"WineBooks" news and stories

Australia's best selling wine book - the annual Australian Wine Companion - has won the prestigious 2005 Saltram Australian Wine Communicator Award. The award means the author James Halliday picks up AUS$11,000 (£4,500).

The guide lists and profiles over 2,000 different wineries and supplies tasting notes on 4,500 wines. Halliday has written or co-authored more than 60 wine books since 1979, and won many awards, including Decanter Book of the Year, the André Simon Book Award and the James Beard Award.

The book is listed on Amazon.com for $12.97 and on Amazon.co.uk for £10.31 The latest version will soon be published.

A Wine Miscellany by Graham Harding

This is a delightful little book packed full of snippets concerning wine and champagne. Across the 170 odd pages is a collection of historical facts, cultural references and the lore of wine making. Such is the breadth of the subject even wine experts are bound to discover some unknown  fact.

Inside you will find that the world's largest wine bottle is a Maximus standing 1.35 metres tall or that the stars on cognac bottles date from the comet vintage of 1811. Want to know how toasts began? or whose skull Byron made into a goblet? It is all here.

Without being derogatory it is what we call a toilet book - something to dip in to rather than engage in a lengthy read. But it's great especially as it costs just £9.99 (although amazon.co.uk has it listed at £5.99)/US$19.75.