Had a Glass: Top 100 Wines for 2007 Under $20

John Abbott is a professor of history at Laurentian University’s Algoma University College. He is the co-author of The Border at Sault Ste Marie and The History of Fort St. Joseph.

Perhaps it’s best to think of this handbook as an annotated,
time-limited shopping list for busy men and women in British Columbia
and Alberta, whose lives are too full of pressing concerns to linger
among the shelves, fondling the vinous goods, trying to remember what
they had read somewhere in the wine press about this wine or that
winery. For such consumers, Hodgson and Nevison have reduced the risks
(and the prospect of adventure along a personal wine route) by offering
a selection of whites, pinks, reds, bubblies, aperitifs, and stickies
(dessert wines) under $20.

This sequel to their Top 100 Wines for 2006 Under $20 contains the same
brief survey of the ground rules of wine selection, the basics of wine
tasting, and matching wine with food. The previous volume brought a
coterie of “keeners” into existence, whose requests for more
sophisticated wines persuaded the authors to append here a short list of
more expensive bottles for special occasions. This edition, like the
earlier one, will introduce novices to some good wines.