The Great Vintage Wine Book: II by Michael-Broadbent
The Great Vintage Wine Book: II (First Edition)
An Indispensable Compendium of Thousands of Tasting Notes Tracking Three Centuries of Fine Wine Heritage
An Indispensable Compendium of Thousands of Tasting Notes Tracking Three Centuries of Fine Wine Heritage
Bibliographic Specifications
• Title: The Great Vintage Wine Book: II
• Author: Michael Broadbent MW
• Publisher: Mitchell Beazley, London (In association with Christie's Wine Publications)
• Publication Date: 1991
• ISBN-10: 0855339098
• ISBN-13: 9780855339098
• Edition Details: First Edition, Standard Hardcover Release.
• Binding: Original publisher's premium linen-textured or cloth-bound hardboards with crisp metal-stamped spine lettering, housed in the original illustrated glossy dust jacket.
• Physical Format: Quarto (4to), 455 pages. Printed on premium heavy coated text stock, meticulously arranged as an encyclopaedic, chronologically tiered master reference ledger.
• Language: English
• Title: The Great Vintage Wine Book: II
• Author: Michael Broadbent MW
• Publisher: Mitchell Beazley, London (In association with Christie's Wine Publications)
• Publication Date: 1991
• ISBN-10: 0855339098
• ISBN-13: 9780855339098
• Edition Details: First Edition, Standard Hardcover Release.
• Binding: Original publisher's premium linen-textured or cloth-bound hardboards with crisp metal-stamped spine lettering, housed in the original illustrated glossy dust jacket.
• Physical Format: Quarto (4to), 455 pages. Printed on premium heavy coated text stock, meticulously arranged as an encyclopaedic, chronologically tiered master reference ledger.
• Language: English
Official Condition Report
• The Book: Fine / Mint
o Exterior / Boards: The original publisher's cloth-bound hardboards are in exemplary, pristine condition. Edges are completely linear and straight, while all four corner tips remain perfectly sharp, rigid, and unbumped. The spine holds its original tight structural profile, completely undamaged, vertically straight, and uncreased.
o Interior: Immaculate and bright white. The 455 internal pages remain perfectly clean, crisp, and completely free of traditional aging defects like foxing, thumb-soil, page-toning, or corner folding. There are no dealer pencil markups, previous owner gift inscriptions, library stamps, bookplates, or text highlights. The structural block binding remains uniformly tight and robust.
• The Dust Jacket: Very Good Plus (VG+)
o Condition Details: The original illustrated jacket is remarkably well-preserved, displaying radiant colours, sharp lines, and strong surface reflectivity. It exhibits only very limited, microscopically faint signs of superficial shelf-friction or edge-wear along the outer margins. The entire jacket is now professionally preserved inside a high-grade, removable clear cellophane archival sleeve to shield it permanently from environmental handling friction or tearing.
• The Book: Fine / Mint
o Exterior / Boards: The original publisher's cloth-bound hardboards are in exemplary, pristine condition. Edges are completely linear and straight, while all four corner tips remain perfectly sharp, rigid, and unbumped. The spine holds its original tight structural profile, completely undamaged, vertically straight, and uncreased.
o Interior: Immaculate and bright white. The 455 internal pages remain perfectly clean, crisp, and completely free of traditional aging defects like foxing, thumb-soil, page-toning, or corner folding. There are no dealer pencil markups, previous owner gift inscriptions, library stamps, bookplates, or text highlights. The structural block binding remains uniformly tight and robust.
• The Dust Jacket: Very Good Plus (VG+)
o Condition Details: The original illustrated jacket is remarkably well-preserved, displaying radiant colours, sharp lines, and strong surface reflectivity. It exhibits only very limited, microscopically faint signs of superficial shelf-friction or edge-wear along the outer margins. The entire jacket is now professionally preserved inside a high-grade, removable clear cellophane archival sleeve to shield it permanently from environmental handling friction or tearing.
Synopsis & Historical Value
Originally published in late 1991 by Mitchell Beazley in partnership with Christie's, The Great Vintage Wine Book: II stands as a monumental landmark in the history of international oenological literature. Culled directly from the private, fastidious tasting notebooks accumulated across a legendary lifetime of professional evaluation, Michael Broadbent's masterwork functions as an unmatched chronological ledger of fine wine development.
Originally published in late 1991 by Mitchell Beazley in partnership with Christie's, The Great Vintage Wine Book: II stands as a monumental landmark in the history of international oenological literature. Culled directly from the private, fastidious tasting notebooks accumulated across a legendary lifetime of professional evaluation, Michael Broadbent's masterwork functions as an unmatched chronological ledger of fine wine development.
The volume is packed from cover to cover with thousands of highly precise, erudite tasting notes, logging observations on rare, historic vintages dating back three hundred years up through the modern releases of the late 1980s. Focusing deeply on the classic growth profiles of Bordeaux, Burgundy, Port, and German Riesling, Broadbent translates nuanced characteristics of flavor, colour, structure, and cellular maturation into exceptionally vivid prose. For the passionate enthusiast, the book offers an extraordinary opportunity to vicariously experience legendary, vanishing liquid treasures that few human beings will ever get to taste. For the serious investor or auction house professional, Broadbent's authoritative, granular observations remain an indispensable global cross-reference tool for evaluating authentic provenance, aging curves, and vintage consistency.
Author Profile: Michael Broadbent
Michael Broadbent MW (1927–2020) was an internationally revered British wine critic, prolific author, and legendary auctioneer widely regarded as the founding father of the modern international fine wine trade. Passing the rigorous Master of Wine examinations in 1960, he was recruited by Christie's auction house in 1966 to pioneer their newly revived, highly specialized Wine Department, which he directed with global distinction for several decades. A remarkably disciplined and fastidious note-taker, Broadbent recorded more than 90,000 individual wine-tasting notes throughout his illustrious sixty-year career, preserving them across dozens of iconic red pocket diaries. His groundbreaking instructional manuals—most notably Wine Tasting and Vintage Wine—received global accolades from academic circles, transformed commercial critique standards, and permanently shaped the vocabulary of global wine appreciation.
Michael Broadbent MW (1927–2020) was an internationally revered British wine critic, prolific author, and legendary auctioneer widely regarded as the founding father of the modern international fine wine trade. Passing the rigorous Master of Wine examinations in 1960, he was recruited by Christie's auction house in 1966 to pioneer their newly revived, highly specialized Wine Department, which he directed with global distinction for several decades. A remarkably disciplined and fastidious note-taker, Broadbent recorded more than 90,000 individual wine-tasting notes throughout his illustrious sixty-year career, preserving them across dozens of iconic red pocket diaries. His groundbreaking instructional manuals—most notably Wine Tasting and Vintage Wine—received global accolades from academic circles, transformed commercial critique standards, and permanently shaped the vocabulary of global wine appreciation.
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