In the words of winemaker Randall Grahm, Andrew Jefford is “the most thoughtful person we have writing about wine”, so for many wine lovers, a new Jefford is the equivalent of the release of a new iPhone to Apple fanatics. In this beautiful and varied volume of essays, opinions and articles spanning 2007 to 2022, the author shares his fascinating observations gathered over decades of discovery. Jefford listened to and admires wine, wherever it comes from; old-school pretensions are turned on their heads, style points are disdained, stellar prices are dismissed and questions are asked... The book includes an edited copy of Andrew’s transcendental lecture to the Wine Communicators of Australia in May 2012: Wine and Astonishment. The aim of this, Jefford writes, “is to make wine strange for us again, and in so doing to freshen or re-make our mental relationship with it”. There is no other book on wine like it, except perhaps, one of the author’s previous works.

On Champagne brings together a compendium of thoughts, opinions and conclusions of the world’s finest Champagne writers under a single roof. Eight sections divide 41 essays into themes including the brands, styles, history (the ‘Eleven eras of champagne’), terroir, innovation and future (from Sherman tanks to spaceships). Complied and edited by the richly talented Susan Keevil, the essays—written between 1882 and 2022—weave together a tapestry of tales presenting the reader with a vivid and multi-layered collage of the region. It’s a journey that starts and ends with capturing that sparkle in a bottle and, along the way, tutors us with the nuances of its chalky terrain, the determination of rebels from Ambonnay to Avize, and the mystery of a Champagne cellar under the sea. We meet the pioneers who created the great Champagnes of the past and the personalities who are greening this landscape, nurturing it through climate change to shape the exquisite Champagnes of the future. Bringing levity, the compendium’s heavyweight narrative is punctuated by historical essays such as Evelyn Waugh’s Fizz, Bubbly, Pop in the Swinging Sixties (“Gruesome attempts have been made in New Jersey to produce an equivalent”). Simply, On Champagne is an essential volume for every Champagne lover’s bookshelf.Contributors include Tom Stevenson, Essi Avellan MW, Hugh Johnson, Serena Sutcliffe MW, Peter Liem, Tyson Stelzer, Andrew Jefford and Robert Walters, with the ‘modern era’ welcomed in by Evelyn Waugh. 

When things turn out right for Bordeaux, as they frequently do, its wines can be sublime. They inspire thousands of tributes, from Samuel Pepys’ succinct reviews to the most rhapsody of Michael Broadbent’s tasting notes—in short, over 300 years of wine writing. On Bordeaux is a collection of the best bits from our best-loved wine writers, critics and commentators, set around ten themes that make Bordeaux tick. And who better to introduce the collection than Jane Anson, who writes in her introduction: “multi-layered, clear-eyed, moving and often extremely funny [this] collection of stories… celebrates, illuminates and renews our understanding of Bordeaux.”

This is the story of twelve friends who gathered to share and celebrate the most extraordinary wines of Bordeaux. Neil McKendrick, member and minute-taker for fifty-seven of the Club’s seventy memorable years, weaves the tale of this convivial group with the rigour of a Cambridge academic and the humour of a born raconteur. He celebrates the beauty of top-class Bordeaux and the splendour of each setting—from glorious country houses to rickety Dickensian boardrooms—in which these men were lucky enough to dine, serving up memories of vintages the likes of which we will never see again.In The Bordeaux Club:• ‘Well over 1,000 bottles consumed…’: Bordeaux’ top wines described by the brilliant Hugh Johnson, Michael Broadbent and Steven Spurrier• Verdicts and opinions from the historian Sir John Plumb, ‘the rudest man in Cambridge’• 1865, 1929, 1945, 1961, 1985, 1990… the highlights of these six famous Bordeaux vintages are revealed• Haut-Brion, Lafite, Mouton-Rothschild, Margaux and Latour – the Médoc’s first growths appraised by the finest palates• From the grandeur of Saling Hall (Essex) to the extensively portraited Master’s Lodge at Caius College, Cambridge: 16 perfect settings for wine enjoyment• Keeper of the deepest cellar (and partner to most notorious wife), Lord Harry Walston’s irresistibly scandalous lifestyle explored• Notes of the author’s extraordinary £1 purchases from the Caius College Cellar (Latour 1928, Lafite 1945) – for sale at this low price because the dons couldn’t drink them with pineapple…• Abominations and anomalies, the wines that courted controversy: white burgundy, Moscato d’Asti and the contentious clarets of 1927

Steven Spurrier was one of the wine trade’s most influential figures. Over the years, he took the role of wine merchant, buyer, wine educator and lecturer; he wrote books, wine courses and over 300 columns for Decanter magazine. He also set up the breakthrough ‘Judgement of Paris’ in 1976. This memoir reflects Steven’s life charting the incidents, adventures, ideas and discoveries that formed his wine journey. Along the way, he had the privilege not only to taste the finest wines but to judge them and work with the winemakers who created them. HardbackPages: 288Published by Académie du Vin Library 2020

Arguably Johnson’s most enthralling and enduring work, The Story of Wine is one of the essential volumes on every wine student’s curriculum. It tells with wit, scholarship and humour how wine became today’s global phenomenon, varying from mass-produced plonk to rare bottles fetching many thousands. It ranges from Noah to Napa, Pompeii to Prohibition to Pomerol—gripping, anecdotal, personal, controversial and fun. In his foreword the celebrated historian Andrew Roberts writes: “The genius of The Story of Wine derives from the fact that it is emphatically not a dry-as-dust academic history – there are dozens of those – but an adventure story, full of mysteries, art and culture.” This new edition includes Hugh’s view on the changes wine has seen in the past 30 years. It’s a cast-iron classic.