Alexa has been sulking in the corner of the room. She’s barely said a word since The New Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia arrived. I can see why. When it comes to authority, a freshly revised encyclopedia still beats a voice assistant and an afternoon of browser tabs, especially if you’re studying for the WSET Diploma or the Master of Wine.
The courier hauled it up to our flat: nearly 800 pages in three parts, by Tom Stevenson with Orsi Szentkirályi. The previous edition came out in 2011, so this one represents roughly a decade of research. We’ve grown used to information that weighs nothing, and there’s something to be said for a book that is almost too heavy to lift down from the shelf. Ours has ended up on the coffee table, where it keeps tempting us to open it.
How much there is to learn
It’s sometimes said that today’s Diploma covers more ground than the first Master of Wine exam did in 1953. In those days the top qualification called for a deep knowledge of France, Bordeaux and Burgundy in particular, and a smattering of facts about the New World, if you could bring yourself to say the words. Today’s wine professionals need to know wines from every continent, along with the science and the global business interests that shape so many decisions in the trade.
That makes it tempting to buy every book going. You can pass the Diploma on the materials WSET provides, and if you learn the manuals inside out, a Pass is within reach. Plenty of students start out hoping for more, though, and realise after the first round of exams how much extra work a Distinction takes. If you’re aiming for Distinctions all the way (oh yes), the area to strengthen is the business and marketing side of each region you study, and that’s where this encyclopedia earns its place.
Testing it against what I know
I know a handful of regions very well. I started my career in Australia, I’ve worked with Bordeaux and Burgundy, and lately I’ve become more involved with California. Since the Diploma I’ve built a broad knowledge of nearly everywhere else, though my grasp of re-emerging areas such as Mexico could be better. So I checked the book against the regions I know best, partly to test it and partly to see what I might learn, because with wine there’s always something.
For a student, the layout is logical. Open “The Wines of the Americas” and you’ll find a boxed section on the factors affecting taste and quality for each region of California. For Mendocino County, for example, it runs through location, climate, soil, aspect, grape varieties, and viticulture and vinification. These are close to the fundamentals you learn at Level 3, and having them summarised region by region makes revision easier. To go further at Diploma level, you need to combine them with what you learn in the business unit.
The business of wine
Because the Diploma is a professional qualification, knowledge of the wine market is what sets it apart from Level 3, and this is where the encyclopedia is most useful. The business and production statistics were thorough and current at the time of publication, and the chapter on California includes figures on grape varieties and crush volumes over recent years. The chapter introductions, photography and maps also help bring the drier facts in the manuals to life.
The section I found most valuable covers the large companies behind the industry. Under North America, a boxed feature on the largest wine groups sets out the history, facts and figures for the biggest producers by volume, much as Tom Stevenson did in his Christie’s World Encyclopedia of Champagne & Sparkling Wine. Showing that kind of knowledge in an exam essay can nudge you closer to a Distinction, and here it’s all in one place instead of spread across a dozen tabs.
There are also lists of AVAs, label vocabulary and a section on vine pests, complete with a picture of a glassy-winged sharpshooter, the insect that spreads Pierce’s disease. “Sharpshooter!” was my favourite thing to say while I was studying, despite the damage it does to Californian vineyards. I can only put that down to study madness.
A word of caution
WSET is wary of recommending reading beyond what it wants you to study, and its exams reward what’s on the syllabus. Right or wrong (and we could debate that until the whisky bottle is dry), I found this made studying tricky, because I kept disappearing down rabbit holes whenever something interesting came up. Extra reading outside the curriculum didn’t help me in the exams, so I’d be careful about how much you take on. If anything, the challenge is narrowing the information down.
The same goes for tasting. The book has some good basic guidance on tasting and assessment, but it doesn’t follow WSET’s Systematic Approach to Tasting, so I’d stick to the SAT before your exams to avoid confusion. Keen amateurs, in the original sense of the word, from the Latin for someone who loves, will still find it helpful.
Final thoughts
The New Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia brings together a good deal of what Diploma students otherwise gather from several sources, including the kind of maps and producer detail you’d find in The World Atlas of Wine. Used alongside The Oxford Companion to Wine and the WSET manuals, it gives a student a strong grounding before the exams. WSET recommended earlier editions, and at the time of writing I expected this one to join them.
It’s also more than a study aid. It’s a good companion to keep on the coffee table, even if Alexa still isn’t speaking to me.
The New Sotheby's Wine EncyclopediaAuthor: Tom Stevenson, with Orsi SzentkirályiPublished: November 2020Length: nearly 800 pages
Archive note: This review was written in 2020. Newer editions may have appeared since.
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