All you ever wanted to know about wine and geology in France
This is an amazing book. I first encountered it in the library of a tour barge through Burgundy in France. I learned so much about the "terroir" of the burgundian wines that I ordered a copy for myself as soon as I got home. If you ever wanted to know just what the French mean by the word "terroir" as applied to wines, then this is the book for you. Wilson combines the geology, geography, wine variaties and even a bit of history for every major and even minor wine region of France. There is an introduction that introduces the major geological and wine terms used in the book. After that, you can go to any section (Burgundy, Bordeaux, Rhone, etc.) and discover just how the mixtures of soil, climate, geography, and the underlying geology interact to produce the distinctive wines of France.
A text for geologists, not wine lovers
Do not buy this book if you are expecting an easy read, perhaps expanding on the "terroir" writings of Matt Kramer of Wine Spectator fame.This book spends little space discussing the actual liquid that in contained within a wine bottle. What you get instead is an in depth examination of the geology which causes differences in the finished product. The feeling that the "product" is wine, seems to have no joy to the author. To me, that is what ruins this book. I get the feeling that if the author would have had as much enthusiasm writing upon the impact of different wavelengths of light on the lima bean. Not that this book didn't accomplish what the author set out to do. Just know what you are buying.
Misadvertised
"Terroir" by Wilson is a very good book, indeed. Johnson, however, has very little to do with it; he just wrote the foreword, which he does to so many books. Wilson's book is comparable to the older "The Wines and Winelands of France, Geological Journeys" by Charles Pomerol, 1989, English language edition, a much more cut-n-dried account of much the same territory. Both are excellent sources of information for people like teachers and people who wish to gain some intellectual as well as sensory pleasure out of their vinous beverages.
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