At long last there has been a decent crop of wine books this year – so much so that the judges and trustees of the André Simon Awards have managed to shortlist five of them, as below. Needless to say, we are thrilled to see our book Wine Grapes there.
It would be easy to suspect foul play here since my husband Nick Lander is a trustee of the Awards, but I am assured that he was banished throughout the discussions of the books about drink and it was all left to the other trustees, who include Masters of Wine Sarah Jane Evans and David Gleave (who has replaced the late John Avery) and 2012 drinks book assessor Harry Eyres.
The winners will be chosen on 14 March and announced that evening in London. Many congratulations to all those chosen, and commiserations to the authors and publishers of the many excellent wine books published this year that are not on this list.
Our illustration shows the certificate won by our Spanish specialist Luis Gutiérrez for the book he co-wrote on Rioja.
During the rest of this month we will be publishing reviews of many of this year's vintage of wine books by our usual reviewer Paul O'Doherty. I don't always agree with his assessments, but I feel too close to the world of wine authorship to be a suitable book reviewer myself.
Drink
Brunello di Montalcino by Kerin O'Keefe published by University of California Press
How to Love Wine by Eric Asimov published by William Morrow
Pomerol by Neal Martin published by Wine-Journal Publishing (= Neal himself)
Sherry, Manzanilla & Montilla by Peter Liem & Jesús Barquín published by Manutius
Wine Grapes by Jancis Robinson, Julia Harding, Dr José Vouillamoz published by Penguin Books
Food
Annie Bell's Baking Bible by Annie Bell published by Kyle Books
Edible Selby by Todd Selby published by Abrams
Following Fish by Samanth Subramanian published by Atlantic Books
Hoosh by Jason C Anthony published by University of Nebraska Press
Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi published by Ebury Books
Polpo by Russell Norman published by Bloomsbury Books
Sud de France by Caroline Conran published by Prospect Books
The Food of Morocco by Paula Wolfert published by Bloomsbury Books