Complete Bordeaux Vintage Guide

The Complete Bordeaux Vintage Guide 1870–2020 breaks new ground in wine publishing, being the first volume to cover in depth 150 years of vintages and totally unique in its cultural scope. For wine lovers and collectors this is the indispensable guide, not only for finding out what happened in a particular season, but providing wider historical and social context. Every single year is accompanied by one event or milestone, one song or musical composition and one film that encapsulates the spirit of the time as well as the world into which the vintage was born. Wine writer Neal Martin offers a personal, witty take on the traditional wine handbook, with notes on not just the growing seasons, harvests and wines themselves, but cultural phenomena ranging from Sherlock Holmes through Casablanca to Beyoncé. Innovative, inspired and addictively dip-in-able, The Complete Bordeaux Vintage Guide is an essential addition to your bookshelf as well as your cellar.

Neal Martin’s career in wine began in 1996 as a wine buyer for Japan Airlines where he specialised in Bordeaux and Burgundy. In 2006 Neal was asked by the most influential wine critic in the world, Robert Parker, to join his team at The Wine Advocate where he was the first non-American to hold a position. In December 2012 Neal self-published a 600-page book, Pomerol, that became the standard text for the region, winning the inaugural André Simon John Avery Award and the Louis Roederer Chairman's Award in 2013. He took over coverage of Bordeaux when Parker retired in 2014. In 2018 Neal accepted a position at Vinous where he covers Bordeaux and Burgundy to the present day. His reviews and scores are quoted by merchants around the world and over 25 years he has amassed considerable first-hand knowledge of mature vintages.