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Wine Books: Oz Clarke

Oz Clarke is a prolific and experienced author with an innate skill for communication.

Oz Clarke’s Pocket Wine Book 2006
Oz Clarke
Little, Brown Book Group
Available from Amazon (UK) and Amazon (USA)
ISBN-13: 978-0316730570

It's that time of year again; the Oz Clarke Pocket Wine Book 2006 has arrived on the shelves. Unlike Tom Stevenson's Wine Report, Oz's book has a different purpose and, I suspect, a different target audience. It's essentially a regularly updated pocket dictionary, covering wines, wine regions, producers (the bulk of the book) and grapes. It's accompanied, as ever, by a brief vintage chart and a quick vintage report, documenting the ups and downs of the 2004 vintage across the world. No region is covered in depth, and as such the writing tends to scrape the surface, with all but the most important producers excluded; so whereas this makes an ideal guide for those with an uncertain knowledge, perhaps just starting down the winding road that is the appreciation of wine, those with more knowledge may prefer to look elsewhere. An example is Chinon; Couly-Dutheil is the only producer included in the guide (and is the Clos de l'Echo really only worthy of one star?). Look for any detail on the likes of Bernard Baudry, Charles Joguet or Olga Raffault and you will have a fruitless search on your hands. What is covered, however, is explained succinctly and yet clearly; as I've said before, Oz Clarke is an excellent communicator, and this attribute shines through in this regularly published guide.

Having put down my pocket guide, I can't resist browsing Oz's 2006 Wine Buying Guide, which is often packaged with the Wine Book in a clear plastic wallet, to see what Oz fancies drinking this year. I think for those that want to be guided to a surefire good buy every time, and for those who shop to a price point, this little guide is a real winner. Tim Adams features strongly, as he did last year, but there's much more to the guide than that. Choose from Oz's top twenty wine buys, or from top buys in a variety of price brackets; under £5, £5-7, £7-10, and there's even an under £4 category! Oz's advice on top fizz, top claret, buying, tasting, cellaring and more means there's plenty to keep the wine buyer in need of a little assistance fully informed. In combination, these two books, which are as always very keenly priced, would make a worthwhile buy for many wine drinkers.

Oz Clarke’s Australian Wine Companion (2004)
Oz Clarke
Little, Brown Book Group
Available from Amazon (UK) and Amazon (USA)
ISBN-13: 978-0316728744

Specialisation is good. As things stand at the dawn of the 21st Century, there is simply too much knowledge available for an individual to know everything (the same could actually be said at the dawn of the 20th Century). That's why we have specialisation; chemists, physicists and astronomers rather than generic scientists; haematologists, bacteriologists and neonatologists rather than generic physicians. Wine writers with any common sense pay good attention to this; the world of wine is now a very big world indeed, no longer confined to a few classic European regions. To do a good, thorough job, and to have a truly detailed knowledge, you have to specialise. The appropriately named Oz Clarke (a name gained thanks to his early predilection for Oz wine) has, in this text, done just that; this slim but informative guide is a readable journey through all wine Australian. Opening with a few pages on history, grape varieties, vineyard and winery management, Oz then goes on to profile the main estates of South Australia through to Queensland. The profiles are classic Clarke; brief but informative, well written, reflecting a personal experience and knowledge of the wines. Oz as always gives recommended vintages for each winery, but more detail on vintages can be found in an in-depth guide near the back. Colourful, well presented, with some stunning photography, I think this book is a worthwhile purchase for anyone with a developing interest in Australian wine.