the world's leading wine experts.

Where do wine grapes come from and how are grape varieties related to one another? What is the historical background of each one? Where are they grown? What sort of wines do they make?

Using cutting-edge DNA analysis and detailing almost 1,400 distinct grape varieties, as well as myriad correct (and incorrect) synonyms, this book examines grapes and wine as never before. Here is a complete, alphabetically presented profile of all grape varieties of relevance to the wine lover, charting the relationships between them and including unique and astounding family trees, their characteristics in the vineyard, and—most important—what the wines made from them taste like.

Presented in a stunning design with eight-page gatefolds that reveal the family trees, and a rich variety of full-color illustrations from Viala and Vermorel's century-old classic ampelography, the text will deepen readers' understanding of grapes and wine with every page. Combining Jancis Robinson's worldview and nose for good writing and good wines with Julia Harding's research, expertise, and attention to detail plus Dr. Vouillamoz's unique level of scholarship, Wine Grapes offers essential and original information in greater depth and breadth than has ever been available before. This is a book for wine students, wine experts, and wine lovers everywhere.

Print length

1280 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Ecco
Publication date

November 6, 2012
Dimensions

11.36 x 7.44 x 3.19 inches
ISBN-10

9780062206367
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Editorial Reviews

Review

James Beard Awards, Best Beverage Book -- 2012

Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, Hall of Fame for Best Wine Book -- 2012

Wine & Spirits magazine, Best Drinks Book -- 2012

Roederer Awards, Faiveley International Wine Book of the Year -- 2013

OIV Awards, Best Viticulture Book -- 2013

Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards, Best Drink Book -- 2012

André Simon Awards, Best Drink Book -- 2012

A fantastic Christmas present for any wine geek, and one that will provide an endless source of fiendish questions for quiz-setters -- The Guardian

‘A magnificent achievement: colossally informative, illuminating and intriguing -- Decanter.com

This book is a thing of beauty - classic, well written and splendidly illustrated - and will be a point of reference for decades to come. -- Bordeaux Undiscovered

“The most important wine book in years. -- Tom Wark, Fermentation

From the Back Cover

An indispensable book for every wine lover, from some of the world's leading wine experts.

Where do wine grapes come from and how are grape varieties related to one another? What is the historical background of each one? Where are they grown? What sort of wines do they make?

Using cutting-edge DNA analysis and detailing almost 1,400 distinct grape varieties, as well as myriad correct (and incorrect) synonyms, this book examines grapes and wine as never before. Here is a complete, alphabetically presented profile of all grape varieties of relevance to the wine lover, charting the relationships between them and including unique and astounding family trees, their characteristics in the vineyard, and—most important—what the wines made from them taste like.

Presented in a stunning design with eight-page gatefolds that reveal the family trees, and a rich variety of full-color illustrations from Viala and Vermorel's century-old classic ampelography, the text will deepen readers' understanding of grapes and wine with every page. Combining Jancis Robinson's worldview and nose for good writing and good wines with Julia Harding's research, expertise, and attention to detail plus Dr. Vouillamoz's unique level of scholarship, Wine Grapes offers essential and original information in greater depth and breadth than has ever been available before. This is a book for wine students, wine experts, and wine lovers everywhere.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0062206362
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ecco; Slp edition (November 6, 2012)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 1280 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780062206367
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.74 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 11.36 x 7.44 x 3.19 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #107,548 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Customer Reviews:
338 ratings

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5 star		87%
4 star		9%
3 star		1%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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Eonrunner

Dense and Delicious

Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2021

Verified Purchase

The scientific rigor here is illuminating. Even though I don't refer to this on a daily or perhaps even weekly basis, it is required for fleshing out history, lineage, and flavor contexts for varietals. To go back and forth between varietals and see parentage demystifies even more of the wine world. For example: Oh, Gruner Veltliner shares a parent varietal (Savignin) with Sauvignon Blanc? I suppose that's why they share many primary characteristics and can undergo incredibly similar vinification processes!

It's got pretty pictures too, haha. (But really, they're gorgeously detailed and informative)

If "The Wine Bible" is a first magnitude of wine knowledge and "The World Atlas of Wine" combined with "The Oxford Companion to Wine" is a second magnitude, "Wine Grapes" is the third magnitude along with importers/producers biographies and regionally specific books (see: "Champagne" by Peter Liem; "Sherry" by Talia Baiocchi; "Kermit Lynch: Adventures on the Wine Route"; "The Sommelier's Atlas of Taste"...).

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

Dragon Lung

A Great Work BUT!

Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2012

Verified Purchase

This is a fantastic piece of work by Jancis and her team, long awaited by me here in Hong Kong. I went for buying through the US amazon website. Here is the big BUT. Terrible printing and publishing. For a book of this price USD 120 by the time it got to me, the quality of the production of the book leaves a lot to be desired. Print is difficult to read due to poor black and white contrast. For anybody with eyesight issues I strongly advise you do not buy it. Many org charts (now available to download in Purple Pages website - thank you Jancis) are hidden the the spine of the book and hence not legible. What a shame. Hopefully the UK published version is better. As a book of reference I think it will go down in history as definitive but I would wait in the hope the publishers get their act together for future print runs. I would have given this 5 stars but ......

89 people found this helpful

Helpful

Daniel McKeown

Jancis does it again

Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2017

Verified Purchase

This book is amazing. It has become my go to for talking points about obscure grapes in my role as a sommelier. Some people have complained about the quality of the binding but I have seen none of that. Maybe it was a problem with an earlier edition that has been corrected. Illustrations are beautiful and there is a f@&$-ton of information here. Best book I've bought this year.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Doris Fanelli

Wine Grapes: A Complete Guide to 1,368 Vine Varieties Excellent Content, Unprofessional Production

Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2013

Verified Purchase

I don't work in the wine industry but my daughter does and I purchased this book as a gift for her. It's a standard text and it seems quite comprehensive. Why the bad rating? It is very poorly designed and produced. The book includes fold outs with part of their graphics bound deep into the gutter of the book making them unreadable. No excuse for this since there is at least 1" of unprinted area along the left margin of the foldout. A better book designer should have picked this flaw up and avoided it. It should have been a two volume publication. That would have eliminated so much of the graphics and text readability problems. Yes, two volumes would cost more than one; but this is a reference text that one keeps and the additional expense would be well worth it.
We're going to try writing to the publisher to see if we can get separate sheets of the full fold outs. After all, I paid for them.
This seems to be a very good reference that one would keep throughout a career in wine. No point in cheaping out on the book design and publication.

43 people found this helpful

Helpful

DPHBrooklyn

Waiting for Version 2.0

Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2013

Verified Purchase

This review was originally written for 205food.com

Kay Gray and Elmer Swenson had a child. Her name is Brianna. She has proven to be a fairly popular girl, particularly in the American Midwest, where the winters hardly faze her. Some have slandered Brianna -- "She comes from a promiscuous family," they say. It is true that her family tree is an amazing sight, with many clans represented, including the labrusca, rupestris, and aestivalis. But let's be charitable. Brianna is a grape, after all.

Wine Grapes: A Complete Guide to 1,368 Vine Varieties, Including their Origins and Flavors, is a big book, weighing seven pounds, comprising 1,242 pages. It was a massive undertaking, but its main pleasures are often not its size or its comprehensiveness. No, the joy here is in the littler things: the grape family trees, the DNA profiling, the grapes' geography, the authors' odd asides, and the lists of good producers of each grape.

This book has laudably big ambitions, but often stumbles. Like new software, version 1.0 of Wine Grapes is incomplete and not always user-friendly. Promising, yes, but one hopes it will assume a more perfect form in the future. But in the here and now, should you buy this book?

There are some reasons you may want to keep your hard-earned money:

• It is very expensive ($90 and up).

• It is awkwardly sized and does not have the format or illustrations that make for a good coffee table book. The color plates in the book are attractive, but not especially useful. Mainly, they seem to be a way to justify the book's price.

• This volume will not help you identify that unusual vine spotted by the side of the road. Unlike a field guide for trees or wildflowers, Wine Grapes doesn't include any detailed scientific drawings or descriptors. It is useless in these circumstances.

Then what is the book good for? In the preface the authors suggest that

…this book should prove a boon for growers trying to decide which vines might thrive in their particular circumstances…

Unfortunately, Wine Grapes is not really up to this task either. Certainly a grower could page through this very large book, noting grapes that might be suitable for his fields. It would be a good starting point. But there is no way for the grower to cross-match his particular circumstances to the grape varieties. An internet-based database would be much more useful than this book.

Nor is the information on each grape variety in Wine Grapes systematic or comprehensive. Ideally, the grape grower would like information on degree days, the length of the growing season, the suitability of different types of soils, and the susceptibility of the grape to various pests, at the least.

But the quality of information for each grape in this book is highly variable. Even major grape varieties lack information on degree day requirements, and for many grapes there is little information of any kind. For instance, the entry for Biancolella reads only "Late ripening." For some varieties the heading "Viticultural Characteristics" is simply missing.

