Wine & Spirits - Winter 2023 - 12

The Oxford
Companion
to Wine,
5th Edition
O
ne of the great things
about wine is that it's different
every year, and one
of the confusing things about
wine is that it's different every
year. To keep up with the times,
Jancis Robinson OBE MW and
Julia Harding MW delivered a
new edition of The Oxford Companion
to Wine, this time joined
by Tara Q. Thomas as Assistant
Editor (who brings 25 years of
experience editing Wine & Spirits
magazine to the project). With
over 300 new entries, some from
the more than 100 new contributors,
it clocks in at 944 pages,
which makes the $65 price seem
more than fair. The content
makes it an invaluable addition
to any wine-lover's bookshelf (or
kitchen table, if you keep reference
books around like security
blankets, as I do).
Many of the new entries are
surprising, either because they
are new to the work (aszú, Finger
Lakes, alberese, Dogliani, bottle
shock, Ruster Ausbruch...),
or because they are completely
unexpected (e.g., places
from
Barolo MGA Vol. I, 3rd Edition
any publications have
gone digital, but there
are still some books
M
you need to hold in your hands
and browse through frequently,
marking up the pages and discovering
something new each
time you open them. Alessandro
Masnaghetti's Barolo MGA
Vol. I is one such book. It became
required reading for every serious
wine student and Barolo
lover the instant the first edition
came out in 2018. If you own a
copy of the first or second edition,
you might think you've
got Barolo covered-but you'd
be missing out. The third edition
is not just a revision, it's a
12
WINE & SPIR IT S
complete overhaul, with 84 more
pages than the last edition and
coverage of 42 new small producers.
The MGA maps are more
precise and colorful, and now all
oriented with North towards the
top of the page. Previous editions
included two sets of MGA maps,
one section with elevations and
expositions, and a second black
and white set showing the plots
of each producer. In a major
improvement, Masnaghetti has
integrated the two sets of maps,
so that you can find all the information
about each MGA in one
place, and in full color. Coverage
of commune-specific wines
has been expanded, with new
W INTER 2023
maps showing the varietal distributions
of each commune, and
you'll find far more detail on the
vigne. There's also an expanded
vintage
chart going back to
1967 and an in-depth study of
the first vintage produced for
all MGAs. Barolo MGA Vol. I, 3rd
Edition demands a place on your
bookshelf.-s.J.
Barolo MGA Vol. 1, 3rd Edition, by
alessandro Masnaghetti and
paolo de cristofaro (2023),
$95 plus shipping, available
through Rare Wine Co.:
www.rarewineco.coM/offers/
Masnaghetti-barolo-Mga-voli-3rd-ed-web-caMpaign
Arkansas
to Senegal, New Jersey
to Easter Island). Others are
timely additions to the encyclopedia,
reflecting trends or issues
in viticulture (no-till, regenerative
agriculture, drones, wildfires, the
spotted lantern fly and the brown
marmorated stink bug), new or
updated appellation laws (MGA,
UGA, Van Duzer Corridor), new
approaches in the cellar or distribution
(zero-zero, carbon footprint
of wine, paper bottles, tariffs,
blockchain, NFT), or wine
culture (unicorn wine, glou-glou).
With regard to grape varieties,
while the Companion adds such
entries as vidiano and kydonitsa
to a collection already including
drupeggio and dunkelfelder, the
list is not meant to be comprehensive,
and you will not want to toss
your copy of Wine Grapes. Likewise,
the new edition of the ComMAP
COURTESY OF ALESSANDRO MASNAGHETTI
http://www.rarewineco.coM/offers/masnaghetti-barolo-mga-voli-3rd-ed-web-campaign http://www.rarewineco.coM/offers/masnaghetti-barolo-mga-voli-3rd-ed-web-campaign http://www.rarewineco.coM/offers/masnaghetti-barolo-mga-voli-3rd-ed-web-campaign
Wine & Spirits - Winter 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - Winter 2023
