Chris Kissack: Pocket Guide to the Wines of Bordeaux
This morning's post brought a review copy of Chris Kissack's Pocket Guide to the Wines of Bordeaux, which is published by MAGBOOK and will be available for £6.99 from 24th May. It will be available through WH Smith, www.magbooks.com, Neilson Digital, Zinio and Apple iBook Store. The print version is priced at £6.99 for 146 pages and the digital at £4.99.
It has only taken two weeks from the time that Chris finished writing and proof reading to copies of the printed version being available, so it can be bang up to date and include his assessment of the 2011 vintage. The tale is told here on The Wine Doctor.
The Pocket Guide (well it would fit into a poacher's pocket) covers vintages from 2010 to 2003, recent news including Latour's intended withdrawal from the en primeur system starting from 2013, profiles of the Firsts including the top in Pomerol and Saint-Emilion, his Top 20 properties mainly from the Médoc and Graves, profiles of his Top 5 Sauternes, Top 10 for value and Top 10 to try. Then there are sections on understanding Bordeaux, communes and classifications, enjoying Bordeaux and ending with money matters – buying, storing, tracking prices and investment.
With the exception of the cover photography, I think all the images are by the author with some presumably taken with his new SLR, although no photo credits are included.
Chris Kissack proof reading during the lunch break@2012 Decanter World Wine Awards
Monday 23rd April 2012
Chris has a pop at other annual guides criticising them for their long lead times and for employing 'ghost' writers. As a contributor to the Hugh Johnson Pocket Wine Book, I agree it would be good to be able to write copy later particularly with respect to an assessment of the latest vintage but presumably this may well still be logistically difficult. Neither Hugh Johnson nor Oz Clarke have ever claimed that their guides do not rely on help from a number of specialists and the contributors names have always been included and thanked. Also given that the scope of these guides is all the world's wine regions and not just one, albeit a large and very significant one, it is hardly surprising that neither Oz nor Hugh attempts to write their Pocket guides in their entirety.
Dr Kissack's Bordeaux guide is attractively produced and well written with his customary trenchant views.
The author enjoying a well deserved rest after all his hard work
2 comments:
Thanks Jim, that's a very kind review.
I can't believe that second photo. Were you tempted to check my pulse at all? Thank you so much for publishing it! :-)
Thanks Chris. In 'Mediium Cool' they would take the pic first and check the pulse later...
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