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To remind everyone, I keep my book reviews to three sentences and try not to ramble on too long. I do take some liberties - for example, the quote below is more than one sentence long, but I still count it as one - but, I think most books about wine tend to be too long to begin with, so no need to ramble on any further than I do.

On to the review...

Notes on a Cellar-Book
by George Saintsbury

I guess you could call George Saintsbury one of the original "bloggers" on wine, but, since he wrote in the early 1900's, probably better to describe him as an amateur wine taster who also happened to take extensive notes on everything he drank. In theory, that should be an interesting read, particularly for someone like me who enjoys writing about all things wine; but this book is riddled with issues: "Another consequence of of Saintsbury's prodigious reading is his habit of isolating as quotations small phrases and turns of expression that I, for one, do not perceive as having any distinct identity...The other difficult element grows out of his bookishness...Saintsbury could not resist the ornamental device called allusion, that is, not naming a thing directly but evoking it by something associated with it or by some circumlocution - a way of identifying and yet concealing what is meant." (Introduction, p. 14] With an introduction like this, I went into the book with some trepidation, and as it turned out, I could not get myself to finish it, even after 4 tries - too allusive, not relevant to my interest in wine and it took me back to my undergrad days in English Literature when I slogged through far more turn of the century books than I care to admit...the good news is that those actually held my interest.

What you should do: Don't buy or read this one. Too heavy, allusive and not all that interesting. However, if you like reading wine descriptions like "Icing good claret at all is, as has been said, barbarous; but the idea of subjecting it to processes of alternate freezing, thawing and freezing again is simply Bolshevist," [p. 89] then this is definitely the book for you.

My rating: 75