Book Review: 2009 Biography of a Vintage

Joelle Thomson is editor of New Zealand magazine Drinksbiz and the December edition of her organ includes a review of my latest book 2009 Biography of a Vintage.

Brilliant up&coming artist Cameron Platter buys a copy at Food|Wine|Design

Brilliant up & coming artist Cameron Platter buys a copy at Food|Wine|Design

“It’s a diary of a year in South African wine,” Neil Pendock told me via e-mail, prior to sending this book to Drinksbiz for review. But 2009 wasn’t just any year in the life of South African wine. It was that country’s 350th year of winemaking. And any risk-taking retailers in New Zealand servicing the extensive 70,000+ South African ex-pat market would do well to stock up on this riveting read. It really is.

Pendock is South Africa’s preeminent wine writer, not least for his outstandingly humorous take on both wine and people. And let’s not forget the politics, either. Pendock’s pen wields a powerful influence in South Africa and I look forward to the day when his inimitable writing style is better known further afield, as much for loosening up the fuddy duddy old school that still, sadly, permeates wine writing internationally. Forget blackberry cassis and redolence of chocolate. Pendock is far better than that, and this book is a very welcome addition to my now groaning wine book shelf.

The book is available locally for R160, but if you can’t find it under the mountain of WOSA R250 Braii Boeke, e-mail Xavier Nagel ([email protected]) and he will sort you out.