Robert Parker has sniffed, gurgled and ejected through the kasbah which is Bordeaux. There is hardly a chateau or a shack which hasn't been stormed by General Bacchus in his efforts to give, on the one hand, a concise, factual report on the property and, on the other, his own, very personal evaluation of the wine through as many vintages as he has tasted.

The author is very opinionated and others do not always share his views. After all, the test of a wine is as much about the drink itself as it is about the type of glass used, the food with which it is taken and the surroundings and company with which it is enjoyed. He does, however, wield an enormous amount of power. His bimonthly newsletter can make or break wines on the commercial market, doubling the cost of a top-scoring wine compared to that of its immediate peers within weeks of the Parker Pronouncement.

This is an invaluable book for anyone who adores Bordeaux wines or wants to hear the views of a knowledgeable companion on their trip through the minefield of styles and vintages. --Nick Tarayan

Synopsis
Who is making Bordeaux's best and worst wines? What has a specific chateau's track record been over the last 40 years? Which chateaux are overrated or underrated? These are the questions Robert Parker answers fully in the new edition of his comprehensive and authoritative guide to the wines of Bordeaux. His vintage-by-vintage reports demonstrate thoroughness and discernment and he has set uncompromising standards in assessing each vintage from 1961 to 1997 for every major chateau. Each vintage is described in detail for taste, colour, quality and anticipated maturity, so you can see at a glance which wines are ready to drink now and when to enjoy those that are still maturing. For each chateau, Parker also provides details of how vineyards are planted, yields, annual production and style of vinification. He takes you through each of the famous Bordeaux regions and gives the official 1855 classifications, the crus classes and crus bourgeois, for each chateau along with his own appraisal of each one.

Many chateaux long regarded as producing high-quality wines receive surprisingly low evaluations and Parker argues that many little-known chateaux ought to be upgraded on the evidence of the wines they have produced in the last 40 years. His assessment of the value of Bordeaux's top wines, including second labels of major chateaux as well as hundreds of under-publicized estates, make this a useful book for the wine buyer.