Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book is the world's best-selling wine book and gives up-to-the-minute information on growers, regions and over 6,000 wines. Pocket Wine lists the world's top wines, pointing out those offering the best value from every country, and reveals the wines to drink in 2001. It includes expert tasting notes and advice on matching wine with specific dishes and ingredients. Winemaking and grape varieties are explained and vintage reports are provided. - Completely revised and updated for 2001 - The world's favourite wine guide - More than 400,000 copies sold annually - Lists over 6,000 wines - Personally recommended producers and estates
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Amazon Review
If anyone should know what he's doing with a work of this kind, it's Hugh Johnson. Not much bigger than a bar of chocolate, his Pocket Wine Guide 2001 packs an extraordinary amount of highly organised information into its 280-odd pages. First published in 1977, this was the prototype for such miniature works of reference and it remains among the very best. Encyclopaedic in format, it concentrates on the major wine-producing countries, listing for each practically all the terms a wine drinker or buyer is likely to come across, be they grape varieties, appellations, significant wine towns, vineyards or wineries, major wine dealers and shippers or common items of local terminology. Of course, the main value of the guide lies in the thousands of pithy, authoritative assessments of individual wines and vintages. Johnson has evolved an easily apprehended system of rating by stars, with accompanying vintages printed in bold (for drinking now) or red (especially recommended for drinking in 2001) for emphasis. Although the lion's share of the guide is devoted to France, it is probably now true that most of the wine bought for everyday drinking is now from the New World or perhaps Eastern Europe. The extraordinary upheavals in the world of wine in recent years, and the overall world-wide improvement in quality, are as always reflected in this guide. It's fascinating to watch Hugh Johnson as it were scanning the horizon for change. --Robin Davidson
Review
This special edition of a much-loved (and much-thumbed) guide celebrates the new millennium with predictions for the future of the wine world. Now in its 25th year of publication, this invaluable companion offers up-to-date news on more than 6,000 wines, growers and regions, plus detailed vintage notes revealing which wines to drink and which to keep. There is all the information you'll need to select anything from a weekday wine to a prestige vintage for investment. Also included are vintage charts, maps and unique insider tips on where to buy and consume wine when travelling. Expert tasting notes and hints on serving wine and matching wine with food complete the picture. Hugh Johnson's authorial voice is, as ever, warm, authoritative and enthusiastic - what bibber could resist?
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By Jules
Format:Hardcover
The author's own preface to this pocket compendium sums it up perfectly. You will find in this book the vast majority of the basic information you need to choose wines in a shop, a restaurant, on holiday - even from your own cellar. It is an immensely valuable resource and as yet, I know of no other published book which can compete. It is well organised, well written, reassuringly comprehensive and excellent value.
Anyone looking for detailed profiles of particular producers or wines is barking up the wrong tree. You simply can not compare this book to, say, a Parker wine buyer's guide. Besides which, you would look and feel a bit silly wading through a huge reference book in a restaurant. But this little companion works well if mixed with intuition and some common sense.
I have bought nearly every annual edition of this book for the last 21 years. Out of my library of over 45 books on wine, this is still the one I would choose to save if faced with imminent shipwreck. The torture would be in not being able to save any bottles !
My only criticism comes from a suspicion that Hugh Johnson himself has less and less to do with the book with each new edition - hence four rather than five stars. But as one previous reviewer said, the book would make a great present for both amateur and serious wine lover alike.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I have the collection and the large Atlas of wine from Hugh Johnson. I think that if anyone is respected for his ability to review wine's it's Hugh. I know several of the best educational institutions in the tourism/food and drink industry use his books as a reference guide. His Annual Guides are a great way to keep up to date with the new developments and make a great gift for any wine enthusiast at a very resonable price.
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
I have bought this book almost every year since 1990, with a growing dissatisfaction. It is excellent for the interested non-professional "beginning" wine-lover. Very handy (small size), good information in general, on vintages, grapes, areas, terms, etc., etc. Specially informative on Bordeaux and other areas of France (most of the book is dedicated to this hugely interesting but still small corner of the wine world). Similar can be said for Italy, Germany and a couple of other established wine-making countries. But the tiny little sections on New World wines, the best buys for the average consumer in the era of "suicide"-pricing of French and increasingly also Italian and Spanish wines, is totally out of perspective. Travelling to these countries and using the book for advice is too close to useless in my opinion.
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
I love wine, i love wine-books, i love Hugh Johnson. I buy his guide every year (i prefer it more than clarke's), so I have done it recently. As usual it is a great help for me - the tips for Argentina wines were perfect. If you want to spend some money on wine, it is a perfect investment.
14 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
If you are looking for ratings of specific wines or information on specific growers (like whether they are open for tastings) you will be dissappointed by this guide. The entries are just too brief to be useful.
For example the entry for Robert Mondavi is a short paragraph which starts with a rating of two to four stars (on a scale of one to four). It then goes on to list the names of some of the wines that Mondavi produces, both in the US and elsewhere. This gives no idea which of Robert Mondavi's wines are good (worth four stars) and which are okay (worth two).
Often an appelation only gets a one or two line entry, with perhaps the name of the most notable wine or grower getting a mention. Not really much help.
2 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Few people have tasted enough wines and can remember them so that they can pick out the best buys when confronted with many unexpected choices. As a result, many people will purchase disappointing and overpriced wines . . . thinking they have made a good choice. Take this little guide with you, and you will soon be rewarded with much better drinking at your meals.
Obviously, the wine connoisseur who can afford to drink the best and lay in extensive stocks to age will seldom be caught out, having done great research in the past. The person who is trying to drink well on a budget will be the primary beneficiary.
Restaurants in particular often stock what they got a deal on, and may offer vintages that are not yet ready to drink or are undistinguished.
The section on foods and wines will give you some new ideas on how to more closely complement a specific meal.
If you do find yourself with a magnificent wine list in front of you (and can afford it), there's a brief list of the ultimate wines to drink in an ideal world.
The book also has directions for ideal temperatures to serve the wines, so when the sommelier asks you about preparation you can have more definite ideas.
Most of the book is divided into geographic region, winery, wine type, quality, vintage information (including which ones are ready to drink), and limited notes about specific characteristics. It's a very broad and superficial source, but takes you past what you would know without it. The advice is based on Hugh Johnson's tastings and those of over 40 friends whom he acknowledges.
By the way, I think this book would make a marvelous gift to someone who is often treating you to rather bad wine at expensive prices. Then, you both will receive a gift.
A votre sante!
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