good overall. Dodgy narrator.

An entertaining and well-written book that is neither pretentious nor irreverent. It treats its subject matter respectfully but with a sense of fun, enjoying the world of wine for both its exquisite richness and its occasional silliness. The narrator leaves a lot to be desired, though. His tone feels wooden, and I suspected for the first few minutes that he might be a computerised voice (though I don't think so - occasional breathing or lip-smacking sounds are audible). I grew used to the voice, and didn't mind it well, though he never really felt like he connected to the prose he was reading. His disconnection to the material becomes particularly grevious when he gets to the section about the famous 1980s 'antifreeze' scandal. As anyone who's heard about this scandal knows, it involved Austria (and, indirectly, Germany). Yet the author repeatedly says "Australia". Not just once or twice, but a dozen or so times throughout the section, including the section title, referring to the "Australian antifreeze scandal" that crippled the "Australian wine industry" and so on. Since both Austria and Australia are significant wine-producing countries, this is more than a quirky blooper, but is downright misleading. I'm assuming that the blame lies with the narrator, and not in the original text. Though I suppose either way, it speaks poorly of narrator, author and publisher that such a repetitive and sloppy mistake could make it through to the end product. It unfortunately makes me less willing to trust the rest of the narration.

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