Tyson Stelzer promises a warts-and-all book in which ‘no punches are pulled’. The Champagne Guide
The indefatigable Tyson Stelzer’s latest edition of his The Champagne Guide (Edition VII) has been released and it is—astonishingly—more than 50% bigger than the previous edition.
Weighing in at 3.4kg, it gives the Oxford Companion to Wine a run for its money. It’s more than two inches thick and weighs more than a magnum of Champagne, Stelzer says. (Alas, not having a magnum to hand I’ll have to take his word for it.)
This book is a breathtaking achievement. That it’s all the work of an Australian who lives in Brisbane, a long way from France, is all the more remarkable.
With 880 pages and nearly half a million words (enough for six average-size novels, he says) it is a tour de force in 880 pages.
There are 1,260 wine reviews from 142 producers, and 43 of the producers are new to the book. The profiles are in-depth, and what were lengthy chapters in the previous edition are even longer now. Louis Roederer gets 28 pages!
Champagne vineyards and buildings are especially photogenic, and the book is richly decorated with colour photographs taken by the author himself. The superb cover artwork is by a family member, Dr Cameron Stelzer.
No doubt some readers will go straight to the back of the book where all wines tasted are listed by point-score (out of 100), from the top down. There you find that 10 wines have been
This Article was originally published on The Real Review
