The first in-depth guide to sparkling wines of the world from Champagne to California, Italy to Australia and beyond. In time for the Millennium when Champagne is expected to dominate all celebrations and may even be in short supply!

A fascinating first section describes the history of sparkling wine and proves beyond any doubt that it was the English rather than the French who first produced a fizzy wine. The main body of the encyclopedia is devoted to profiles of the world's sparkling wine producers accompanied by tasting notes, recommendations for drinking and good value for your money. Another section lists the author's personal selection of sparkling wines to drink for the Millennium. 280 x 216 mm. Beautifully illustrated and designed with over 600 full color photographs and illustrations, this is the ultimate book for those who love the good things in life and who want to discover the best to welcome in the year 2000. 280 x 216 mm, maps.

Customer Review: Tom Stevenson's World of champagne, a more apt title

As a wine connoisseur, I am stunned to see an unexplainable omission in this book: there is NO mention of Romania, even though it was the fourth country in the world to produce sparkling wines (btw, that's what champagne is, a sparkling wine named after the region...) after France, Russia (Ucraine) and Germany. In 1862 the first commercial sparkling wine business is established in Timisoara, with many more to follow, including Bucharest in 1913. How is this possible and how can it be overlooked, since there were exports of "bubbly" to England (the author's country) from Romania going back to the 1920's... Besides, wine growing was always native to Romania since times immemorial - unlike many of the countries listed. Kenya makes the list (1992), and Israel (1980) and Malta (1995)...and England (1976)! The "experts" have outdone themselves this time. Perhaps they should hire fewer wine-tasters and more historians when they write a "World" Encyclopedia next time ... SO, when's this glaring omission going to be corrected, Mr. Stevenson ?
And one more thing - you surely must be joking when you put together in the same sentence wine, or wine-producing (any wine!), and England. It's no secret that the British were the customers of the French since day one, and when thet temporarily dried up, the English became Spanish customers (translation=Rioja, that which almost passes for the Bordeaux (your beloved claret) you couldn't secure any longer). So, if I had a choice of sparkling from,say ...England, and Zimbawe, I'll choose Zimbawe - they have more experience in making "bubbly". They started exporting in 1975 (was that a good year for a Zimbawe vintage, Tom ?), so they preceded England by one year.
Nice book, fine graphics .. and an inexcusable mistake.

Customer Review: Incomplete reference!

GRAPE GRIPE: The book presents products from Malta (with a nine year tradition in champagnes), but does not mention any of the Romanian ones (with a 157 years tradition).

TRIVIA: Romanians had the first wine prohibition when the king had the vineyards burnt down to sober his army up as the Romans were approaching (first century A.D.). They have a local grape variety that has been cultivated continuously for the last two millenia. Romania wass the fourth country to produce champagne (chronologically) and is currently ranked ninth by the vineyards area.

CONCLUSION: While this book is an excellent lecture, calling it an encyclopedia is a bit misleading. I wonder what other information is missing...

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