Has anyone got a copy of the new edition of The World Atlas of Wine?
I would LOVE to see the two paragraphs on Paso! According to Heimoff, our only producers are Constellation, Treasury and J. Lohr.
I have a copy of the 2007 edition, and it sounds like there has been almost nothing that’s been updated in the new one. In the 2007 edition, Paso is indeed covered in just two paragraphs - given the space allotted, it’s no surprise that there is little of interest written about the region or its wines.
How much space does the Oltrepò Pavese zona of Lombardia get? Several hundred wineries there, some over 800 years old.
By the way, this topic might get more attention/responses if posted in Wine Talk, as opposed to Cellar Rats…
Bruce
Henri says no, sadly it would not.
Such ennui. ![[welldone.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/f/fc9709a841aa9379fd892a9cf0b535b05f473b86.gif "[welldone.gif]"){kind=small}
Henri says the discussion would just topple from the weight of our collective ennui.
That’s my least used wine reference book. Disappointing every single time I’ve tried to look something up over the last 15 years. Talk about negative reinforcement. It does have a use, though. While shut, the forced air heater vent in my bedroom still leaks too much heat. A brick would be more difficult to kick out of the way, so it’s better than a brick.
Better than a brick! You should be their publicist!
They had to clear some space to talk about the hot new up and comer VIRGINIA.
I looked up my version of the World Atlas (5th edition) and I think you have to look at these 2 paragraphs (more like 3 in my version but whatever) in the context of the whole book.
Bordeaux definitely gets a lot of play (30 pages), Burgundy less so (21 pages). Champagne is summarily dismissed in 4 mere pages, same as Beaujolais (I’ll leave the demonstration of the relative importance of both regions as an exercise to the reader). Alsace gets 5 pages, etc.
Each major appellation gets 1-2 pages. I find the 2 pages (out of 16 for the whole of California) dedicated to the “Central South Coast” (from Paso Robles to Santa Ynez Valley) to be rather generous in the grand scheme of things, noting that it’s the same amount of coverage than Rioja, Barolo or Châteauneuf-du-Pape; as much as Chinon, Bourgueil, Vouvray and Montlouis together; or half as much as Napa or the whole of Champagne.
The map and a picture take quite a bit of space, and when you remove the couple of introductory paragraphs to describe the region in general, it leaves half of the remaining paragraphs for the SLO area, and the other half for Santa Maria/Santa Ynez.
Considering the scope of the book, 2-3 paragraphs for the SLO area doesn’t seem like such an ignominy to me.
Well, it does sound a wee bit franco-centric.
And that is why books like this are a joke.
But could they at least discuss what’s important about the region? Constellation owns one winery (founded by a local), Treasury another (founded by a local) and J.Lohr didn’t even come to the region until late in the game, and then only to open a facility for reds (now of course their whole operation is here). Nothing about any of that addresses the terroir, the style or the true recent history of Paso Robles. Without seeing the text (I’ve never been interested in owning the book) I can’t say for certain, but it sounds like the whole section is uninformed tripe.
Edited to add:
(Actually, I’m embarrassed to admit, I do own the set. I’ve been using it as a bookend!)
Again this is based on my edition of the book, which is the 5th and dates back from roughly 10 years ago. Maybe things have changed significantly, although I believe they didn’t.
- Introduction and Generalities: 51 pages
- France: 101 pages
- Italy: 33 pages
- Spain: 15 pages
- Portugal: 14 pages
- Germany: 24 pages
- Swizterland, Austria, Greece, Eastern Europe, Middle East: 30 pages
- US & Canada, South America: 34 pages
- Australia, NZ, South Africa: 23 pages
That’s indeed quite a bit for France, but I’d say understandably so given the number of wine regions. A map of French vineyards is basically a map of France…
Well first of all as you mentioned since you haven’t read the text, your take is based purely on hearsay and I for one think it might be better not to pass judgement on this basis.
Second, this is an atlas. The aim is to give information about geography, geology, climate and so on–not to go about specific variations of terroir and whatnot in any specific region. The whole of Côte de Nuits gets 4 pages, so I let you imagine how many discussions about the finer points of terroir they managed to fit in there. In any case maybe they reworded it in a more recent version to give more visibility to smaller estates, maybe they didn’t.
As far as the Paso Robles area is concerned, I see the following producers being mentioned:
- Mondavi, Beringer, J. Lohr and Southcorp being signaled as the “big guns” in the area
- Tablas Creek (linked to Perrin/Beaucastel)
- Larry Turley is mentioned as having invested in the area
- a label of Justin Vineyards (Isosceles)
- wineries appearing on the map, from West to East: Justin, Tablas Creek, Dark Star, Peachy Canyon, Caparone, Mastantuono, Presenti-Turley, Midnight, Mission View, Sylvester, Martin Bros, Wild Horse, Castoro Cellars, J. Lohr, Eberle, Arciero, Meridian (Beringer), Tobin James, Seven Peaks, Creston Manor
I’ll conclude by saying that there’s a lot more information available on the web right now than in any of these reference books. It’s pretty much been relegated to the coffee table books category by now.
Thanks Guillaume, for taking the time to type all that out.
Six of those wineries no longer exist, and haven’t been around for … oh … 8-10 years. Oops, make that 7 wineries, maybe 8.
What do you think, Henri?
Just for chuckles, I grabbed my old edition of WAOW–Hugh Johnson, 2nd Edition, 1971 (yes, I’m a dinosaur). France got 66 pages; California got 9. Most of the CA discussion is Napa; there is no mention of Paso at all. The CA Grape Guide mentions Gamay and Gamay Beaujolais; no mention of Syrah (!!). The times they are a changin’…
Bruce
As I said my edition is 10 years old (5th edition). No idea to what extent they have updated the current one. But I would be surprised if the copywriting was all new. I imagine the balance between regions hasn’t changed much either.
Atlas Shrugged.
Yeah, I’m surprised these tomes sell anymore. Can’t remember the last time I bought a wine reference book.
That mix of coverage probably more accurately reflected production and importance in the global wine market at the time than the current coverage.