I have only had this book for a few weeks now, but it has already really come in handy. Whenever you get a new wine from a new area, you can quickly look up factoids and info. It really makes drinking new wines more enjoyable to know some info about what you are getting.

Understand though, that this is essentially an encylcopedia/reference book, not something you would sit around and read casually (unless you read Encyclopedias casually).

The book also contains some nice regional information with maps, so some of the more obscure new world wines become more accessible with this book in hand.

Finally, this is an excellent gift for any wine lover...they will certainly get use and enjoyment out of it.

The Oxford Companion To Wine - 3rd Edition is a complete encyclopedea of wine. All you need to know about wine is here in alphabetical order for quick and easy reference. A masterpiece for wine professionals and students alike.
Highly recommended.

Reno Spiteri, BBA.,MBA.,
Wine Professional.

Great wine anthology and info. Wonderfully written and properly annotated. My only complaint would be that it is not easy to know where to start in this book if you are a complete beginner, as it's not easy to know where to start in the world of wine.

One of my best purchases!

This is my second wine book, the first being Karen McNeil's Wine Bible. I think both complement each other very nicely. In a nutshell, for a book that covers everything about everything on wine, Robinson's book is it! It is wonderfully organized and is a true encyclopedia. While it has more limited depth on some subjects, it certainly wins in the breadth of topics covered. McNeil's Wine Bible, on the other hand, is less of an encyclopedia while still being a reference. It does not cover nearly as much breadth at all, but what it does cover goes into greater depth.

I gave this book as a Christmas present and my friend couldn't have been any happier!
He's found it amazing and intresting, now everytime he's told about some wine he doesn't lose the chance to look it up!
Highly recommended, an amazing and easy to read great book.

I bought this book for my husband, who is the ultimate wine connoiseur. It tells you everything you ever wanted to know about wine - and more. It's like the encyclopedia Brittanica for wine - so if you want to invest in a book about wine that is attractive, user friendly, and will always have the answer to your wine question - here it is!

I wanted a book that would give me a starting point of the fundamentals in wine, the basics. However, this book goes over the top in detail. A little too much for what I was expecting. It is in my opinion the encyclopaedia of wine. No matter, no need to purchase anything else concerning this particular subject.

Great tool to clarify any doubts you might have about wine regions, types of wine, grape varieties, etc.

Excellent book, contains just about anything anyone would want to know about wine from growing the grapes to describing the different varieties of wines.

Cheaper than anywhere else. The book came in 4 days with the free super saver shipping. Amazon rules.

This is a must have reference book for all wine enthusiasts, wine professionals, students of wine, and sommeliers.

I would recommend this for anyone interested in wine from the novice to Robert Parker (I'm betting he has a copy). Four friends have purchased this book after looking at mine.

The Oxford Companion to Wine is a great encyclopedia for wine lovers. It covers a great breadth of topics, deeply enough to be informative, but in a short enough fashion to keep this under 1000 pages. Coverage includes wine growing regions, wines, vine varietals, wine making, barrel making, bacteria, and on and on.

One thing this is not - it's not a review/criticism of specific wines (which tend to become out of date too quickly to be useful in book form).

Highly recommended.

Along with most of the reviewers here, my wine-knowledgeable friends, to whom I gave this book as a wedding anniversary present, were extraordinarily pleased. They tell me that they learn something new from it every day, and that it has "everything about wine" within its covers.

I have been working in the wine industry for many years and I have never come across a more complete reference book. It is worth every cent.The Oxford Companion to Wine, 3rd Edition

The Oxford Companion to Wine is one of the best books about wine that I have seen.

Having a healthy interest in wine (don't drink too much most of the time) this answers so many of the questions that I've had over the years. It gives many of the expected details of different wine regions and wine classifications throughout the world in great detail. It also gives information on the winemaking process, the different varieties, how to consume wine (storage, tasting), qualities and faults in wine, famous personalities/labels in wine and wine history. All this with some beautiful fullpage photographs, maps and diagrams. Makes a great present and should be a mandatory accessory for anyone with a substantial wine collection.

While I've found the book book very informative and helpful, pages 601-624 are missing. I guess I shouldn't complain though, since I have pages 625-648 twice. Has anyone else noticed this in their 3rd edition? I can't believe mine is the only copy where this mistake has occurred.

Fabulous help for all wine lovers. Easy to find information and great photos. A must have for casual wine lovers and professionals alike.

