Vineyards, Rocks, and Soils: The Wine Lover's Guide to Geology Kindle Edition

Great book for wine lovers if you want to learn more about soils.

I have finished reading this for the first time, but it won’t be my last. I appreciate how he essentially starts at the beginning and explains how & why each step is important. I think this works for people with different levels of knowledge of wine or geology. He does a great job of disputing myths of minerality in wine without being mean about it & he finally shows how geology does influence wine taste. This is one of those books that quickly shows that it is essential reading.

Because I'm focused on beginning my WSET Diploma shortly, I felt that I needed to know as much about soil as I could. This is not a "sit down all comfy a coverlet and get lost in it" reading. Make no mistake, this is equivalent to an academic tome with single-spaced type, charts, and illustrations. It is suited for the serious wine lover/student. My only complaint is that I wish that all of the illustrations were in color.

This is a very specialised book, more geography and geology than vineyards, but the author tries to connect geological facts with their effects on vineyards. For example, he refers to the pebble-like terroir of the Medoc and explains how this affects the vineyards there by reason of the different sort of drainage this type of soil there. There are many very helpful diagrams and photographs providing clearer images to our reading minds. It is an excellent (albeit very academic) companion to Tim Patterson's 'Wine and Place'.

Even if you're not into wine, this book works nicely as an introduction to geology. For serious students of wine, it's required reading. My only real criticism is that there are too many exclamations! Probably from years of trying to keep the proverbial jocks awake in class.

In an era when we want to know more about where our food comes from, the provenance, wine offers that. Maltman’s book provides an in depth conversation about the geology of different wine regions, the minerals involved, how the soil affects the wine and busts the myth that you can taste soil in wine. You can’t. For those who love wine, wine geology, wine organic chemistry - this is a book for you. This is a reference book - I got the Kindle edition, which is best read on an iPad but I am getting the full hard cover because - who doesn’t love wine.

A fun, engaging read of the geological science behind (And mostly under) viticulture. A detailed overview of how plants interact with their immediate environment, how geology impacts terroir, and the numerous falsities that have been romanticized and repeated long enough to become incorrect 'facts.'

Just what geologist and chemist knows and sommeliers fail on.Whish that the wine world would say sea or granit or acid and not the m-word.He could have been a little bit nastier to the wine side. But it is a good book.The story builds very well for geology to wine.I recommend that every wine lover buy it and read it. Then leave the m-word out.It contains much about wine and geology and it is refreashing to read.Wine taste good - I love it.

Nice compact book full of information.

If you really want to know the details that go int the making of a great wine, this is a must. Jefford's introduction frames it wonderfully!

I ordered this book from Amazon, but unfortunately got a botched copy in which about 40 pages were lacking and some 40 odd pages from a very different title were included. I browsed through the book and my impression is that the book adds important aspects to the rather general wine terroir books from Jacques Fanet and James E. Wilson, but is still falling short of the full story.There is this famous story of Aime Guibert, a businessman from Aveyron, who happened to walk in the Languedoc area around Ariane and found a wooded spot for sale. The property was a bargain, but he didn't know where to use it for. He engaged Henric Enjalbert, a geographic teacher from Bordeaux and a fellow from Aveyron. Enjalbert came to the place and recognized that it would be a great terroir for planting merlot and cabernet sauvignon, vines so far unknown in the Languedoc region. Thus started Mas Daumas Gassac in 1972 and by about 1985 the estate was internationally recognized as the top property in the Languedoc.You won't find the specific terroir knowlegde that Enjalbert apparently had in this book from Christopher Maltman. It is much more superficial. It identifies key nutricional components in a soil, but it lacks the detail that explains why certain vines match best with a certain terroir and doesn't reach the level of detail to explain why some narrow zones can produce Grand Crus and nearby zones only reach a decent municipal standard.

Ottimo libro ma molto tecnico e necessita conoscenze di chimica del suolo e pedologia per essere compreso a pieno oltre alla buona conoscenza di microlingua tecnica in inglese sull'argomento.