The Periodic Table of Wine

I received a wine book for Xmas last year. Taken me a while to get the chance to look at it, but have now so this month’s post is a review of ‘The Periodic Table of Wine’ by Sarah Rowlands, and printed by Ebury Press.

And if you are looking for a really good basic reference source, that lists and explains the different types of wines, and groups them according to body and other characteristics, in a very easy to understand style, then I can really recommend this book.

Most people know that some wines are more ‘full-bodied’ and some are lighter. This particularly applies to red wines. This book groups wines into these categories, in a very simple and easy to understand way, and then provides more information on each wine.

You can see that the white wines start on the left with ‘Full Bodied White’ and moves the the right to ‘Lighter White’ Then the reds go from ‘Lighter Red’ to ‘Red’. (I think that far right column should be ‘Full Bodied Red’

Also each wine has a symbol that tells you how the wine is categorized. For most this is either a G for grape or an R for region.

For me, this is great, a really simple way to find out if the wine name refers to a grape or a region. (There is also an S for style, but not many of these).

Then there is a section for each column in the table, with a brief overview of all the wines in that column, followed by more details for each wine.

I found the details just perfect, enough information to take in, but not too much to overwhelm you. And one sees the names of some wines that I have never heard of. For example, a ‘Pic St-Loup’. Sounds interesting so I will keep an eye out for this and try one if I see it.

Interesting to see in the whites that Pinot Gris and Pinot Grigio are quite far apart in the table. Confirms some of the discussion topics about the differences between the two wines described in this earlier post about Alsace wines. I am not sure I agree with putting St Emillion nearer the ‘Lighter Red’ side of the table. I find this wine quite heavy. But then says some can be ‘rich wines’ and suggests pairing with roast meats or casseroles. To me this wine should be nearer the right side of the table. A few more critical comments would be useful. For example in Robert Joseph’s ‘French Wines’ (reviewed here), on Merlots, he says that they ‘can sometimes also produce very dull, weedy wine’. No similar comments here.

But overall I think this is a great book, and I will be using at as a reference going forward.

You can buy on Amazon here.