Best little wine book

Wine Report 2009 is available. Once again both joyously readable and entirely indispensible. The 432 page, pocket-sized paperback is edited by the extraordinary Tom Stevenson and is (beautifully) designed to bring you up to date on every significant wine producing region. It accomplishes this by having regional experts provide the content for each area. So you get such A list personalities as Clive Coates writing on Burgundy, Nicholas Belfrage on Italy, and Rosemary George on the South of France. As you can see, I've been a loyal reader since the first volume was published in 2004.

Each correspondent gives you some news, some gossip, a vintage report, and lists of top producers, best value wines, etc. There are also sections aimed at catching you up on biodynamic winemaking, wine and health issues, wine science, and auction/investment topics -- -- all for the cost of a bottle of plonk ($9 at Amazon.com).

It's a shame the Amazon entry doesn't permit browsing. Nor does publisher Dorling Kindersley's site do it justice.

If you're gifting a wine enthusiast this year, you could not do better than wrap up one of these.