Any number of guides offer to make wine a pleasant, predictable and unthreatening experience for the average British drinker. This is not one of them. Instead The Wild Bunch ventures beyond the clean, fruity and - let's face it - bland bottles which cram today's supermarket shelves to introduce a whole spectrum of unexpected flavours.
In this provocative survey of what he calls 'the unreported wine revolution' Patrick Matthews encounters a new wave of growers and producers who are taking wine back to its regional roots. They are opinionated, perfectionist and unpredictable - obsessed with authenticity and purity rather than high technology and marketing. And as they are at work all over the wine world, not just in the top notch regions, they can provide startlingly good value. At a time when drinkers are defying marketing wisdom with their enthusiasm for diversity and regional character, this is an entertaining and necessary guide to wines which have something to say - wines with a story to tell.
