October 2023 MBR The Wine Shelf

The Wine Shelf

Hugh Johnson Pocket Wine 2024
Hugh Johnson, author
Margaret Rand, editor
Mitchell Beazley
c/o Octopus Books
www.octopusbooksusa.com
9781784729141, $17.99, HC, 336pp

https://www.amazon.com/Hugh-Johnson-Pocket-Wine-Johnsons/dp/1784729140

Synopsis: The world's best-selling annual wine guide, "Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book 2024" is the essential reference book for everyone who buys or invests in wine from shops, restaurants, or on the internet. Now in its 47th year of publication, this premier wine-focused resource has no rival as the comprehensive, up-to-the-minute annual guide.

It provides clear succinct facts and commentary on the wines, growers and wine regions of the whole world. It reveals which vintages to buy, which to drink and which to cellar, which growers to look for and why. As with its predecessors, "Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine 2024" gives clear information on grape varieties, local specialities and how to match food with wines that will bring out the best in both.

"Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine 2024" also includes a color supplement on Chardonnay, the world's most obliging grape, discussing everything from history and taste to texture, fashion and the role oak.

Critique: Simply stated, this handy and easily portable edition of "Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book 2024" from Mitchell Beazley is as informed and informative as it is 'user friendly' in organization and presentation -- making it an essential and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, college, and university library collections. It should be noted that "Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book 2024" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $7.99).

Editorial Note #1: Hugh Eric Allan Johnson OBE is an English journalist, author, editor, and expert on wine. He is considered the world's best-selling wine writer. A wine he tasted in 1964, a 1540 Steinwein from the German vineyard Wurzburger Stein, is considered one of the oldest to have ever been tasted. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Johnson_(wine_writer)

Editorial Note #2: Margaret Rand (https://uk.linkedin.com/in/margaret-rand-00729491) has been general editor of Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book for some 15 years and now, with Hugh's retirement, has taken over the hot seat. The book's mix of personal insight and informed recommendations have made it the world's best-selling annual wine book. Margaret Rand's curiosity about wine started several decades ago and led her to a career of writing about wine and editing wine magazines, with the occasional foray into whisky. Her books include Grapes & Wines and 101 Wines to Try Before You Die; she also writes regularly for The World of Fine Wine, www.timatkin.com and www.winesearcher.com

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