Folly at Wine Folly

From Drinks Business - https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2016/ ... re-region/

A post titled ‘All About English Wine’ published on the Wine Folly blog this week includes a Wine Map of England which highlights the winemaking regions of Hampshire, Sussex, Surrey, Kent, East Anglia and – that’s it.

Several observers noted the omission of the entire South West of England, home to such wineries as Camel Valley (Cornwall), Sharpham (Devon) and Lyme Bay (Devon)................ a total of around 139 vineyards for the entire South West region.

[Robin Garr]

Isn't Wine Folly pretty much ignored, mostly for reasons like this?

[David M. Bueker]

You know it was not so long ago that Hugh and Jancis referred to Sonoma in "other California" so it is probably not something to get bent out of shape about.

[Robin Garr]

You know it was not so long ago that Hugh and Jancis referred to Sonoma in "other California" so it is probably not something to get bent out of shape about.

For many years I hung on to my copy of Hugh's 1978 Pocket Wine Book - the first I ever owned - and if I recall correctly it did similar things with "Other France" and "Other Italy."

[David M. Bueker]

Right. But I bought my first copy of The Wine Atlas in 2004.

Maybe the Wine Folly map has been fixed, but it looks OK to me.

I'm not sure what is wrong with "Other France" in HJ's pocket book, but it only makes sense after the "Bordeaux" section of the book. Some might think it is dismissive of the rest of France, but in terms of quality wines makes sense as a division.

[David M. Bueker]

"Other France" and "Other California" made more sense in 1978 than they do now (they make no sense now), but even in 1978, the only issue in France was bad vineyard/winemaking practices, not historical importance.

[Robin Garr]

Right. But I bought my first copy of The Wine Atlas in 2004.

Whippersnapper.

"Other France" and "Other California" made more sense in 1978 than they do now (they make no sense now.

I quite like the distinction between Bordeaux and Other France in HJ's pocket book. It makes it so much easier to ignore Bordeaux

[David M. Bueker]

Right. But I bought my first copy of The Wine Atlas in 2004.

Whippersnapper.

Late adopter. Read the Oxford Companion first.

[Robin Garr]

Late adopter. Read the Oxford Companion first.

Well, I was with Oxford from the very start, too. The Johnson pocket book was my first wine book, and it helped me become a wine geek. But by the time Jancis came along with her monster encyclopedia, it blew away the other smaller encyclopedias I had at the time - Schoonmaker's, which was very good, and Terry Robards NYT, which was a little less good. Good wine encyclopedias were even more important back before the Internet was a thing for most of us.

I also got to meet Hugh Johnson at a wine judging in Torgiano around 1982, which was quite a thrill. He seemed very modest at the time, but then so did Parker when I met him in Atlanta in 1984.