“Complete guide” to grape varieties set for release

Which six grape varieties can trace their origin to China? How is the grape variety Galeguinho more commonly known? To which 14 varieties can most of the grapes we know today trace their ancestry?

A new book, Wine Grapes, provides the answers to these questions and more in what its publisher, Allen Lane, claims is “the most complete guide to vine varieties and their wines ever.”

Compiled by wine writers Jancis Robinson MW and Julia Harding MW, together with grape geneticist Dr José Vouillamoz, this guide to 1,368 vine varieties is over 1,000 pages long, weighs three kilograms and has an RRP of £120.

In addition to detailed profiles on each of these individual varieties, the book provides historical background on their global spread, extensive DNA profiling, information on diseases and an overview of the style of wine each grape produces.

Highlighting the expertise and new levels of detail incorporated into the book, Robinson said: “José is a specialist in DNA, which means that he has discovered all sorts of amazing relationships between these different grape varieties, many of them completely unexpected, some of them never published before.”

Wine Grapes is illustrated with a selection of 80 paintings taken from Ampélographie, compiled by Viala and Vermorel at the beginning of the 20^th century.

The book will be on sale from 25 October. For more information, click here.