The World Atlas of Wine, 6th Edition, by Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson
96 out of 100

Published Thursday, April 17, 2008

Overview

The World Atlas is the 6th edition and the first that I have had. I have a number of wine atlases from the world of wine and have found them very useful reference material over the years. Wine Atlases are not designed to be read cover to cover. They are best used to dip in and out of. So when reviewing this Atlas I decided to use it the way it was designed.

I have been preparing for an Italian wine tasting recently and have always struggled with Italy, so many regions, so many unique grape varieties. So I decided to use the atlas to help me prepare. The information on Italy appeared to have a good depth. I found the density of information a bit overwhelming and difficult to find specific bits of information. There are a lack of headings with often only one heading per page and very little key information in bold. So when you find what you want in the index it is very difficult to find it quickly on the page without having to read the whole page. Other atlases are arranged differently and easier to find.

A key part of any wine atlas is the maps. Overall the maps are excellent if somewhat busy. Again the high level country and regional maps provide a good overview, there are also very detailed maps of some sub regions such as Piemonte and even whole page maps of some specific sub regions such as Barolo which show topographical showing the heights and contours of hills, as well as showing which parts are planted and where featured wineries are located. The detail is immense and the maps take quite a bit of time to get used to. But once you have mastered the maps they provide huge swathes of information and explain why some parts are planted and others are not.

In regions where I consider myself to be particularly knowledgeable such as New Zealand, I found the information to have a good overview but certainly no real depth. But it is hard to cover New Zealand in 6 pages. England and Wales, sadly gets just half a page of text and a half page map, and information about grape planting is at odds with what English Wine Producers say, the marketing association of the English wine industry.

There is certainly a disproportionate bias towards France which makes up almost a third of the book, 99 pages while the rest of the world has only 224. Italy, the next most covered region which produces as much wine and is arguably as complicated if not more so, only gets 34. While the US gets 33 pages, and who, if you ignore the huge volumes of cheap sweet rose, are not a significant wine exporter to the UK. Australia, the UK’s number one country receives 22 pages.

The lack of focus on the rest of the world other than France certainly dents the Atlas credibility as a World Atlas. The reason for this I am unsure but I suspect the marketing for this is not aimed at the UK consumer, surprising given it is published by a UK publishing house. Perhaps it is geared to the US market where Australia is less significant and France and increasingly Germany are more important.

All in all it is a good Book, with some great maps, but as a reference book it is difficult to use and not detailed enough in many non-French regions. But if you don’t live in the UK, are a Francphile and want a good book on France and an okay book for the rest of the world it is fine.