Anthony Rose reviews The Oxford Companion to Wine (fifth edition), edited by Julia Harding MW, Jancis Robinson MW OBE, and Tara Q Thomas.
There is a magnum opus that has undergone several editions since its first publication. Subsequent editions have primarily involved changes in spelling, grammar, punctuation, and formatting, but the fundamental content has remained pretty much the same over the years. Or should I say, over the centuries, because I am talking about the King James Version of the Bible, first published in 1611. The magnum opus here, on the other hand—or “Jéroboam opus,” as one Twitter wit (X wit?) called it—looks substantially different from its first outing in 1994. But are there more than simple tweaks from the fourth to the fifth edition of The Oxford Companion to Wine?
In the preface, Julia Harding MW, joint editor with Jancis Robinson MW, anticipates the question: “The world, and the world of wine, has changed a great deal in the eight years since the fourth edition was published, and every single entry has been reviewed and updated to reflect those changes.” She continues: “With a total of more than 4,100 substantive entries, including 272 new ones, more than 100 new expert contributors on all aspects of the glorious and diverse world of wine, we have for the first time breached the one-million-word mark.”
Perhaps the most striking, if not immediately obvious, change has been in the editorial team. The Oxford Companion to Wine is Jancis Robinson’s baby. The Queen
This Article was originally published on World of Fine Wine
