The Classic Wine Library is home to some of the world’s most trusted expert writing on wine. This anthology gathers together selected essays from nearly 30 titles, published over the last 10 years. The chapters cover topics essential to understanding the wines of a range of regions, including their history, wine growing, winemaking and signature wines. The wide range of subjects include: • The beginnings of viticulture – explaining how people learned to tame the wild tree-climbing Vitis vinifera and turn it into orderly vineyards; • Addressing South Africa’s apartheid legacy – detailing efforts made by the wine industry to create equal opportunities for black and coloured workers; • Australia’s old vines – revealing the history and extent of the country’s impressive collection of ungrafted vines; • Qvevri: the vessel of dreams – discussing how these traditional clay vessels are formed, and used to make wines; • The wines of Japan – looking at one of the world’s most newly emerged wine producing countries and seeing how its wines have been transformed over the last decade; • Tavel – exploring the history and winemaking methods behind the Rhône’s famous rosé wine and learning how changing fashions in wines have affected its fortunes. The articles feature wine regions across the globe, from Old World favourites in the heart of Europe to New World heavyweights such as South Africa and New Zealand to emerging regions like Great Britain and the southwest USA. The Classic Wine Library reader will expand your wine knowledge and enhance your bookshelf.

Julian Jeffs is one of the world’s leading authorities on sherry and has written several books on Spanish wine. After leaving Cambridge, Jeffs got a job in the sherry trade in Jerez, working in a bodega and seeing every stage in the production of wine. Called to the Bar in 1958, he took two years off to write the first edition of Sherry. He also wrote two more books on wine and others on law. A past President of the Circle of Wine Writers, he was out-of-house series editor of Faber Wine Books.|Richard Mayson is an award-winning wine writer and an authority on Portuguese wine. A lecturer and consultant, he writes for Decanter and The World of Fine Wine and is a contributor to the Oxford Companion to Wine, the Larousse Encyclopedia of Wine and the World Atlas of Wine. His books include Port and the Douro, Madeira: The islands and their wines and The wines of Portugal. He is Chair of the Decanter World Wine Awards for Port and Madeira Wine.|Rebecca Clare is the editorial director of Infinite Ideas and series editor for The Classic Wine Library. She is the author of two books, one of which, Game of Thrones on Business, was shortlisted for the 2016 CMI Management Book of the Year.