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Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book 2009: 32nd Edition
Average Customer Review : 5.0/5 based on 3 reviews
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List Price : $14.95
Price : $10.17
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Editorial Reviews
Hugh Johnson is the world’s pre-eminent writer on wine; he’s won legions of fans with his keen ability to make this sometimes complex topic wonderfully lucid. Every year his popular pocket guide is a global bestseller, reaching number one in the market. For 2009, this classic gets a complete revision. Maintaining the same authoritative tone and clarity of presentation that have always characterized his work, Johnson now includes a special 16-page, full-color article on food and wine as well as new introductions and feature boxes for every country. In addition, the guide boasts up-to-date news on more than 6,000 wines, growers, and regions from world experts, with invaluable vintage information, and special indications of which wines Johnson has especially enjoyed over the past 12 months. Plus, this is a great key reference for wine-investors and collectors, with four levels of vintage information detailing which wines to drink now and which to cellar. It’s the perfect companion and format for the travelling wine enthusiast.
Hugh Johnson and his galaxy of expert contributors have refreshed the text more than ever to ensure that this book remains the definitive annual guide to wine.
Spotlight Reviews
A great little wine gide (2009-01-04)
Customer Review : 5
This is a great little book. It has a lot of good information in it, and it's very conveniently sized.
Since there's a lot of good about this book, I'll start with what I don't like.
First of all, the dust jacket gets in the way. The book has a chart inside the front cover that gives a snapshot of various wine vintages. The dust jacket covers them.
The book is fairly comprehensive, but it omits wineries from the midwest. There may not be a lot of wineries that are any good in the midwest, but I don't think they should be dismissed out of hand.
Okay, that was it for my complaints.
Now on to the good.
I like the size of the book. It will easily fit into a coat pocket or a purse. Lacking either of those, the book is small enough to be easily carried with you to the wine shop.
The book covers an amazing number of wineries given its small size. Granted, each winery only gets a couple of lines, but the information it gives is straightforward and useful.
The book is intelligently laid out. It is organized by country (and region, where needed). It also has indexing on the spine to delineate the country/region.
I did a little bit of spot checking to compare the book's impressions of wineries with my own observations. Of course, I had to start with Sokol Blosser. Johnson says, "superb wines throughout with an esp outstanding Pinot N..." Good to know he agrees with me. Oh, and he gave them 3-4 stars. I next looked at Viu Manent, which I recently reviewed. Johnson gave them 1-2 stars, which pretty much sums up my feelings for them.
I won't bore you with further details, but I found Johnson to concur with my assessment of every winery I looked at. That's either good for me, or bad for Johnson. Either way, I will be using this book as I shop for wines.
Besides providing information on wineries, the book also has a convenient section on wine/food pairings. This alone is worth the purchase price.
Whether you're a wine aficionado or a neophyte, I highly recommend this book.
This review originally posted on www.brianonwine.com
I'm never without a copy (2008-11-11)
Customer Review : 5
I buy this book every year and still have a copy of the original 1977 edition. It is amazing how much information is contained in a "pocket" book. I own a retail wine store and recommend this book to my customers (and send them to Amazon as I can't match the price!). Of course I do not agree with all the information/ratings in the book, but I'm just one palate. However I love Hugh Johnson's comments about "scores". The thought anyone can really taste the difference between an 89 point wine and a 90 point wine is ridiculous, but I know it makes a big difference in retail as many people are "point buyers" and do not rely on their own palates.
By far my favorite pocket wine guide (2008-10-24)
Customer Review : 5
This is the latest and greatest from the very long-running series of pocket guides from Hugh Johnson. Johnson has long been known as authoritative by any measure, but many value him most for his down-to-earth approach to wine. When it comes to this guide, "Pocket" is beginning to be a stretch. This edition runs 320 pages and the guide is now nearly an inch thick!
While you would think the extensive coverage would be sufficient, trying to cover available wines in a pocket guide in a world where ever more wine is available in ever more places is a losing proposition. Take it to a restaurant and, chances are, a fair number of the available mainstream wines will be listed. If the restaurant has a deep list, however, or if it's a specialty restaurant, many will not be.
This guide is still worth having and toting along, particularly if you do not have ready access to an alternative. Shortly, such portable print guides will go the way of the world in favor of online guides and those adapted to mobile devices, however. Wine Spectator has their Wine Advocate Mobile software, with full access to their 200,000 wine listings, for example. Parker has his website subscription service. There are many others. Johnson himself had software at one time, though I don't know if it has been kept up-to-date. The barrier for most people is the device and their current cell phone service.
If you are getting ready to update your cell phone or service, have a look at the newer alternatives. I can personally attest to the usability of the iPhone for internet access. If you are not up for such a change, in hard copy pocket guides, there are none I like better than this one.
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