Hugh Johnson 1985

 



I recently found this when going through some old things I brought back from England. I'm sure many of you are all familiar with Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book, though not many would have been following him for as long. Now I have to confess that I do not buy a copy every year, as the contents don't change enough from year to year to "subscribe" annually, but recently I've been buying every 2 to 3 years to keep up with developments.

The 1985 version is rather thin compared with the current 2011 offering - 184 as opposed to the present 320 pages + endpapers. (The introduction mentioned that the very first edition in 1977 had only 144 pages.) Fewer countries and wineries were covered, though if you have a penchance for the unusual, the section on English wines was a full 2 pages rather than the single page it is now. The sections on grape varieties and food and wine matching were already present in the 1985 edition, as was the recommendations of wine to drink for the year.

BTW, the RRP was GBP4.95 then as opposed to the GBP10.99 twenty five years later.