User:Mr Meticulous/Sotheby's

Although Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia is the sole work of Tom Stevenson, the size and scope of this classic reference is such that many people assume he is just the editor, not its author. However, Stevenson was not only responsible for researching and writing this book himself, he was also instrumental in co-designing (with publishers Dorling Kindersley), the compartmentalization of its text, which has been the key to its success since this encyclopedia was first published in 1988. The purpose of this compartmentalizing of the text is two-fold: firstly it removes the distraction of hard data, technical details, tables and ancillary explanations from the flow of mainstream text, allowing free and easy access to any level of reader, and secondly it enables more experienced readers to zero-in on precise technical detail.

It is ‘‘Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia’’’s ease of use and comprehensive coverage that has made this book so popular with those readers who require a single book solution to their wine reference needs. This has resulted in sales in excess of 600,000 copies in 14 major languages, according to the flap of the 4th Edition Revised (published in November 2007). ‘‘Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia’’ is the only book that claims map and profile “every appellation, official and unofficial, and all of the best producers”. It is on the one hand a highly polished wine atlas, while on the other it offers profiles of wineries and recommends specific wines. This makes it unique, as no other wine book attempts both the scope of every appellation (4,000 according to the back cover of the 1997 edition, the latest edition to provide this information), and depth of so many wineries (6,000 according to introduction to the 2007 edition), let alone get into such minutia of detail as recommending individual wines from so many wineries. This is why its appeal spans the entire spectrum of wine drinkers, from the absolute novice to the expert (‘‘Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia’’ is required reading for Master of Wine, Master Sommelier and Cape Wine Master examinations).

First published as ‘‘Sotheby’s World Wine Encyclopedia’’ in 1988, it has been reprinted in the UK and USA in 1988 (a second impression in UK only), 1989 (a third impression in UK only), 1991 (revised), 1994 (paperback), 1995, 1996, 1997 (major revise as The New ‘‘Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia’’), 1998 (UK two reprints, US one reprint), 1999 (UK three reprints and one Millennium edition, USA one reprint and one Millennium edition), 2000, 2001 (minor revise), 2002 (USA only, two reprints), 2003 (UK and USA two reprints), 2004 (US only), 2005 (major revise as ‘‘Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia’’, its current title), 2007 (minor revise).

The largest revision of this work was published in 1997, when Stevenson records in his introduction that “I planned to write the first edition in two years, but it took three, so I thought it would be a doddle to update the Encyclopedia in the same amount of time, yet it took me five years. The reason was that so much had changed in the previous ten years that merely tweaking the text was unthinkable. So much had to be totally rewritten or added that the book has expanded from 480 pages to 600, and that was achieved only after ruthless cuts. Italy alone has swollen from 25 pages to almost 40. I had looked forward to introducing a section of producer profiles for Italy, but the expansion of that section is due solely to the explosion of its appellations. If you have the original edition of the Encyclopedia, just compare the maps for an instant idea of the magnitude of growth that has taken place.”

Stevenson glosses over the fact that he revised the book in 1991, but probably for noble reasons, since the changes were minuscule compared to those in the 1997 edition and later revises. When compared to the 1997 edition, the 2001 revise involved a large amount of updating to the text, but no expansion (600 pages). There are quite a lot of additional subjects (appellations, wineries etc), but with no expansion in the pagination, this could only achieved by balancing the extra material with cuts of existing text. In many cases, only by careful comparison can it be detected that this has been accomplished, not by wholesale deleting whole entries (although sometimes this has obviously happened), but by surgically editing out a single word here and there to reclaim entire lines. It is therefore from here on that we can identify two distinct types of revision, a major revise, as in 1997, when the book is expanded as well as updated, and a minor revise, as in 2001, when the text is updated, but without increased pagination, the inclusion of any additional material is restricted. By this standard, the 2005 edition can be considered a major revise, with the number of pages rising from 600 to 664. On the surface the 2005 edition appears to involve a substantially smaller expansion than the 1997 edition (just 64 pages compared to 120), but on closer examination, the expansion is much greater than the number of extra pages, as Stevenson dropped the lengthy 7-page “Sotheby’s Introduction” and 24 pages of “Author’s Choice”, both of which had been introduced in the 1997 edition. The 2005 edition therefore benefited from 95 pages of new material, and it contained a record number of upgradings to winery star-ratings. It also incorporated symbols to denote which recommended producers that are also organic or biodynamic, and in his introduction Stevenson expresses surprise at the high failure rate of these green producers “It is one thing if someone gifted like Olivier Humbrecht of Domaine Zind-Humbrecht in Alsace or Lalou Bize-Leroy of Domaine Leroy in Burgundy go organic or biodynamic. When great winemakers with exceptional terroirs go green they produce great organic or biodynamic wines. However, it is quite another matter when other less passionate about the quality of wine are organic. They might well have a true passion for the environment, but the majority of the world’s organic producers clearly have no passion or idea how to make a superior quality wine.”

The 2007 edition is a minor revise with no increased pagination, but the “Sotheby’s Introduction” has been resurrected, albeit restricted to a two-page (and much more useful) section renamed as “Wine Auctions & Collecting”, plus a Foreword by Serena Sutcliffe MW. Weight estimates vary between 5.2 and 5.7 pounds

ISBN 978-1899791897