The Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia is a reference work on wine

Wine

Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...

 written by Tom Stevenson

Tom Stevenson

Tom Stevenson is a British author who has been writing about wine for more than 30 years. Described by his colleagues as one of today’s most prolific wine authors, Stevenson is regarded as the world’s leading authority on Champagne...

 and published since 1988 by Dorling Kindersley

Dorling Kindersley

Dorling Kindersley is an international publishing company specializing in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 51 languages. It is currently part of the Penguin Group....

, selling over 600,000 copies in 14 languages.

The Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia has a stated aim to map and describe "every appellation, official and unofficial", of which there were more than 4,000 in total by 1997, making it an industry standard wine reference and required reading for the Master of Wine

Master of Wine

Master of Wine is a qualification issued by The Institute of Masters of Wine in the United Kingdom...

, Master Sommelier and Cape Wine Master

Cape Wine Master

Cape Wine Master is the highest formal qualification in the South African wine industry. CWMs belong to the Institute of Cape Wine Masters , which was formed in 1984, and administrates tastings and other wine events, provides information and access to specialist advice for the wine industry...

 examinations. The contents include hard data, technical information, tables and ancillary explanations are compartmentalized from the flow of mainstream text, with profiles of nearly 2,000 wineries, and recommendation of more than 6,000 producers.

Frequently compared to The Oxford Companion to Wine

The Oxford Companion to Wine

The Oxford Companion to Wine is a book in the series of Oxford Companions published by Oxford University Press. The book provides an alphabetically arranged reference to wine, compiled and edited by Jancis Robinson, with contributions by several wine writers including Hugh Johnson, Michael...

, The Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia along with The World Atlas of Wine

The World Atlas of Wine

The World Atlas of Wine by Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson, MW, is an atlas and reference work on the world of wine, published by Mitchell Beazley. It pioneered the use of wine-specific cartography to give wine a sense of place, and has since the first edition published in 1971 sold 4 million...

, is often cited to be among the most notable books on wine today. Tim Atkin

Tim Atkin

Tim Atkin is a British Master of Wine, and wine correspondent of several publications.-Career:Atkin has published columns in The Observer, Observer Food Monthly, Off Licence News, Woman and Home, The World of Fine Wine, The Economist. Between 2000 and 2003 Atkin was editor of Harpers Wine and...

 MW

Master of Wine

Master of Wine is a qualification issued by The Institute of Masters of Wine in the United Kingdom...

, wine correspondent for The Observer

The Observer

The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...

considers it to be one of the two most essential wine reference books in English. Weighed in by San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco Chronicle

thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...

at 5 pounds, 11 ounces, its review states, "What makes it enjoyable to browse is Stevenson's openness as well as the almost hidden inclusion of short, provocative essays".

Editions

First published in 1988 as Sotheby's World Wine Encyclopedia, there have been alterations with the succeeding editions. The largest revision took place in 1997 when the book increased in size from 480 to 600 pages. In 1995 the title was altered to The New Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia, while the current title has been in use since the 2005 revision, which also contained a vast number of upgradings to winery ratings

Wine rating

A wine rating is a score assigned by one or more wine critics to a wine tasted as a summary of that critic's evaluation of that wine. A wine rating is therefore a subjective quality score, typically of a numerical nature, given to a specific bottle of wine...

, and for the first time incorporated symbols to identify wineries that are organic

Organic certification

Organic certification is a certification process for producers of organic food and other organic agricultural products. In general, any business directly involved in food production can be certified, including seed suppliers, farmers, [food] processors, retailers and restaurants.Requirements vary...

 or biodynamic

Biodynamic agriculture

Biodynamic agriculture is a method of organic farming that emphasizes the holistic development and interrelationships of the soil, plants and animals as a self-sustaining system. Biodynamic farming has much in common with other organic approaches, such as emphasizing the use of manures and composts...

.

Criticism

While it is the opinion of some that The Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia is "as academically comprehensive as ever", South African wine

South African wine

South African wine has a history dating back to 1659, and at one time Constantia was considered one of the greatest wines in the world. Access to international markets has unleashed a burst of new energy and new investment. Production is concentrated around Cape Town, with major vineyard and...

 writer Neil Pendock of The Times

The Sunday Times (South Africa)

The Sunday Times is a popular South African Sunday newspaper. It has an audited circulation of 504,000 and a weekly readership of 3.2 million, making it the largest weekly newspaper in South Africa. Recently it was involved in exposing a corruption scandal involving the South African government's...

expressed criticism over the omissions, inaccuracies and outdated material concerning wine from the region of South Africa in the 2007 edition. Among the statements in contention is Stevenson's quote, "The development of [Pinotage

Pinotage

Pinotage is a red wine grape that is South Africa's signature variety. It was bred there in 1925 as a cross between Pinot noir and Cinsaut...

] was supposed to provide Burgundy-like elegance in the baking vineyards of North Africa". In his 2008 book Sour Grapes, Pendock described The Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia as "spectacularly error-prone".