The best of the Christmas tipples

 
5 December 2013

The wine world has undergone huge changes in recent years. There is no better guide to this wine landscape than Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson’s new World Atlas of Wine, Seventh Edition (Mitchell Beazley, £40): the last edition appeared in 2007.

Thus completely new maps have been added, plus a greatly expanded North America section. In fact maps, text and pictures have been revised throughout. But the Atlas’s great strength remains its superb clarity. And the opening section is still hard to better as an introduction to wine. It’s simply indispensable.

For more detail on the rapidly expanding US wine scene, Jancis Robinson and Linda Murphy’s chunky American Wine (Mitchell Beazley, £40) is an admirable guide: state-by-state summaries and maps, ravishing pictures and a wealth of detail. Those wanting a more manageably sized wine reference will more likely turn, as ever, to Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Book 2014 (Mitchell Beazley, £11.99) or Oz Clarke’s Pocket Wine Book 2014 (Pavilion, £11.99). I’ve lost count of the number of editions of Johnson that I’ve owned: I prefer it because it is organised by country rather than Clarke’s straight alphabetical order, but they’re both excellent — and very stocking-sized.

For beer drinkers, Stephen Beaumont and Tim Webb’s Pocket Beer Book 2014 (Octopus, £12.99) is a slightly purist survey of craft beer. But it’s a fascinating guide to every corner of the beer world: I was particularly intrigued by Lithuania’s tiny microbreweries. Closer to home, Andy Hamilton’s Brewing Britain: The Quest for the Perfect Pint (Transworld, £12.99) is a handy how-to guide for home brewers, with guides to British beers, beer shops, festivals and more.

Cocktails, however, will probably always be cooler than homebrew. Thea Bennett’s London Gin (Golden Guides Press, £17.99) is dedicated to the greatest cocktail ingredient — specifically the London version, in which the flavourings have to be distilled with the alcohol rather than added later. She moves from the early 18th-century gin craze to an exhaustive coverage of brands, recipes, bars — and potted biographies of the great mixologists. Practice makes perfect, I say.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in