I too bought this book on Jancis Robinson's recommendation and I found it a mixed bag. He's very good on how modern industrial wines are made with the additions of colour and treatments to adjust alcohol. I also liked his comments on the more ludicrous pseudo-scientific pronouncements of biodynamic followers. HIs country by country sections are much more patchy. Austrian reds are dismissed in a sentence. This is crazy considering how good some are and how wine writers like Jancis herself and Tim Atkin have been praising them. Similarly the Languedoc is written about in terms of over-production whilst ignoring the fact that some of France's most exciting and best value wines come from here. I think the problem with the book is that the scope is too vast for the author to be authoritative on everything. When he writes about areas he knows about and loves, such as Tuscany, he is very good.
A mixed bag
I too bought this book on Jancis Robinson's recommendation and I found it a mixed bag. He's very good on how modern industrial wines are made with the additions of colour and treatments to adjust alcohol. I also liked his comments on the more ludicrous pseudo-scientific pronouncements of biodynamic followers. HIs country by country sections are much more patchy. Austrian reds are dismissed in a sentence. This is crazy considering how good some are and how wine writers like Jancis herself and Tim Atkin have been praising them. Similarly the Languedoc is written about in terms of over-production whilst ignoring the fact that some of France's most exciting and best value wines come from here. I think the problem with the book is that the scope is too vast for the author to be authoritative on everything. When he writes about areas he knows about and loves, such as Tuscany, he is very good.
I think I might write a whole blog post on it.
Henry