Michael Broadbent S Wine Vintages

Michael Broadbent explains how the vintage makes the wine and why vintages are so important. He answers basic questions about what a vintage is and what conditions make a good or poor vintage. He explores the effect of vintage not only on the style and quality of the wine, but also on the quantity produced in a given year. The vintage years are listed in chronological order for ease of reference, and there is also information on the character and readiness to drink of a wide array of wines. More than a century of wine vintages are covered. Quick-reference quality ratings for each entry are also included.Â

The ultimate report on the world's vintage wines is offered by the man the "Wine Spectator" calls "the world's most experienced taster."

The only pocket-sized resource to offer comparative assessments of vintages for the sophisticated wine drinker, this guide is organized by region--from the Loire to Australia, Italy to the Eastern United States--and gives overall quality ratings as well as a chronological review of vintages. Maps. Charts.

This updated pocket version of the classic and award-winning "Vintage Wine" presents Broadbent's tasting notes in a handy format that puts his unrivaled expertise at readers' fingertips while traveling, buying at auction, or dining out.

Michael Broadbent almost certainly knows more about fine wine than anyone else alive. Recruited by Christie's in 1966 to revive their wine auction business, he has, according to The Oxford Companion to Wine, 'traded in and tasted a greater number of fine and rare wines than anyone else in the world.' He has meticulously recorded his impressions of every wine he has ever tasted, now over 90,000 of them in 148 notebooks. His original large-volume Vintage Wine was published in 2002 and quickly became a classic reference book for members of the wine trade and collectors worldwide, winning top awards in the UK, USA, Germany and Switzerland. This pocket edition distils the best of Michael's over fifty years' knowledge of fine wine and covers wines that are being collected, consumed, traded and appreciated by wine enthusiasts in all corners of the globe. The tasting notes are written with Michael's trademark wit and elegance.

The half-century of Michael Broadbent's wine trade experience has seen unprecedented change throughout the wine world. Few people have done more to influence that change and none can claim a better-informed perspective on it. Published to coincide with Michael Broadbent's 75th birthday and a celebration of 50 years in the wine trade, VINTAGE WINE will concentrate on the wines which are now in universal, high-level demand, those that are being collected, consumed and traded by vast and increasing numbers in all corners of the globe. More selective than his earlier works, this book features personal reflection as well as specific opinion. Years of cellars visited and pillaged for sale at Christie's, involving the checking and packing of dust and grime laden bottles in distinctly dank and chilly conditions, plus the jet-set auctions around the world, the legendary tastings and the society events have yielded an unrivalled store of vinous anecdote and amusement as well as an unsurpassed winetasting record.

The rivetingly strange story of the world's most expensive bottle of wine, and the even stranger characters whose lives have intersected with it. The New York Times bestseller, updated with a new epilogue, that tells the true story of a 1787 Château Lafite Bordeaux—supposedly owned by Thomas Jefferson—that sold for $156,000 at auction and of the eccentrics whose lives intersected with it. Was it truly entombed in a Paris cellar for two hundred years? Or did it come from a secret Nazi bunker? Or from the moldy basement of a devilishly brilliant con artist? As Benjamin Wallace unravels the mystery, we meet a gallery of intriguing players—from the bicycle-riding British auctioneer who speaks of wines as if they are women to the obsessive wine collector who discovered the bottle. Suspenseful and thrillingly strange, this is the vintage tale of what could be the most elaborate con since the Hitler diaries. “Part detective story, part wine history, this is one juicy tale, even for those with no interest in the fruit of the vine. . . . As delicious as a true vintage Lafite.” —BusinessWeek