Wine Companion - The Encyclopedia of Wines, Vineyards and Winemakers, 4th edition completely revised and updated (Relié)

The serious wine-lover need look no further than Hugh Johnson's Wine Companion for a comprehensive authoritative and easy-to-use source of information on the world's wines and winemakers. With its unique focus on the wine producers, combined with detailed background information and practical advice on how to enjoy wine to the full, few questions on wine are left unanswered in this exhaustive work. Add to this Hugh Johnson's renowned skills in bringing colour, life and refreshing insight to the page and the result is a trusty friend of a book for all wine enthusiasts a true companion indeed. This is the fourth edition of Hugh Johnson's classic reference book. Praised for its astounding wealth of information, it has been updated and expanded to take account of all the latest developments in the fast changing world of wine, be they scientific, cultural or geographic. The book starts with a close look at wine and how it is made, covering every aspect from the vine to the winery to the cellar. What are the main grape varieties, where do they grow and what wine styles do they produce? How does the red wine-making process compare to the white? What influences do soil and climate have on the final character of the wine? All these issues plus many more are addressed. The heart of the book follows next, with an in-depth, country-by-country tour of the world's wines. Each country is broken down into its wine regions, and for each the top producers are listed. With every entry comes a wealth of fascinating fact: what vineyard acreage the estate owns, how much wine it produces annually, what its track record bas been over the last few years, all followed by succinct but illuminating profiles. No corner of the wine-making world is left unexplored in Hugh Johnson's Wine Companion: from the classic (and emerging) regions of France, Spain, Italy and Germany to the new stars of Chile, Australia and South Africa, to the lesser-known producers of Morocco, Israel and the former USSR. To conclude is a practical section on enjoying wine, including how to serve and store wine, and matching wine with food. Hugh Johnson and his world-wide team of researchers and tasters have sifted through the great and aspiring producers, châteaux, estates and domaines to select only the best for this fourth edition. The result - an expert, reliable and complete guide, and a superb companion to Hugh Johnson's other classic reference books: the World Atlas of Wine and his annual Pocket Wine Book