Product Description

Even the French admit that Jancis Robinson is the "undisputed mistress of the kingdom of wine" (Le Figaro). Internationally renowned for her work in both television and print, she is the editor of the bestselling Oxford Companion to Wine and has won more than two dozen major awards around the world. Tasting Pleasure is her compelling account of a passion that began while studying at Oxford University.

Writing with Julia Child's authority, Elizabeth David's intelligence, and M.F.K. Fisher's verve, Robinson takes us on a journey through the world's finest cellars, most beautiful vineyards, and best restaurants. As she explores the universe of the grape--from Bordeaux to Australia and South Africa to California--we meet scores of colorful, wine-loving characters, including Philippe de Rothschild, Julian Barnes, Francis Ford Coppola, and Julio Gallo.

There are many books about producing and rating wine; this one is about enjoying it. Witty, revealing, and knowledgeable, in Tasting Pleasure Jancis Robinson has distilled twenty years in the wine world into a hugely entertaining read.

--Robinson received the 1995 Wine Literary Award from the Wine Appreciation Guild

"Our cleverest, most thoughtful wine writer . . . well known wherever wine is made or consumed." -Paul Levy, The Wall Street Journal

"Of all the wine writers in the world," proclaimed Robert Parker, "Jancis Robinson may well be the most gifted. . . . She is witty, brilliant, authoritative."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1085607 in Books
• Published on: 1997-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

From Library Journal
The editor and author of almost a dozen British books on wine, including The Oxford Companion to Wine (LJ 12/94), Robinson knows the wine world inside and out. Here she shares her love for and knowledge of wine via a collection of autobiographical anecdotes and sketches covering everything from the time spent early in her career writing for Wine and Spirit magazine to her adventures taping the Wine Course for the BBC. Dedicated wine enthusiasts and collectors will drink up Robinson's stories of meetings with the luminaries of the wine world and her visits to the vineyards of countries as varied as France and Australia. However, the average American reader might be overwhelmed by the emphasis on the British wine trade. Libraries with comprehensive wine book collections or public libraries catering to a gourmet clientele will want to consider.?John Charles, Scottsdale P.L., Ariz.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
In case you were interested, here's everything you could ever possibly want to know about Robinson's (Oxford Companion to Wine) career trajectory. Robinson, who has been a fixture in the wine writing establishment for 25 years, teeters precariously, wanting her readers to know that she is both a wine connoisseur--exquisitively sensitive to the historical, geographical, and sociological contexts of wine--and a populist rabble-rouser, bucking received opinion as she champions the wine-drinking pleasures open to Everyman. She quaffs Grands Echezeaux, La Tache, Romanee-Conti, 1847 Yquems, and 1787 Branne Moutons, has ``swashbuckling'' Harold Evans as her editor at London's Sunday Times, and hobnobs with Hugh Johnson and Edmund Penning-Rowsell, But she also starts up the Drinker's Digest, an opinionated and iconoclastic newsletter dedicated to the principle of the best wine for the best price. Readers will learn the holdings in her cellar, her peregrinations through the wine-trade publications, the many personalities she meets, the astonishing meals she enjoys, and will share her each and every momentous occasion (``I shall never forget my first formal wine tasting''; ``My most embarrassing trial by tasting took place. . . . ``, etc.). She gets serious now and then--discussing the pros and cons of blind tastings, detailing how Robert M. Parker Jr. has gained his mind-boggling sway over the wine world--but for the most part, this reads like a gossip column that can't turn a decent sentence (``The others are that there are anyway enough people who love Tertre, for it is probably the only Saint-Emilion other than the top-ranking Ausone and Cheval Blanc''). Despite its moments, this autobiography is clunky, desperately self-promoting, and, at best, premature. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

A Matter Of Perspective
If you want tasting notes and rankings, pick up Robert Parker or Hugh Johnson. This is a book about a life in wine, not a book about wine.

"Tasting Pleasure" is a ramble through Jancis Robinson's ascent into the heavens of the wine world. She's been very lucky, and has supported that luck with intelligence and hard work. In other hands, this story might have been insufferable; but Robinson's greatest gift may be her ability to keep a sense of perspective while progressing from one table laden with fine bottles to the next. She is well aware of the essential frivolity of what she does for a living, and also well aware of her good fortune.

N.B.: Unless you're totally fascinated with Jancis Robinson, there are sections that are easily skippable. The book remains, even so, a worthwhile addition to your wine library.

Just a Wine Lover?
I confess to a liking for books from those who are knowledgeable when it comes to wine. Perhaps it is more correct to say books that provide me with knowledge and personal insights. Jancis Robinson's "Tasting Pleasure" is a particularly insightful look into the birth and growth of a wine connoisseur. In some respects the stars align perfectly for Ms Robinson as she rises, very quickly, from tour guide to assistant editor of the British wine trade magazine Wine & Spirit in 1975, to Master of Wine in 1984, to author and TV presenter. However it is also clear that the considerable knowledge and experience that she gained during these years contributed significantly to the evolution of her career and to her current status. She has been privileged to taste some extraordinary wines in the company of some extraordinary wine tasters; Michael Broadbent to name just one. It is easy for those of us who are unlikely to rise to such heights of pleasure to fall into the trap of dismissing such experiences as conceited ramblings. But it should be appreciated that access to such wine completes the spectrum of tasting experiences available to the connoisseur; those of us who taste the great and the near great have to be satisfied with being somehow incomplete. What is interesting is that Ms Robinson prefers to call herself a Wine Lover, that is something we can all claim to be.

Dry...Dry...Dry
I have to admit I didn't read the entire book. I got bored and decided to count the grains of sand in the street in front of my house.

This is just a brain dump of opinions and experiences. The last sentence should be "...well...I guess you had to be there."