This is the CD-ROM version of James Halliday’s latest tome, which continues to refine his previous efforts. It’s suitable for PC and Mac and includes notes of over 1,650 wines with appraisals of over 1,000 wineries. Detailed notes of wines designated by Halliday as ‘classic’ are presented from relatively recent vertical tastings. Most of Australia’s and New Zealand’s wineries are introduced with commentary, a listing of their best wines and best vintages, although it would appear that for a wine not to be included in the listings of best vintages, it must have been fairly ordinary. Key personnel are introduced, production is estimated where possible and tasting notes for most current release wines are provided. Halliday’s exhaustive and updated research is without peer in Australia and I would not be the only wine critic in Australia or around the world to refer to his data on a regular basis. The CD includes information on wine grapes and regions, a cellar management software package and a videoed question-answer segment with Halliday. Importantly, for it’s still not a practicable thing for most of us to carry a CD-ROM everywhere, the package includes a copy of the same information in book form. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but the only thing that really gets under my skin with this production are the meaningless food suggestions with every wine, something I am certain would have been included at the insistence of the publisher. While there are few with which I would disagree, Most of these are so esoteric or particular they give totally the wrong impression about the ease with which anyone with only modest expertise can successfully combine wine with food.