I will keep this brief. This is the holy grail of wine knowledge. There is no finer reference that covers as wide a range of topics as this. My favorite part of this text is that other covered topics within a story have highlights so that you can flip to a new, related topic and expand your knowledge, much like a hyperlink on the web.

I am a Master of Wine student and this is indespensible. Buy this first then grab the World Atlas of Wine and the Sotheyby's Wine Encyclopedia. These are the three books that should be the cornerstone of any wine library.

This is an excellent resource for any topic related to wine. It is well researched and written, containing a wealth of information for any wine enthusiast. It is easy to navigate and read, making it highly recommended. Enjoy!

This book is truly incredible and can best be described as an encyclopedia of wine. Printed on 816 pages of fine paper with sporadic full color photographs and pencil drawings, it is atypical of other books on wine. There no novice section, stemware identification guide or chapter on building your own cellar. This is the book you want in you hands to aid in locating those rare areas of production and defining little known terms. Robinson draws on approximately 150 contributors, highly qualified experts in their respective fields, to author select entries.

Joseph Broski (Dionysian Society International)

This book is truly incredible and can best be described as an encyclopedia of wine. Printed on 816 pages of fine paper with sporadic full color photographs and pencil drawings, it is atypical of other books on wine. It contains There no novice section, stemware identification guide or chapter on building your own cellar. This is the book you want in you hands to aid in locating those rare areas of production and defining little known terms. Robinson draws on approximately 150 contributors, highly qualified experts in their respective fields, to author select entries.

TO BE CONTINUED

Joseph Broski (Dionysian Society International)

These are the best books on wines world i've ever seen. I'm learning a lot.

The Oxford Companion has met our expectations very well. Highly recommended for general information about wine and related topics; this is not a "what wine to buy for tonight" guide.

ds

search anything about wine? it's there. Just great, very accurate and up-to-date. The only disadvantage in my view is that for complete information about some subjects you have to follow refences throughout the book. On the other hand is that a great way to browse it.
In all respects a book worth recommending!

It's a great encyclopedia, but here's a couple of suggestions on how to make it even better...

1) Next to each entry, put in phonetics or some sort of pronunciation guide. People would like to sound intelligent when they speak too, not just when they read.

2) Wine Region maps should be colored, not just black & white.

3) Grape varieties should have nice colored pictures next to them.

Its the best book about wine I ever read. Full of information, with an easy organization, with the entries alphabetically displayed. This is the real wine bible. Perfect!

On another review, I mentioned that you need more than one book if you are serious about wine. But this is the most comprehensive work on wine I've seen, and one of the "must-have" in your collection. If you are interested in the ratings of specific wines or wineries, you need to get other books in addition to this.

On another review, I mentioned that you need more than one book if you are serious about wine. But this is the most comprehensive work on wine I've seen, and one of the "must-have" in your collection. If you are interested in the ratings of specific wines or wineries, you need to get other books in addition to this.

This is a tour de force. How Jancis managed the monumental task of updating so much information makes the mind boggle. It is a veritable encyclopedia for the serious wine connoiseur.

Wine is a very good enciklopedi review of international wines. It comprises regions, wines, history, marketing data and so on. Useful data on wine production and testing are included. It is quite easy to find the object you are interested in. There are useful maps of wine regions across the world.
I would like quite frequently to find more quantitative data including tables and graphs, comparisons. But especially I missed the data about the amount of alcohol, amount of acids, minerals and aromates quantitatively.
I am enyoing vhen reading this book inspite that I am wine lover, not professional.

The Oxford is basically the bible for wine. Very thorough and a great reference. This is *the* book. Just get it.
One comment about the reviewer who said, "A lot of money for a text book that is not a consumer's guide" - my reply? Duh. Look what you wrote - It's an encyclopedia, not one of the multitudes of consumer guides. Know what you are talking about before writing a review. As far as consumer guides, Oz Clark and Robert Parker both produce consumer/buying guides where you can look specific producers.

this encyclopedia had everything regarding winiculture and viticulture. great for any student or professional in the wine industry.

I continue to use this book as a resource for wine pairings and information regarding the wine's breeding and hybridizing. Makes for an excellent companion to tasting books. A must-read for people after a few wine tasting trips.

An outstanding reference. Covers just about everything you need or want to know about the world of wine. I just open the book to a random page and enjoy reading it. I teach an introduction to wine course at a local university and I find the book gets me details I cannot find in other places. For lme at least it is fun to read.