The task of assembling complete information on 1368 grape varieties was no doubt extremely daunting, so it is understandable that the listed viticultural characteristics of the GF-GA 48-12 grape are sketchy. What is a bit hard to understand is the authors seeming indifference to what is known. For example, Maynard Amerine did extensive research on the compatibility of grape varieties and climatic zones many years ago, but his work is ignored. Instead, the authors treat Dr. Gregory V. Jones' (preliminary) "Climate Maturity Groupings" as if they are entirely new and novel.

The strength of Wine Grapes lies in three areas: the history and parentage of the grape (and synonyms for the grape), where the grape is grown, and which vintners produce the best versions of the variety.

The history and parentage sections are often very arcane, suitable reading for academics only. But sometimes they are fascinating too. Who knew that Savagnin is one of the oldest grape varieties or that Savagnin and Gewürtztraminer are genetically identical? In this case the DNA studies seem to have created some more opportunities for research. If Savagnin and Gewürtztraminer are genetically identical, why do they taste so different?

The section for each entry profiling where the grapes are grown lists France first, followed by Italy, Spain, Portugal and other European countries. This is useful information, but also awkward. In the case of Cabernet Franc, for example, plantings in Spain are described before those in the United States, even though America grows substantially more of the grape. No figure is given for total production in the U.S. Instead, plantings in each of the states (primarily California, Washington, New York and Virginia) are described. This makes one wonder. Wouldn't this be a better book if it were primarily a collection of maps, a "World Atlas of Grapes?"

Good producers for each grape and region are also listed, a real plus for those seeking new vinous experiences. Looking for a Minnesota Brianna? Check out Parley Lake Winery or Indian Island Winery.

Wine Grapes was certainly a substantial undertaking, and it is a valuable resource for academics and the geekiest among us. One can imagine a better book though. This improved book would be map-based and include more information on climate and soil types. This book might also come with a web site and database that would truly make it a valuable resource for growers. I look forward to Wine Grapes v.2.0.

14 people found this helpful

Helpful

D. Dunk

Great reference book.

Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2015

Verified Purchase

Excellent info and very interesting, though a bit overwhelming and goes into detail on more grapes than I'll ever need to know about. On the other hand, I've just gotten started using the reference book and have already found two additional sources of wine from a rare grape in Italy that is in very small commercial production. I'm very happy with the purchase, especially at the e-book price.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Rupert H. W. Barnes

Clear and very comprehensive

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 10, 2020

Verified Purchase

It is hard to imagine anything competing with this as the comprehensive textbook of wine grapes. This magnus opus features short articles on every grape variety imaginable both natural and laboratory developed. Each grape variety is ordered alphabetically with the following format: a guide to the colour; a list of the principal synonyms; a list of the varieties that the grape can be commonly mistaken for; a section on the origins and parentage of the grape; its vinicultural characteristics and finally a section of where the grape is grown and what it tastes like.

An excellent introduction clearly explains how to use the book and gives a good and reasonably technical overview of grapes and vinology. Certain grapes have been illustrated using plates taken from the leading early twentieth century work in the field Ampelographie by Viala and Vermorel. Further a number of pull out pedigree diagrams in effect showing a 'family tree' across certain interrelated varieties are excellent at showing and explaining relationships between many grape varieties.

Underpinning the entire work is the DNA profiling which has been conducted on all the grape varieties. Accordingly this book is not for the amateur but anyone with a string interest in wine (eg a WEST level 3) will find this a valuable reference tool which I suspect will be the leading text of its time.

2 people found this helpful

Kostas Lonis

Holy Bible

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 8, 2013

Verified Purchase

A huge book in every possible way one could look at it. Just the thought of the immense work that was required for it makes my had ache. The editing could have been a bit better, with my main concern being the diagrams that are not visible. Of course one could argue that I can download them for the web site (which I did) but that is not why I paid more than 100 euros for it (with the postage). The arguement about how thin are the pages and how small are the letters are valid, but on the other hand the alternative would be a book twice the size and weight. And I do like the fact that its one volume and not two.

This is a serious collective work, that requires a considerable amount of money and I strongly believe is only destined for those who are in the wine trade, wine students or just people that have a strong interest in wine. This is not something you would read casually sitting on the couch. The vast amount of information in this book, will be lost to someone who just drinks a glass of "(I don't care what) wine here and there".

7 people found this helpful

Mikhail Dubov

A classic book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 13, 2019

Verified Purchase

A classic, comprrhensive work on grape varieties. Lots of information and great print quality. A bit overpriced though.

Bruce Elliott-Bateman

Very comprehensive book.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 3, 2020

Verified Purchase

Loved it, the work that has gone into it amazing.

Jose Carrilho Granado

Key consulting book for any wine lover.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 4, 2018

Verified Purchase

Good sample of world wide grapes with a rigorous description por each type. Some Portuguese ones are missing.

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