Wine of Australia by James Halliday (2005) - Amazing Forecast is realized

 

This book was published in year 2000, then revised in 2003 & 2005 respectively. Compared to the Australian Wine Companion, it definitely would not contain as much information. It would more or less be a wine route guide for beginner travelers.

Interesting to see this book as a trace to the route of how James has nurtured his style of writing, redesign of content structure leading to his success in his Australian Wine Companion. If you look into this book, not much information to make you determine which vineyard to visit really, except his personal stars (1 * to 5 *****) that's really it. Slightly covering the family tree, yields, address, and type of wine famous didn't really arouse your interest much.

What you should look into INSTEAD is to see his capability of forecast. AMAZING! For those which rank as 3-4 *** / **** with a "V" next to it, representing "Denotes a winery whose wines are particularly well priced in the context of their quality". They after a decade of the issuance of this book, all become 5 *****!!! Some examples below:

Jancis Robinson’s Wine Course (2003) - Wine Book Review

Book Cover

Being a bookworm today crunching books in the library. Try to see if I can self-learn something more (though I have some un-touched books at home stacked up...) Here I come across Jancis Robinson's Wine Course. Let's do a book review.

Jancis is very witty and the book is amusing and full of humors. It has wide coverage of wine regions and what the style of those wine regions are like. This book is more for leisure and for wine lovers who have beginner’s wine knowledge, rather than an introductory course.

What I say so is because 1) each region only contains 1 page and half of it is more on geography and grape name. Not sure people may be able to associate the wine style and brands to these. This is more of terroir fundamental course; 2) the passage is really subjective e.g. on why Jancis thinks the Chablis quality is unstable.
For more educational or referencing purpose, readers should refer to her another book: “Oxford Companion in Wine”, which is more academic and wiki-like. This wine course book would be for beginner wine lovers and these are some side stories that made readers understand indirectly what contributes to the component of wine aromas and flavours.

I have long been admiring Jancis’ writing style, it is very journal-like and first person, therefore feel more narrative. Since having read her “How to taste wine”, you can tell in this Wine Course book, she has put together efforts from various books in more lament terms. That’s why this book can be so reader-friendly.

Before you decided to buy the wine course book, take a glimpse below on YOUTUBE for her first 8 minutes of 1st episode (in fact she posted 9 episodes for their first 8 mins on youtube). Very inspiring and eye-catching to watch. Don't miss your chance enjoying free browsing of vineyards with star anchor Jancis!