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Summary: The Ultimate Wine Guide
Review: Each year in France Hachette releases its famous blue guide. This is truly a guide for the serious wine lover. Although I believe in the motto: if it tastes good to me - its a good wine; the blue guide allows me to buy wine with the back-up of over 800 French experts. There is no points system. If you can find your wine in the book then it is worthy of purchase. If the wine is especially good, then it gets one, two or three stars, as in the Michelin system. If the wine is a stunner according to the panel of judges, then it is awarded a favorite classification. Some publications which purport to rate wine give wines a points score. I think this is rather silly because it leads to the conclusion that I will enjoy a wine with 90 points more than a wine with 86. This is of course nonsense to a wine lover. Some of the most enjoyable wines I have drunk have come from bad years with low points. A good example is Lafite 73. Wonderful wine with food - written-off by the wine experts early on but has developed into a soft delicious mouth full. Hachette adopts the philosophy that wines are very much like people. It would be impossible to rate people with a point score and then say I only want to get to know those people with scores over 90. Wine is the same, thank God!If Hachette decides not to publish a review on a wine, it is safe to assume that the wine has obvious wine making faults or the fruit was of such a low standard as to no longer be a pleasant experience. While the stars usually guarantee a certainty of pleasure, they usually only indicate that all the panel of judges were unanimous in their praise. I have often bought wines that are not awarded a star and found them to be wonderful. In summary it is a book that is both informative and realistic. It gives a balanced view of the wine market each year and can be thoroughly recommended to all those wine lovers who are ready to take their next step in wine education and enjoyment.
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