The Complete Bordeaux: The Wines*The Chateaux*The People (Mitchell Beazley Wine Library)

Whilst Stephen Brook is not the best known author in the world of fine wine, his recent book is certainly likely to put him irrevocably on the best seller list in this field. Whether read by the novice or professional, the reader cannot help but be informed as never before on the fascination of wine as it is in Bordeaux. Massive, previously unknown detail contains a veritable mine of invaluable information on properties, production methods, vintages and personalities. The seven hundred pages are crammed with interest from beginning to end. The only downside is that the type size is too small for those inclined to short-sightedness. Buy, buy, buy!!

Customer Review: A superb reference to Bordeaux, at least the textual portions.

The first part of this book, devoted to Médoc and Graves, was published separately in 2006 and won the André Simon Award. This volume completes the survey with the addition of Sauternes and the Right Bank.
Brooks has written two other books on Bordeaux, and this is a major survey of this "Empire of Wine", as Michael Broadbent has named Bordeaux. Currently, this is the most comprehensive and most up to date reference book covering the Empire.

There are over 700 pages of densely printed type, with hundreds of profiles of estate, all in great detail, and many of them having been visited by Brook. His work is informed by an enormous love and enthusiasm for the wines, the people and the vineyards and geography. (He does add some very human asides and sceptical insinuations, but the enthusiasm never shows signs of flagging.)

The introductory chapters on history, winemaking and wine styles would make a very nice primer on the region. The description of Bordeaux's commercial market is particularly fine. There is a very good chapter on `The Land' (including terroir, grape varieties and vititulture), and a helpful chapter `Winemaking and Style'. Nowhere are the Impirial differences more apparent than when he argues the pros and cons of the different winemaking approaches at play in the region.

In general, however, this is ultimately a reference book, one most useful to check out details of particular estates. Brook covers over 1000 estates. In this main section, Brook describes the important appellations with a general introduction, followed by a description and assessment of each estate covered with statistics, contact details and website.

Even here Brook cautions the reader: "[T]he statistics - even when obtained directly from the estates - can be wildly unreliable...." He does not provide formal tasting notes: "other writers - notably Robert Parker, Clive Coates MW, Michael Broadbent, Michel Bettane - have already done so. ... I have, in the case of important properties, given a more detailed account of the vintages I have tasted, so that the reader can gain some notion of what the wines are like to drink." This section covers the vintages from 1961 to 2006.

In a recent interview he describes his general approach: "Existing books on Bordeaux, such as Robert Parker's or Clive Coates's, were focused on tasting notes of individual wines, and paid little attention to lesser known areas of Bordeaux which offer good value to consumers. My book was intended to rectify that by including all regions of Bordeaux, as its title suggests. Many winelovers who might have bought Bordeaux routinely in the past may have become disillusioned by the soaring prices of the top growths, and it was part of my intention to discuss the vast number of excellent wines that remain eminently affordable." The entire interview appears on http://www.intowine.com/ and provides a very interesting expansion of Brook's view on this very important source of fine wines.

Brook's text is very well written as one would expect from this experienced and elegant writer. He is poorly served in some respects by the publisher: the color illustrations add little of value to the text, for example. The maps for Médoc and Graves are quite good, but those for the Right Bank are tiny and hard to read, especially with the topographical shading.

Decanter Magazine pointed out that "The two Graves maps are misplaced (and one mistitled) within the text, and there are a fair number of inaccurate locations: Léoville-Las-Cases, Gruaud-Larose, St Pierre. ... There are also some needless errors: Mouton Rothschild was not a first growth until 1973, Yquem is a premier cru supérieur, not a premier grand cru. Details maybe, but in an authoritative reference book they matter."

Despite the criticisms, however, this is currently the leading reference work on Bordeaux and its wines. Very highly recommended.

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