Oz Clarke's Wine Buying Guide 2001 [Paperback]

I bought this book on a whim while buying a few other things on Amazon. I love the odd glass of wine, but can't say I know much about it beyond what I like and don't like when I taste it. But this book is fantastic - it includes descriptions of all the best wines around, including their prices and advice on where to buy them. The author is really enthusiastic about his subject and isn't at all snobbish. I don't like to spend a lot of money on wine and was pleased to see that Oz's number 1 wine costs less than £10. The bargain basement and £5 sections are the parts I've made most use of - they've helped me find some real bargains over the past few weeks. I don't think I'll be turning into a wine buff anytime soon, but it's a nice feeling when the bottle you bring to a dinner party actually gets drunk with gusto, rather than left on the sideboard!!

Clarke's book is organised alphabetically, regardless of whether the entry is the name of a wine, a producer, a region or a grape variety - which makes it easy for newcomers to wine to use. The entries, too, lean more towards the New World (for example, no Chateaux Beauregard, Fonroque or Hosanna, no Tardieu-Laurent - though you may find them referenced in other entries).

As for the content in entries themselves - as in any other guide, the personal preferences of the author show through. To Clarke's credit, he is not afraid of "critiquing" the occasional wine.

This year's guide is sold (in the UK)with a free buying guide for the UK, with a shortlist of wines to buy this year, and a valuable directory of wine retail outlets and merchants.

Overall a good reference, although for French wines I prefer Hugh Johnson's guide.

Though living in Belgium, I bought this wine buyer's guide out of curiosity, and I wasn't disappointed. The book is nicely structured, in a producer and a retailer section, with a number of articles and factboxes sprinkled in between. While the first half mainly deals with different growing regions, and groups the selected wines in different price brackets, the second part describes interesting wine shops in the UK and their particular strengths.

Nice wine recommendations in all price categories can be found all over this book, whose modest size allows it to be carried along to the shops (a practical aspect that is often ignored by other writers of comprehensive wine guides such as Robert Parker, to name but one). However, there is a downside to the book's limited size, and the result is what seems to me quite an arbitrary and one-sided selection of wines: a load of Australian and Austrian, and very few German wines are featured, for example.

I may be slightly biaised because I'm German, and I know that Austrian wines can be as outstanding as the Germans, but Oz Clarke hardly bothers to talk about the crisp and low-alcohol Mosel and Rhein rieslings (which don't have an equivalent in Austria or Australia). It all very well to talk extensively about Hunter Valley rieslings from Australia, but they are hardly representative of this particular grape variety. In a wine buyer's guide for the British market (where German wines have traditionally had a big share of the market, especially in lower price categories) that seems strange.

The book is of limited use for those living outside the UK as all prices are given in pound Sterling, and only British retailers are included. There are other guides more suited if you plan to visit wine growers in Europe or the New World.

Nonetheless, it is a good and useful guide for all wine drinkers - from beginners to freaks - who buy their bottles in the UK, including the occasional visitor.