If there can be said to be one great statesman of the wine writing world, it would have to be Hugh Johnson, an Englishman whose entered the world of wine writing just as it took off and is still a survivor in it. The author of countless classic books on wine, Johnson also became the host of what is probably the best wine TV series of all time - Vintage: The World of Wine - which, alas, one can only find now used on VHS.
But this great writer has just left his greatest masterpiece - his writings - to us, the people of California. He donated his papers to U.C. Davis, and gave a talk, interviewed by the eminent wine historian Thomas Pinney, which we are grateful to Darrell Corti for video taping.
I watched the video last night...what a pleasure. I hope you'll enjoy it, too. Here it is:
A few highlights...
1. Minerality
A term that nobody knows what it means - so much so that Johnson is removing all mention of it in his annual wine guides.
2. Wine scores
Johnson shares why he doesn't score wines and why he doesn't even think in those terms. Huzzah.
I won't say more in the interest of preventing spoilers, but the program is a delight from start to finish.
Enjoy.
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