The Newest Edition of Wine’s Most Important Reference Book
Drinks Business reports on the coming publication of the 4th Edition of the Oxford Companion to Wine (OCtW)—the most important wine reference book in history of wine reference books. What’s nearly as remarkable as the comprehensive nature of this great work is the effort that goes into updating it.
According to the Drinks Business article as well as to the Oxford Companion to Wine website, over 60% of the nearly 4,000 (yes, 4,000!) entries will have been updated for this coming new edition. It sort of begs the question, what exactly needs to be updated? Has the way wine ferments changed? Is there innovation in the realm of uncorking a bottle?
It appears the answer is, “yes”.
Imagine the cache of information about wine that editors Jancis Robinson and Julia Harding possess as a result of not only contributing to the text but editing all the entries created by the nearly 200 writers who contribute to the OCtW. Is there room in those two remarkable heads for anything else? It’s a miracle that Ms. Robinson and Ms. Hardin are able to find their ways back home. Do they occasionally stand on the corner of the street, pondering the contours of he hills of Chablis while trying to figure out which way is home?
The 4th Edition of the OCtW arrives in September. Published by the Oxford University Press, it undoubtedly will represent an important publishing even in the world of wine.
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