- Paperback: 224 pages
- Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group; Revised edition edition (14 Sep 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0316732427
- ISBN-13: 978-0316732420
- Product Dimensions: 17.6 x 13.8 x 1.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 502,944 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
| ||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
You might think that, prices apart, not much is going to change between one year's edition of Oz Clarke's Wine Buying Guide and the next. After all, we're all buying pretty much the same wines, aren't we? The wines Oz has done so much to popularise in his many books and television programmes: fresh, supple, lively young vintages from new or revivified growing areas such as South America, Australia and Eastern Europe. Not a bit of it. Wine is such a dynamic business, and drinkers' loyalties so mobile (or is that fickle?), that a year can bring enormous changes. Oz Clarke, his ear ever to the ground, reports that we seem to be getting bored with Chardonnay. Perhaps it's had its day. Could it be the Liebfraumilch de nos jours? Next year may tell.
The format and structure of this essential volume remain unchanged. An opening section of Best Buys, Supermarket Selections and Wine Buyers Choices is followed a comprehensive and informative Retailers Directory and then the serious stuff of prices by region. As always, one looks for the prices that take one's breath away, and sure enough, the '78 Romanée-Conti is there at £3,760 a bottle. Somebody must be able to afford it. For everybody else, this guide is packed with immense quantities of information about good wine, at, by and large, reasonable prices, and where to buy it. It represents an amazing feat of organisation. How does Oz Clarke do it, year after year?--Robin Davidson --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
The Sunday Telegraph
'If you haven't bought a copy, there is little hope for you.'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
32 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Format: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!!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.
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.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Careful: this is NOT the detailed price list
If you have an early edition, for example the 2001, you might think this is that book updated to 2007. NOT! This is a smaller, 'general guidlines' book. Read more
Published on 31 July 2007 by B. Evans
The top consumer guide - but beware the restictive outlook!
Clarke does it again - reliably helping the keen amateur through the maze, with hunour and enthusiasm. Read more
Published on 9 Feb 2002
This book is great
I have always been a great fan of Oz's on the BBC. It was great to find that his Wine Buying Guide is filled with the same easy style of communicating useful information. Read more
Published on 29 Nov 2001
vino fantastico
Oz Clarke's Wine Buying Guide is invaluable to find the bargains in wine shops in my area. And this year he has succeeded in demystifying what all those wine experts on the TV are... Read more
Published on 16 Jan 2001
A first class guide to supermarket and high street wines
An extremely well-researched and easy-to-use guide to the world's wines. This covers all major wine retail outlets and covers all wine styles and price ranges. Read more
Published on 6 Nov 1999 by Beverley Gould
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192198663_.gif){kind=small}
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
