Wine Grapes by Jancis Robinson

Review of Wine Grapes by Mark Greenaway

Firstly, I have nearly every book on wine grapes and I am not easily impressed. That said, this tome is expansive, exhaustive and impressive.

It covers nearly 1400 distinct grape varieties; has 1242 pages; a table of variety by country of origin; 14 pedigree diagrams; a large bibliography; and 80 colour plates taken from Ampelographie (1901-1910). This is the seminal French work, and even the 1991 reprint of the 7 volume work currently sells for about 1300 Euros.

Back to Wine Grapes.

Each variety has a description, grape colour, synonyms, origin and parentage, viticultural characteristics, where its grown and what it tastes like. There is at least 1 entry for every letter of the alphabet (for those fellow weirdos among you who are interested in such things).

This book looks very impressive, a solid hard cover book in an equally substantial sleeve. Its contents match its presentation.

This is an important piece of work that will appeal to everyone interested in wine and viticulture. For the serious student it covers the current grape genetics, thanks to the input of Jose Vouillamoz. For those of you that are trying to joining the "Wine Century Club", or upgrading to become a double, triple or beyond member, then this book is full of inspiration. For those just interested in alternative varieties, then this makes a great coffee table book to just pick up and read an entry.

In short, if you are only going to have one wine grape book, then this is it! (sorry Darby).

If you are looking for hints for Christmas presents, any wine lover would love to find this under the tree on Christmas morning, especially if they read Vinodiversity.