The Oxford Companion to Wine

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The Oxford Companion to Wine is a book in the series of Oxford Companions produced by Oxford University Press. The book provides an alphabetically arranged reference to wine, compiled and edited by Jancis Robinson OBE, MW, with contributions by several wine writers including Hugh Johnson, Michael Broadbent, MW and James Halliday.[1]

The contract for the first edition was signed in 1988, and after a five year writing process it was published in 1994.[2] The second edition was published in 1999 and the third edition was released in 2006. The third edition contains nearly 4,000 entries over ca. 800 pages with contributions of 167 people. Entries concerning individuals are limited to a strict criteria of "a long track record" and "global significance", hence French worldwide consulting oenologist Michel Rolland and even Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev have an entry, while California oenologist Helen Turley is omitted.[3] Also, there is no entry on Jancis Robinson herself.

Having received several awards, including the André Simon Memorial Award and the Glenfiddich Award,[1] it has been described as "the most useful wine book ever published",[3] and "the one essential book for any wine-lover".[4] The book is so well-established as a definite reference concerning wine that many have expressed surprise about how recently the first edition was published.[2]

ISBN 9780198609902.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Kissack, Chris, thewinedoctor.com. Wine Books: Jancis Robinson.
  2. ^ a b gremolata.com: Jancis Robinson Interview, accessed on April 4, 2008
  3. ^ a b Steinberger, Mike, Slate (October 31, 2006). The Most Useful Wine Book Ever.
  4. ^ Asimov, Eric The New York Times (December 6, 2006). Settling in, Glass in Hand, to Read of Wine.

[edit] External links

 
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