Hugh Johnson on Wine: Good Bits from 55 Years of Scribbling

摘要

It is a journey through five-and-a-half decades recorded contemporaneously, one can fancy, by your favorite old English uncle by marriage, during which the world of fine wine expanded from a handful of European countries to the entire globe. With wit, wisdom, and warmth, Johnson chronicles these changes in an annotated collection of his columns, excerpts from books, and even something found in his desk drawer, written between 1960 and 2016. Refreshingly, his approach to wine is at variance with what he claims is his nation's forte: "Britain is right in front... in critical authority" (p. 162). He eschews, however, the label of critic: "Critics are obliged to be objective in their assessments. ... Which is why 'critic' is a term I have never accepted. 'Commentator,' certainly" (p. 189).