Solved:The annoying thing about the Burghound Barzelay book

It was an interesting book with some notes on unique wines. But where the hell is the index? Practically non existent, and none of the domaines are listed.

It is obvious that the two of them toiled to put it together, and it is incomprehensible to me that if I want to know what vintages of Rousseau Chambertins are included, I will have to look them up vintage by vintage. It makes the book oddly useless. Surely if they didn’t have the time, they could have hired a student to put one together. Or at least now, after the fact, get it done, and put it on the net.

I am happy to report after an e mail exchange with Erica Meadows, an Excel sheet with the index information will be e mailed to all buyers of Vintages in July,

Nice to know they were responsive, but pretty lame, nonetheless. What were they thinking? I’m finishing my second non-fiction book now and, like the first, a good index will be a priority.

I agree, but as you say, they were responsive.
I agree also that this was not well thought out, as I think they really failed to understand what their readership was looking for. I bought the book because I buy and sell Burgundy, and wanted to use it as a reference. I am pretty sure I am not the only one.

The notes made it even more difficult as the wines seem to have been listed quite randomly, so when I wanted to find a note on the 1999 Dujac Clos de la Roche, I had to ploughing through three pages to find it on the fourth. But here, and this is the most important thing, the notes were excellent.

Mark,

would you buy the book again?

thanks

-paul

Yes, as it will pay for itself with a couple of searches. But as I said, in its current form, it is quite annoying. I think it does belong on most professional’s bookshelves, and when the Excel sheet comes out, it will be a little more user friendly.

Though not a professional, thanks Mark for prompting them to do that. It was definitely an oversight to publish it without an index. At the same time, for those who are wondering, it is an attractive book that awards thumbing through to acquaint oneself with older vintages or brush up on more recent ones. In addition, for my purposes, I mainly look up something I am contemplating buying, recently some 1991 and 1992 red burgundies, and I can of course quickly see if my wines are included as well as get a better sense of the vintages in question generally, which in the case of 1991 surprised me at least.

How would you compare the book to Jasper Morris’ "Inside Burgundy?

I’m sure Mark can chime in, but the book is very much about each burgundy vintage, red and white, going back to the 19th century. It gives detailed reports on weather, yields, outcomes, as well as notes on specific wines, usually those of the biggies like DRC, Rousseau, or Ponsot. But even so, it gives a good feel for each vintage. Morris’ book, as you may know, is much more about the different Burgundy terroirs, the different vineyards from GC through lieu-dit. It discusses leading producers, but provides no specific notes.

It’s worth pointing out what I consider to be the book’s greatest merit, which is its fascinating integration of social / political history with the history of wine in the introductory sections to each decade. History in wine writing is often merely an ornamental preamble, but this book deploys it to explain why the wines of each era were the way they where, to fascinating effect. The tasting notes are interesting, of course, but it’s those historical introductions that to my mind are truly original (the only other book that comes to mind that so successfully contextualizes wine is Edmund Penning-Rowsell’s Bordeaux) and rank this as one of the most important books on Burgundy for a long time.

I have just received the index material. Glad to say it is exactly what we asked for.

I’m sure I’m in the minority, but I find the book interesting but frankly not all that useful. I’m not sure I need Doug and Allen to tell me that DRC, Rousseau, Dujac, Mugnier and the like - and their higher end wines at that - are good, and whether those wines are good doesn’t really tell me much about the general vintage quality.

I bought it, nice book, but worth it? YMMV.

+1, couldnt have said it better

^ This. Some of the prefaces have good information, but they should have just eliminated the tasting notes, which would have left a nice book of normal size (and weight). As it stands, it could have been subtitled, “Here’s a list of the most expensive wines I’ve drunk. I quite liked them.”

+1 I know the authors a little and understand the difficulty here. This is a consise reason to support the importance of this book. Thanks Mr. Kelley!

I’m glad for this thread – it made me order the book. It’s really informative, even if I doubt I’ll get a chance to use it to tell a friend, “Nope, I’m not coming over to taste that 1910 Thomas-Bassot Clos de la Moutonne, and ya know why?”

Edit: Actually, if The Gilded Sage were a better friend, I might just get that opportunity.