Clarke & Spurrier's Fine Wine Guide

by Oz Clarke, Steven Spurrier

In Clarke & Spurrier's Fine Wine Guide , Oz Clarke--the one-man brand of stylishly iconoclastic wine reportage--and Steven Spurrier--author, merchant, teacher, and patron saint of Napa Valley (ever since a Stag's Leap Cabernet and a Chateau Montelena Chard bested Bordeaux and Burgundy at his infamous 1976 Paris tasting)--present a valuable and handsome reference work brimming with maps and enlightened opinion. From the Cote d'Or and Canada to New South Wales and Walla Walla, serious enophiles will find much to inform their fine-wine choices, whether investing ("Buy double what you want, sell half for double what you paid, and drink for free") or cellaring ("To have kept a bottle too long is far, far worse than to have drunk it before its time"). Vintage recommendations for this "new edition" top out at 1998, and Oz's subjective list of "Great American Wines" will no doubt push a few noses out of joint--assuming readers can pull theirs out of the informed pages of Clarke & Spurrier's Fine Wine Guide . --Tony Mason

352 pages, Hardcover

First published October 31, 1998