"To be a Belgian in Burgundy is bad enough, but to be a motormouth who talks about fellow winemakers in the same tender terms that boxers use to needle their opponents has turned Jean-Marie Guffens into a celebrated pariah."
Reviews
"Exceptional ... a must buy and read." "My book of the year for 2003 has to be Andrew Jefford's New France - a brilliant effort" Robert Parker, eRobertParker.com
"All wine lovers owe it to themselves to read this book ...It is the finest book on a nation's wine regions that I have ever read. I cannot recommend it highly enough." Pierre-Antoine Rovani, eRobertParker.com
"a passionate and sophisticated defence of France and its wines, a work beyond the capacity of any other wine writer in its passion, its panache, its evident empathy with the regions, their landscape and so many of their winemakers." Nicholas Faith, Harpers
"a terrific book for the expert and amateur alike." Bruce Sanderson, The Wine Spectator
"the best book around on the contemporary French wine business" Eric Asimov, The New York Times
"An inspired and inspiring book." Joanna Simon, The Sunday Times
"… a must-read, must-buy book … superbly well-organised and worded, great for producer listings, excellent for getting under the skin of grape varieties and growers of the same, and just for getting closer to a wine-and-word lover on scintillating form." Malcolm Gluck, The Guardian
"This is a perfect meeting of subject and author." Richard Ehrlich, The Independent on Sunday
"Jefford has written an excellent book." Clive Coates M.W., The Vine
"… a book that is as well-balanced and mesmerising as a bottle of Dauvissat Chablis …" Mary Dowey, The Irish Times
"… he proves again and again his ability to write so lyrically and poignantly that, if you close your eyes for a minute, you can smell the odours, see the morning or the fading light, listen to the voices, taste the wines." James Halliday, The Australian
"The New France: A Complete Guide to Contemporary French Wine is the best book on wine I've read for many years, possibly the best I've ever read … absorbing, fascinating and thought-provoking." Huon Hooke, The Sydney Morning Herald
"un livre passionnant" Thierry Desseauve, La Revue du Vin de France
"Amateur très éclairé … Superbe." Alain Sarraute, Le Figaro
"There have been hundreds of books written about French wine, but none has approached the subject as originally, or as passionately, as … this beautifully written book." Tim Atkin M.W., The Observer
"… the best book on wine for at least 10 years … provides more vinous wisdom … than the standard year's crop of makeover titles put together." John Hoskins, Cambridgeshire Life
"… let's call Andrew Jefford's wine book The New France exactly what it is: a stone-cold masterpiece. This is one of the best books ever written on wine: packed with elegant prose, a lifetime's patient learning, and an insistent polemic which understands and explains why terroir is the guiding light of French winemaking." John and Sally McKenna, Bridgestone Online
"… an academic's penchant for sharp analysis … without becoming clinical, and a novelist's power to evoke place and personality." Stephen Meuse, Boston Globe