Product Description

An inspiring introduction to French wine with a unique travel angle, tied in to a primetime 8-part BBC2 series, "Oz and James' Big Wine Adventure" brings us French wine made simple. In Sideways style, Oz Clarke (wine expert) and James May (Top Gear presenter and journalist) travel through wine regions of France for 6 weeks. Oz teaches James about wine with the aim of turning him into a top sommelier, while James indulges his passion for cars by driving a different car each week. Divided by region, "Oz and James' Big Wine Adventure" cuts through the fear and snobbery that surrounds French wine, providing an informative, entertaining and accessible guide to the French regions and their wines. Beautifully illustrated with over 80 landscape photographs and location shots, it is full of useful information on wine-making, wine culture, regions and tips on how to seek out the best the French vineyards have to offer.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #44454 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-19
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

About the Author
Oz Clarke achieved notoriety on BBC TV's Food and Drink and has presented and featured on countless other radio and television programmes. His many books include his annual Wine Guide, Oz Clarke's Wine Atlas and Oz's Pocket Wine Guide. He has won Glenfiddich, Andre Simon and Wine Guild awards and was given the Special Millennium Award by Le Prix du Champagne Lanson for his outstanding contribution to wine education. James May is a motor journalist and one of the main presenters of BBC2's Top Gear. He currently writes a column for Top Gear Magazine and the Daily Telegraph. Julie Arkell began her writing career after 11 years in the wine industry. This is her fifth book on wine and spirits.

Customer Reviews

Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure
I watched the series and was amazed about how much I didn't know about wine - Red wine is given its colour by the grape skin's and Shiraz is Syrah etc. I thought I knew knew a little bit but clearly I knew not a lot ! I have found this book very useful and have added the Eyewitness Guide to French wine to it. I will be using these to assist in several purchases in the South of France this summer.

Very entertaining
A very funny and highly entertaining program of well known wine expert
OZ Clarke and Jmaes May known form Top Gear, who together travels on a
wine adventure. James knows nothing about wine, but have chosen the car
for the adventure (of course an English jaguar) and is like a rebel
boarder school boy taught by the slightly older and more distinguished
Oz Clarke, who continuously tries to learn James about the different
wines and the impressions they make. It all turns into a lot of very
entertaining and very funny situations, filled with humour, and there
is a lot to learn and view, both from the more experienced and newcomer
to wine tasting, on this fantastic wine adventure filled taste -and
sense impressions.

Don't buy this book if you like Oz Clark and James May.
Disappointing, in that it is 99.99% wine information and less than 0.01% "Oz and James". I bought this on the strength of having enjoyed the TV series because of the personalities and their banter during the series, but there is NONE of the TV humour in this book.

If this was to be sold exactly as-is but with a different cover and called "Keith Floyd on Wine" or "Gilly Goolden on Wine" then it would be exactly the same.

If you are buying this on the strength of liking the presenters and/or the series, then don't bother, because there is nothing of either Oz or James in this book. A BBC money-maker.