Sotheby's World Wine Encyclopedia

This illustrated guide to wine combines maps, assessment of individual wines, and guides to tasting, to provide a discussion of each country's viticultural history and the current reputation of each wine. The guide also analyzes wine regions and the smaller districts, and looks at factors affecting the taste and quality of each country's wines - location, aspect, soil, grape varieties, and microclimate. Each section is completed by wine-by-wine taste guides, in which individual wine-growers, chateaux and wineries are profiled and their wines assessed.