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Michael Broadbent's Vintage Wine: 50 Years of Tasting the World's Finest Wines (Hardcover)

by Christopher Foulkes (Editor), Michael Broadbent (Introduction) "Why, when the whole world is awash with new wine, do I spend so much time evaluating and re-evaluating the wines of the past, especially..." (more)

4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Product details

Hardcover: 564 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown (25 Sep 2003)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0316859648
ISBN-13: 978-0316859646
Product Dimensions: 25.8 x 20 x 4 cm

Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 298,248 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review
'The world's most experienced taster' - Wine Spectator Michael Broadbent has 'traded in and tasted a greater number of fine and rare wines than anyone else in the world' -The Oxford Companion to Wine 'Broadbent is the doyen of wine tasters and this covers thousands and thousands of bottles, some 100 years old' - THE GUARDIAN

Robert Parker
The fine art of writing intelligent tasting notes has no greater master than the incomparable Michael Broadbent.

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Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
Why, when the whole world is awash with new wine, do I spend so much time evaluating and re-evaluating the wines of the past, especially those of Bordeaux? Read the first page

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Concordance

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	45% buy the item featured on this page: Michael Broadbent's Vintage Wine: 50 Years of Tasting the World's Finest Wines 4.0 out of 5 stars (3)
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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews

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4.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)

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37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A compehensive and invaluable reference work, 14 Dec 2002

By A Customer

Although I suspect Mr Broadbent would shudder at the thought, comparions will inevitably be made between this book and those of Robert Parker, probably the broadest and certainly the most famous (or infamous) body of tasting notes by one individual available in print.

Perhaps the most fundamental difference is one of style. Parker's notes on any given wine tend to be of the order of two or three times longer than Broadbent's. By his own admission Broadbent is not "a great taster, merely a fairly conscientious one". As such his notes are pithy, concentrating the quality of the wine and its state of development rather than ransacking the vocabulary for different terms to describe, in minute detail, essentially similar smell and taste sensations.

Another important difference is the context, Broadbent's notes covering the full gamut from cask tastings at various Chateaux, through various formal tastings at auctions and wine societies to private dinners and, even in some cases family meals. This contrasts with Parker's notes, all written in the context of "professional tastings". While this arguably provides a more consistent basis upon which to compare the wines, it makes for much more clinical, and in my opinion, monotonous reading.

A particular feature of the Broadbent book is its depth, i.e. the range of vintages covered. Whereas Parker's books tend to cover wines recently released (or in the context of his regionally specific works, released in the last forty-or-so years), Broadbent's covers, uniquely as far as I know, vintages stretching back to the 19th and even late 18th centuries. This can be an invaluable aid in selecting older bottles for birthdays and anniversaries, as well as for buying or selling older wines at auction.

Broadbent's experience, knowledge and passion for the subject are all well documented, and all shine through equally in the book. Less expected, perhaps, are the warmth and humour which punctuate his entries: "I propose to leave my children Emma and Bartholomew two magnums each - if Daphne hasn't drunk them" . These show a down-to-earth, human side which I find reinforces my confidence in the soundness of his judgement.

There are of course eccentricities, such as his disdain for Spainish wines and his penchant for using "generous" (when describing his various hosts) as a synonym of "wealthy". However, these can be easily forgiven as there is also an honesty and humility to the work that is so patently missing in Parker. Who can imagine the latter admitting on the record that when presented with the Leoville Barton 1982 in bottle and double magnum at a "single blind" tasting, he guessed them to be the '59 and '61 respectively?

Warmly recommended.

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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!, 3 Dec 2002

By	"dicko2003" - See all my reviews

This book is an excellent catalogue of all Michael Broadbent's tasting notes from the last 50 years. And has he tasted some wine! A bible that will definitely come in handy for any lover of fine wines, can't recommend it highly enough.

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2.0 out of 5 stars Out of date, 28 Dec 2006

By	Paul Lawrence "Paul L" (bangor, N. Ireland) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Although this book was republished in 2006, the material has not apparently been updated and still relates to when it was originally published in 2003.
Although interesting, I would have thought that with a book as expensive as this, the author could have brought it more up to date when it was republished. A poor buy.

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