A companion or a bible?

Following last week's post (Les 5 d Vn) on the new edition of The Wine Bible's coverage of the Loire, David Cobbold asked me to do a comparison with the new edition - the fourth - of The Oxford Companion to Wine. As always I do what I am told ......

Firstly there are some similarities: both are edited by women: The Wine Bible by Karen MacNeill and The Oxford Companion by Jancis Robinson MW. Both women sport impressive items of jewellery - a necklace for Jancis and earrings for Karen. The rather severe photo of Jancis appears to be warning reviewers to watch out or else......

Both book covers make big claims. The Bible is ' A masterpiece of wine writing' while The Companion is 'The greatest wine book ever published', so clearly we have heavyweight titles here.....

Talking of actual weight The Bible at 1.34 kilos is a flyweight compared to The Companion, which tips the scales at 2.85 kilos. Bearing in mind that Jancis' Wine Grapes is even heavier @ 3.08 kilos, it is clear that her campaign against over-heavy wine bottles does not extend to wine books!

The Wine Bible runs to 996 pages for $24.95 against 860 pages for $65 forThe Companion. These figures are, however, misleading as The Companion is very significantly wider than The Bible with three columns of text compared a biblical two. There are black and white photos or tables on many of The Bible's pages, whereas The Companion is solid text with the few full pages colour photos are not included in the page count. Although I haven't attempted a word count it is clear that Jancis uses many more words than Karen.

So how do the two contestants fare regarding the Loire? As we saw last week The Bible is weak on the Loire with a decidedly partial revision. UnlikeThe Bible, which is arranged by region,The Companion is ordered alphabetically, which makes it rather more difficult to judge as it involves hopping about the book.

Anyway time for a look at some of The Companion's Loire entries. Montlouis is covered in more detail and includes mention of the recent AC Montlouis Pétillant Naturel. However, Montlouis' recent dynamism isn't recognised and the figure of a third of the production being sparkling is low - the Interloire site has sparkling wine at 55%.

Turning to Vouvray the entry declares that 'In less generous vintages, only dry and possibly sparkling wines are made.' Whereas sparkling Vouvray is invariably made, especially in difficult vintages as there is both a demand for it in French supermarkets and the maximum yield permitted for sparkling Vouvray is substantially higher than that for still - 65 hl/ha compared with 52 hl/ha for still.

The Quarts de Chaume entry makes me think that The Companion lacks the local knowledge that would provide full accuracy. It is incorrect to say there has been little recent investment as there has been investment at Bellerive and, perhaps, more importantly the last decade or more has seen a significant number of Anjou producers acquiring parcels here. Domaine Ogereau being the latest. The situation is now radically different from the late 1960s when there were just a handful of producers. It is also incorrect to say that the minimum sugar levels are rarely achieved. Of recent vintages since 2005 only in the horrendous October 2012 was it virtually impossible to make genuine Quarts de Chaume - unless you picked unripe and used cryoextraction......

Would I buy either of these reference books? Fortunately these were both review copies. I certainly wouldn't buy Karen MacNeill's Bible and I would have to think hard before I shelled out £40 (£25.03 on Amazon…) for Jancis Robinson's Companion, although I am pretty sure there are sections that are more convincing than the Loire.

My doubts about buying The Companion are, in part, whether I would actually use it as if I have a query the net is my first resource. I have had my copy of The Companion for a while now and have hardly used it .....

Karen MacNeil: The Wine Bible....?

I recently received a copy of the second edition – ‘completely revised and updated’ – of The Wine Bible by Karen MacNeil (published by $24.95).

According to the cover the first edition has sold over half a million copies. Furthermore a Danny Meyer, CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group, lauds The Wine Bible saying it is ‘The most informative and entertaining book I have ever seen on the subject.’ It is unclear if when Meyer uses ‘seen’ he means he liked the cover but didn’t actually dip into the book or he has actually read it.

Writing a reference book that runs to just under a 1,000 pages with its subject the world of wine is, of course, a monumental undertaking. Claiming that it is ‘completely updated and revised’ is an all too inviting invitation to smart assed people like me to head straight to a section where I might know something and look for mistakes. Which, of course, is just what I did.

A quick look confirmed my prejudice against bibles as being either works of fiction or error prone. Karen MacNeil’s bible can be counted in the ‘error prone’ category.

My impression is that prominent American wine writers have had their problems getting a grip on the Loire. Robert Parker famously declared that 90% of Loire wines are white. Fortunately Robert has never carried the sway in the valley that he has enjoyed in other parts of France notably Bordeaux. Otherwise thousands of hectares of Loire Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir and Gamay as well as some Grolleau and Pineau d’Aunis would have been ripped up and been replanted with white varieties in order to harvest valuable Parker points.

In contrast to American wine writers, the Loire has been well served by a number of distinguished US wine importers. The late Joe Dressner comes to mind as well as Kermit Lynch and Jon David Headrick to mention just three.

But to return to Karen MacNeil and the Loire to which 18 pages are devoted. Understandably generalities take up most of this but there are a few pointers that suggest that the update is not as thorough as it might have been.

She cites Domaine le Haut Lieu (Gaston Huet) as a top Vouvray that she loves. Gaston Huet died in 2002 at the age of 92 and the estate was bought the following year by Anthony Hwang. The use of Domaine le Haut Lieu is odd, too, as it is one of the three famous vineyards and not the domaine itself.

Karen declares that the wines of Montlouis are not as exciting as Vouvray. Fair comment, perhaps, but has she tasted the wines of the newcomers to Montlouis, I wonder? There is a case to be made that Montlouis is the more dynamic and interesting of the two appellations and that to an extent Vouvray is resting on its reputation. There are, however, a nucleus of exciting Vouvray producers around Vernou under the wing of the benevolent and youthful ‘godfather’ – Vincent Carème.

She cites Domaine Delétang (Montlouis) as being every bit as good as Vouvray but Olivier Delétang sold up in 2009.

Karen is convinced that Chardonnay is the major component of Crémant de Loire but that Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc are also often used. Unfortunately I don’t have the figures to hand but in Saumur Chenin tends to be the most important grape in both Saumur and Crémant. This is certainly the case at Ackerman, Bouvet-Ladubay and Langlois-Chateau, although at Gratien et Meyer Chardonnay is the dominant variety.

Further west Muscadet is said to have 12,100 hectares. This may have been the case when the first edition was published in 2001 but is not the case now as the total is down to a little over 9000 hectares – still huge in Loire terms but reduced.

To be fair there are revisions in the Loire section – Peter Hahn’s Le Clos de la Meslerie is cited as well as Louis-Benjamin Dagueneau now using his name on labels rather than his late father – Didier.