The Oxford Companion to Wine

Going deeper than traditional buyer's guides and wine atlases, the Companion sought out contributions and advice from more than seventy authorities from around the world, including more than a dozen Masters of Wine. Its 3,000 alphabetically arranged entries range from brief identifications - What is a blanc de noirs? Where is Chateau Latour? - to fascinating longer essays on the intricacies of wine scoring, wine aging, and the nuances of judging a wine's color, aroma, and flavor. The entries explore all aspects of wine appreciation, the wine trade, and wine-making, including the very latest advances in viticulture and enology. All technical terms are fully explained, and the hundreds of useful drawings and photographs illustrate key processes. Other single subject entries include the great winemakers, vintner's terms, hundreds of individual grape varieties, and some of the important names in the wine world, including American wine judge Robert Parker and Michael Broadbent, head of Christie's Wine Department.