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Wine Books: David Peppercorn

Peppercorn specialises in Bordeaux, and has been writing on the region for decades.

Wines of Bordeaux
David Peppercorn
Available from Amazon
1-8400-0862-8

A slim, hardback volume, a shade over 200 pages, and part of the revised and updated series of wine guides from Mitchell Beazley, released in 2004. This volume is a worthwhile guide to the chateaux of Bordeaux, although there is no great detail; with ten to twenty lines of text per property, there simply isn't room. So the profiles, which occupy the bulk of the book, offer little more than a few lines on history followed by Peppercorn's impression of the wines from the last couple of decades. The appellations are covered quite comprehensively, however, right down to Ste-Croix-Du-Mont and Loupiac, so it's useful for those looking outside the grand communes of the region. Each review is headed up with some nice detail on owner, vineyard area and varieties planted, production quantities and second label(s). Adding in the introductory section on the region concerning appellations, négociants, grape varieties and vintage summaries (most recent summary is 2002), and you actually get a useful little guide to the region. But it is more for those finding their way around Bordeaux for the first time, when Peppercorn's system of denoting good value properties might be especially useful.

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