Oz Clarke's Wine Buying Guide 2001 Book

In its way, Oz Clarke's Wine Buying Guide, now entering its 17th edition, is a great monument to the astonishing transformation that has overtaken all aspects of wine in the last decade or so. We're fortunate to be buying and drinking wine at a time when the word can encompass not only the immense grandeurs, and staggering prices, of a Chateau Pétrus or a Romanée-Conti (£3,285.89 and £2,937.50 a bottle for the respective 1961 and 1978 vintages), but the supple, attractive new-style wines that are being made so much now, and are so widely available through supermarkets and retail chains. This huge range is exactly what this book is all about and is what makes it an essential handbook for any buyer of wine, at whatever level this takes place. Covering the main wine-producing countries and regions, it lists the principal producers and/or appellations as appropriate, then proceeds to its main business of listing prices. Oz Clarke is a great populariser, completely free of prejudice and cant, passionate (and serious, which is not the same thing at all) about his subject--qualities which are reflected in his Guide. Alongside the useful but potentially rather dry price lists, his commentaries are chock-full of advice, on-the-nail discriminations and irresistible enthusiasm. "That disturbing smell of engine oil and mouthwash, do I want it in my mouth? Hell, yes." --Robin DavidsonRead More