Page 33 - Exploring Taste Magazine N.2

PEOPLE—JANCIS ROBINSON

What were the main obstacles you faced during the writing process? wine reviews and the mass and new media? How it will evolve
The greatest challenge was dividing up the subject logically and in the next few years?
then f lling the 800 double-column pages of white space! I think it’s essential that someone like me realizes that print jour-
nalism and books are no longer the most important ways of com-
At this point, we can’t forget to mention another milestone municating. I also think it’s very healthy that wine appreciation is
among your publications: Wine Grapes, the great book dedi- much more democratic and our readers can now criticise us and
cated to the classif cation of the dif erent grape varieties suit- what we write directly – so we have to work even harder to keep
able for winemaking all over the world. respect for our work.
With my brilliant colleague Julia Harding MW and grape geneticist
Dr José Vouillamoz, I gathered together masses of information on On your website it says, “Wine is like geography in a barrel”.
all the grape varieties we could f nd that were producing wine com- How important is the link between wine and territory? Do you
mercially in 2011 (the book was eventually published in 2012). We think that nowadays it is underestimated?
found 1,368 but I’m sure we would f nd almost 1,500 today – not In my time writing about wine there has been a huge shift from
least because of all the hard work being done in Italy to resurrect worshipping winemakers and cellar techniques to valuing vine-
indigenous grape varieties (and elsewhere in the world). yards and viticultural practices very much more. This is to be cel-
ebrated in an age when we all value authenticity so much.
We will end this section of questions concerning your body of
work by talking about your latest book, The 24 Hour Wine Your website has a Chinese section.
Expert, published in 2016 and already a big success, hav- I have been following the development of the Chinese wine
ing been awarded the Special Gourmand Award in China in market closely throughout this century and am delighted that
March 2017. Here the perspective and the target audience are Chinese wine consumers are now so much more wide-rang-
very, very dif erent from those of The Oxford Companion To ing in their tastes. Wine no longer has to be red and from Bor-
Wine and Wine Grapes. deaux! The number of good Chinese wines has been increasing
This book is aimed not at wine geeks but at wine drinkers and markedly too.
wine lovers who want only the essentials of wine knowledge. The
idea is that you can learn enough in 24 hours. In the book you f nd What about Italy? Will your next trip include a stop in our
just the stuf you need to know and nothing more. country, and if so, where?
Very dear friends from New York are planning to celebrate a special
In the mid Nineties you took part in a TV show about wine birthday with a small group for a few days in southern Tuscany. I’m
promoted by the BBC, later transposed into DVDs. In 2015 really looking forward to it, because we have the excellent and very
you launched the online course Mastering Wine – Shortcuts active Walter Speller as our Italian specialist on JancisRobinson.
to Success and today your website is one of the most followed com, I don’t have nearly enough excuses to get to Italy!
in the world... What’s your take on the relationship between

“I think print journalism and books are no longer the most important ways of communicating. I also think
it’s very healthy that wine appreciation is much more democratic and our readers can now criticise us
and what we write directly – so we have to work even harder to keep respect for our work.”

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