Discover the latest edition of the one book every wine professional or enthusiast needs.
It was 1999 when I first got a copy of The Oxford Companion to Wine. The second edition published was highly anticipated because the wine world was changing fast and this tome was already an essential resource.
Fast forward to 2023 and the same is true, for the book and of the wine world.
Anyone seriously interested in wine needs to get a copy of the latest 5th edition, newly published September 2023. If you only buy one wine book, this is the one you need. And it’s also the book you need if you already have a hundred books on wine.
Every page is densely packed with information, there isn’t a single wasted word. And it’s no wonder, given it is edited by two of wine’s powerhouses, Julia Harding MW and Jancis Robinson OBE MW. Between them they have leveraged every contact throughout the world of wine to condense often highly complex descriptions and explanations.
Harding and Robinson are well known for their esteemed work on jancisrobinson.com, both have a long working relationship that sees two women at the top of their profession. With Tara Q. Thomas as assistant editor of the fifth edition, The Oxford Companion to Wine has an impressive, all-female trio at the helm.
This latest publication of 944 pages now contains information about efforts wineries and consumers can make to achieve sustainability goals, update North American content, new research on a wide variety of topics as well as “insights into the complex chemistry of winemaking”. Naturally our eyes turned straight to page 692 to discover what ‘S for sommelier’ would reveal.
The Oxford Companion to Wine
Edited by Julia Harding MW and Jancis Robinson OBE MW with Tara Q. Thomas
5th edition published 14 September, 2023 £50, Oxford University Press
Stockists: Amazon UK/US; Bookshop UK/US; Waterstones (UK); Blackwell’s (UK); Barnes & Noble (US); IndieBound (US).
