Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book 2005 (Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book)
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Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book 2005 (Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book) description
For everything there is a season, and in the world of wine the calendar is defined by bud break, fruit set, harvest, and the arrival of the latest edition of Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book. Celebrating the sale of more than 7 million copies of editions spanning a quarter century, the 2002 publication provides an updated addition to the prestigious and prolific wine writer's popular series of pocket-sized reference books. With delineated chapters--some merely a page long--Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book: 2002 follows a standard format: wine trend prognostication, a brief description of the current vintage (here the 2000 harvest), a reexamination of 1999, glossary of grape types, and food and wine matches. The book's bulk is composed of an alphabetical listing of short entries--mostly wineries--subdivided within geographical chapters. Johnson can be stylish, even witty (a lively Vernaccia pairs well with a dish of grey mullet: not the one "on the heads of aging rock stars"), but aside from the opening few pages, there's a decidedly ghostwritten feel to the proceedings. Indeed, the acknowledgments list over 40 "kind friends," including several regionally based wine writers, for their "special knowledge," most notably of some smaller producers. But for someone of Hugh Johnson's stature, to allow, once again, in the 2002 edition the Syrah grape to be identified as identical to Petite Sirah--friends, kind or not, shouldn't let friends get away with that sort of thing. --Tony Mason |
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Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book 2005 (Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book) Customer Reviews
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Lees is more?
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Last weekend my wife asked that I clear some of the debris out of the bookshelves in the library, and as I made my way through my wine books I found an edition of Hugh Johnson's 1990 Pocket Encyclopedia of Wine. Now this isn't exactly equivalent to stumbling on a first edition of Paradise Lost, but it's what passes for palpable excitement in my house. Just as I was sitting down to write a review of the 2006 Pocket Wine Book, this veritable antique magically appeared.
So I naturally set out to see what had changed in the past 16 years. The book is almost exactly the same dimensions-I guess pockets haven't changed much. It will still slip into an interior coat pocket, though it would probably feel somewhat unwieldy there given its 8" length.
How to contrast the two editions? I thought it might be fun to pick a Bordeaux chateau and see what HJ has to say 16 years apart. Let's do one that has no small amount of controversy around it these days, say Chateau Pavie.
1990. Splendidly sited first-growth of 100 acres on the slope of the Cotes. Typically rich and tasty St. E, particularly since 1982.
2006. Splendidly sited first-growth; 37 hectares of mid-slope on the Cotes. Great track record...this is new wave St. Emilion: thick, intense, sweet, mid-Atlantic and the subject of heated debate.
Plus ca change? Hardly. Other than the fact I have no idea what he means by mid-Atlantic (good with crab cakes?), this is what you can expect from the 2006 Pocket Book of Wine. It reminds me of the genie's description of his state in Disney's Alladin-"incredible cosmic power, itty-bitty living space." Translation for this guide: incredible density of information in a tiny package. Also not so sure about the conversion to the metric system, but maybe I wasn't paying attention when the Brits switched over to the dark side.
Let's just pick one more comparison of '90 and '06 at random before we move on. I opened the '06 Guide about 2/3 of the way through and landed on Croatia. There I found a page-and-a-half of definitions and producer descriptions for a region from which it may well be another 16 years before I actually get to try a wine-or want to. HJ has been there and done that. By way of contrast, the 1990 Guide has but two pages dedicated to all of Yugoslavia, including Croatia. There's no separate heading for Slovenia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro or Macedonia like you'll find in 06. Now that's progress.
1990. Dingac. Heavy sweetish red from local Plavic (grape), specialty of the mid-Dalmatian coast.
2006. Dingac. Vineyard designation on Peljesac's steep southern slope. Made from partially dried Plavic Mali, producing a full-bodied jammy red but emerging as a robust and dry red that supports oak and bottle aging. Highly esteemed and expensive. Look for Bura, Kiridzija, Matusko, Milicic, Skaramuca..
So what have we learned? A bunch. Much has changed (understatement of the year) in Croatia, and HJ has chronicled it with both great precision and concision. You get the geography, the grape variety, the nature of the wine and notable producers in a couple of terse phrases. That's hard to do.
What's the secret to this book? It's just crammed with facts, like force-feeding a goose to get foie gras. Here's a partial inventory of what's contained in this diminutive Dionysian dynamo (I must be getting tired):
Vintage reports on 2004 and 2003. Summaries of grape varieties both great and obscure. Wine and food suggestions including a section on cheeses. Suggested wines to drink in 2006. Sections on what must be every wine-growing region in the world, including high-level maps, regional designations, vintage charts, producer profiles, appellation and vineyard descriptions, and terminology definitions. For every standalone producer (eg Antinori): star rating from 1-4; concise color commentary calling out any particularly fine/consistent wines. For a single site, eg Bordeaux chateau: commune, star rating, recent good vintages, vintages for current drinking, brief comments, second wines. A quick reference vintage chart across regions; a small glossary of technical terms; serving temperature recommendations; and an explanation of Hugh Johnson's idiosyncratic scoring system (best score=the whole vineyard, i.e. it's so good I'd just buy the whole damn thing) and more.
If I continue with this review it will soon be longer than the book itself. No doubt: it delivers on what it advertises. Sure it misses some ultra-fine details, but it would be a fantastic reference for someone who doesn't mind carrying it around, an ideal use case, for example, being one of those times you're stuck in an unfamiliar store and just want to find something that won't be awful. Or if you're not that knowledgeable about wine and are willing to suffer the ignominy of pulling out a relatively small and inconspicuous book while you peruse a restaurant wine list. Or if you have no freakin' idea what Ukrainian wine to drink while you're making pysanky, this is the book for you. |
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Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book 2005 (Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book) Books In Print, Audio Books.