Though I've hardly read the entire tome, my quick reaction is that I'm missing being able to look up specific wines from specific vineyards. Only select and generally quite famous wines and vineyards are mentioned and even with those, we are not told which vintages are special or to be avoided. A lot of money for a text book that is not a consumer's guide.

This tome is chock full of wine information. I look information up in it regularly. With the explotion of wine production there is a lot of new wines on the market to learn about. It also has a section listing the grapes in French AOC wines. Concise and well written.

This is simply an outstanding resource: accessible, comprehensive, enticing. It serves well both the neophyte and the expert.

I gave this to my wine-loving son this Christmas. He sat down with it after opening the package and read for hours. He was delighted with it.

I am in the wine industry and this is always the first wine book I go to for an answer. It is a comprehensive wine reference book that I dub "The Wine Bible". In the morning this book is either still on my chest or on the floor next to my bed.

A must have for wine lovers curious to find exhaustive answers and precise descriptions.

This is a very important and useful book, highly recommended for everyone who needs to understand all the aspects of wine culture. Very well written, it's a book of great interest.

No wine lovers' library is complete without the Oxford Companion to Wine. This is THE reference book for everything wine, quite literally from A to Z. Whether you are a wine novice looking to know more about a particular grape variety or wine region or an expert searching for information on vinification or the history of cork, you will find it -- quickly and easily -- in this book. Given that the book resembles and is organized like an encyclopedia, the annotations for each subject are written in a compelling manner. This is not a coffee table book. This is a book you will use again and again.

This tome is simply the best reference for professionals, amateurs and students on the subject of wine. The 3rd edition is updated with additional entries and new statistics, and better maps.

I use the Oxford Companion constantly! Wine terms and references can be a bit confusing at times and that's where this book comes in. This book is organized in alphabetical order so if you see a wine related term or word that needs some splain' just refer to The Oxford Companion to Wine.

I don't recommend this book for the wine novice because it can be intimidating. It is essentially an encylopedia/dictionary and over 2000 pages and as heavy as a half a sack of bricks. I think that if you gave this book to a beginner it would be overwhelming and might dampen their interest and we don't want that to happen. I use this book as companion to the wine text book I am using at the moment. I sit down and read my assigned text and then follow up by refering to the Oxford Companion. I can't tell you how many times the light bulb has gone off after reading the Companion.

The book reveals info on grape types. winemaking techniques and terms, wine regions, vine training methods, oak barrels, wine pioneers,wine producers, maps,photos and illustrations. Even though it is jammed packed with wine info I don't find it to be stuffy. I find that Ms.Robinson's (editor) personality comes through.

Over the years I have purchased a second copy because I take pages out of one so that I can carry a few pages with me on topics that I know I will encounter during the day (I work in the wine industry). Yes there is also the abridged version of the Oxford Companion but I prefer the original.

While this is not a cover to cover read (which I have attempted)I think you will find it to be a welcome edition to your wine library and an excellent reference tool.

If you're into wine, or into learning about it, then this book does well to supplement another perhaps smaller, more specialized book. It doesn't necessarily deal at length with nuances of individual grapes, or how to develop a thorough tasting method. It's very useful when you come across a wine term you won't find in Webster's or want to know what the deal is with grafting, etc. I don't give it a 5 because I think, considering it's namesake and already generous size, they could have gone into more detail on some of the world's lesser-known but up-and-coming varietals at the expense of a few dozen more pages. But still a very good book to have if you want to fill your mind, or just like reading encyclopedias cover to cover.

This book is a superb no-nonsense overview of wine from around the world, and is certainly more of an encyclopedia than any of the other "wine encyclopedias" of which I am aware. Topics covered include the known science and chemistry of wine, global geographic distribution of varietals including details of wine growing regions that may not be as widely known to many readers, several thousand types of wine, and the history of wine growing regions. In my opinion this book is unparalleled as of yet. These comments are for the first edition of the book, however I suspect the second edition is even better.

This encyclopedia is extensive and very good. It is also very heavy. You may want to get a primer on wine (e.g., "Wine for Dummies") before getting this as a reference, but this is one for your shelves. It covers many aspects of wine and to a great deal of detail in some areas, which is welcomed. Almost all of the information is current. What little is not current is insignificant in size and importance. Take at a good look at this reference.

Tells me more about wine than I really need to know, but it's nice to have it handy.