Wine Grapes: A Complete Guide to 1,368 Vine Varieties, Including Their Origins and Flavours

I've now completed reading this tome from cover to cover (for the first time.) I will say that this is by far the definitive book on grapes that make wine. This is THE BIBLE of Wine Growing Grapes. Well organized and well written. This book is certainly epic - in both its massive form - and its content.The stories about each grapes history are fascinating - not just the known genealogy, DNA studies and familial relationships (which other reviewers have covered) but also in the historical writings about the grapes. I look forward to the continued studies into these histories as well.I can see this book becoming the definitive go to guide for all wine growing grapes - one that changes the common nomenclature for many grape varieties - which will be no mean feat.It really is something to know that certain winemaking grapes have been written about for five hundred years and more and that they have been making wine from them for thousands - and of course the stories about the new kids on the block - like Cab Sauv - came about (parentage) and how they've conquered the world which is really is quite something.Unlike others I don't have any problems with the printing/binding/font/paper choices or the illustrations that are fold out in nature. I quite enjoyed the structure of the book.I certainly hope that this information is disseminated into the modern forms of information soon. An App that is mobile would be fantastic.

I'm a licensed wine importer and winery owner. I specialize in extremely rare and local grapes. This is the *ONLY* book that has detailed information on such varietals. It contains literally everything, even if as some people complain some information might be dated or a little misleading. It is *THE* reference book to have.

I have this book in physical & digital formats. I recommend having both. The illustrations in the hard copy are phenomenal. Being able to carry such a large volume on my phone (minus the beautiful grape portraits), is priceless. Facts, DNA, historical tracing. Fascinating read for being a compendium.

This book is great for people like me who study wine grapes. There are better books for studying wine, but that is not the purpose of this book. Also, unless you are interested in the genetics and history of wine grape varieties, this book is not for you. If you are, then this is the perfect book. On the website for the book you will find pdfs for the fold out pedigree charts, because the binding of the book makes some parts hard to read. Color illustrations are great, but the text content is unsurpassed. Not only are the leading theories for the history of some varieties included, but alternate and disproved ones also.

For years I've loved Jancis Robinson's pocket-sized Guide to Wine Grapes, turning to it whenever I encounter a new wine grape. Alas, it is long out of print, and a bit dated in terms of the relationships between grapes.Now comes this new volume, which is anything but pocket-sized. Massive and slip-cased, it has the gravitas of an aged Premier Cru. For each of nearly 1400 varieties there is an entry that gives you its color (from among five choices), common synonyms (for some widely grown grapes there are many), other varieties it is often mistaken for, and what is known of its origins and heritage (relying on recent, extensive, DNA testing of wine grapes). Then there is a brief summary of how it grows (vigor, resistance, when it ripens, and the like) and where it grows. As warranted, there is a discussion of what it tastes like and the quality of the wine it produces. Many of these grapes are actually very marginal from a wine making viewpoint, and are of interest for historical or relationship reasons. (I do miss the little sliding bar from the earlier book that suggested at a glance the likelihood of the grape producing a decent wine.)The relationship information is fascinating. Selected grapes have a family tree associated with their entry. Looking at Cabernet Sauvignon we learn that Chenin Blanc is a sister of Sauvignon Blanc and, hence, an aunt of Cabernet Sauvignon. Freisa turns out to be a cross of Nebbiolo with an unknown grape. The foldout genealogy of Pinot Noir is remarkable. Who would have guessed that Lagrein is a granddaughter of Pinot, while Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah are both great granddaughters? On a down side, the figure is sewn so deeply into the binding that part of the tree can't be read.I decided to check on a grape of local (but not wine drinking!) interest. In the earlier book there is an entry for the Mission grape, the first wine grape brought to California; there is was associated with the Monica grape. The current volume doesn't have an entry for Mission (it has entries pointing you to a main entry for some synonyms, but not for others). Checking the index it turns out that Mission is actually Listan Prieto. (Which I'd certainly never heard of before.)There are also beautiful color plates, originally published in France over a century ago, of selected grapes. (Interestingly, one is labeled "Mission"!)But there are, alas, some imperfections. I've mentioned how the Pinot family tree is bound so that it is not all readable. While the paper in a volume this size is necessarily thin, the see-through on some pages is annoying; more opaque paper would have been nice. The label on the front of the slip case is somewhat crooked, and the one on the edge quite so. Production quality could have been better.Had this been a standard book at half or even two-thirds the price it would have been an easy five stars. But in a slip-cased book at this list price you expect a little better attention to detail than this book manages. So I reluctantly drop my rating to four stars. Still an excellent investment for or gift to a devoted oenophile, it is not quite the value it could have been with a little better physical execution.

I have been professionally involved in wine production for nearly 30 years. For many of those years I have been hoping that Jancis Robinson would update her old classic, "Vines Grapes and Wines". "Wine Grapes" is much more than a revision of the old book; it is a definitive volume that brings us up to date on what is known of the parentage and characteristics of essentially all of the commercially important, and many of the more obscure, wine grapes. It is beautifully produced in hard cover, well organized and well documented. Wine retailers, wholesalers, importers, producers, wine educators and grape growers will all want this volume at hand. Serious wine enthusiasts will also find it fascinating to research whatever grape variety has recently piqued their interest. Most highly recommended!