Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book 2006 - Hardcover

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

Hugh Johnson is acclaimed as the world's favourite wine writer. His rare talent for making the most complex subjects readable, with wit and humour, has led to a remarkable sequence of books. His first book and internationally bestselling Wine was published in 1966, and subsequent titles, including The World Atlas of Wine and Wine Companion (both now in their fifth editions), Story of Wine, The Illustrated Story of Wine, The Art and Science of Wine, and How to Enjoy Your Wine, have established him as one of the subject's foremost writers.