- Beautiful new highly collectible paperback series, with strong
design, publishing the best of classic wine texts- New foreword from
Neal Martin, world-famous wine critic, for whom this is a favorite book-
The memoirs of one of the most well-known and successful wine merchants
of the early 20th century, who also happened to be first class
cricketerWriting in the immediate aftermath of World War II, wine
merchant, gentleman soldier and cricketer Ian Maxwell Campbell casts an
affectionate and occasionally wistful look back at the Golden Age of
wine, when Bordeaux was affordable, Burgundy's finest vintages tended
towards cannibalism and other wines could be... well, surprisingly
attractive. Among the tales of convivial drinking and anecdotes
involving Winston Churchill and WG Grace, the author paints a vivid
picture of a pre-war (and pre-phylloxera) wine world whose horizons were
about to expand beyond all imagining. Wayward Tendrils of the Vine,
though, is much more than a collection of reminiscences. As Neal Martin
points out in his Introduction: "The title alone is a perfect allegory
for how we learn about wine, how knowledge grows organically over time,
never knowing what the next bottle will teach us, how it might alter
preconceptions or where it might lead." The Classic Editions breathe new
life into some of the finest wine-related titles written in the English
language over the last 150 years. Although these books are very much
products of their time - a time when the world of fine wine was confined
mostly to the frontiers of France and the Iberian Peninsula and a First
Growth Bordeaux or Grand Cru Burgundy wouldn't be beyond the average
purse - together they recapture a world of convivial, enthusiastic
amateurs and larger-than-life characters whose love of fine vintages
mirrored that of life itself.
