Review
Jefford is the greatest living wine writer in my opinion…But more than a writer, Jefford may well be the most profound wine thinker. At a time when so much wine writing has all the intellectual gravitas of a 5th grade essay about one's summer vacation, Jefford roars out of the starting gate with ideas, challenges, inklings, controversies, worries. His intellect becomes a splinter in your finger, not easily ignored…Above all, you can tell he loves wine. -- Karen MacNeil, Winespeed Blog
An entrancing companion for wine lovers. Celebratory, discerning writing with all the variety and unexpectedness of the wines explored. -- Michèle Roberts, acclaimed author
Jefford is that rare thing in the wine world, a genuine intellectual. I remember being on a press trip with him to Lebanon's wine regions a few years back. I remember being taken aback by how Jefford's quiet, considered questioning illuminated the subject. As another journalist said to me at the time, Jefford is always two steps ahead. -- The Critic
Andrew Jefford is the wine writer's wine writer. To read his words is to be drawn far away from the everyday world of professional wine-tasting: the tasting tables, the points-out-of-100, the search for the just-right descriptor, the head-scratching about pH and acidity levels… -- Falstaff
So precise and dancing, so chiseled and so free, as complex and delicious as your favorite bottle of wine, you will enjoy the world of wine differently after reading through Jefford's words. -- Pascaline Peltier
I cherish Andrew Jefford's work as I do no other person writing about wine. That is only partly because he and I agree about nearly everything, including issues where we seem to be the only two people sharing that particular point of view. We are very different; Jefford is better educated and more erudite than I (as can be seen by this book's title), yet we appear to have been shipwrecked on the same island. So yes, I think he's right about nearly everything...an…indispensable book in which the formidable strengths of this writer are on full display. -- Terry Thiese
If you were one of the drinks in your Kylie wine range, how would you describe yourself on the label? I'm currently reading Drinking With the Valkyries: Writings on Wine by Andrew Jefford, so I might have to ask for his help as he writes so beautifully. I'm sure my attempt will fall short, so here goes: 'La la la, la la la la la!' -- Kylie Minogue interview ― The Guardian
Jefford's essays are like that glass of wine at day's end ― restorative, uplifting and enlightening. You may want to read another before putting down the bottle ― I mean, the book. ― Washington Post, Best Wine Books of 2022
This book is about feeling, tasting and describing the beauty of wine, as well as understanding the intensity of emotion that wine can engender. ― Decanter Magazine
Longlisted for the Andre Simon Food and Drink Book Awards 2022
For years Andrew Jefford has been one of the English language's most thoughtful writers and stylists on wine. He never settles for the cliché or recites old saws. Almost always, he is original and provocative, though not at all a provocateur….he's far more interested in the poetry of wine ― the transporting thoughts and dreamlike reveries it induces ― than in the technical details. -- A New York Times Best Wine Book of 2022
An advocate of being wine-curious in the truest sense [Jefford] urges readers and drinkers to ask a range of wine-related questions from flavors and perceptions to market value and personal value. -- Best Wine Books of 2022 ― Forbes
..a brilliant collection of essays that impress with their wisdom and quiet poetry. ― Bloomberg
Andrew Jefford isn't like other wine writers. Browse his Instagram account and you'll find not a bottle in sight. Check his Twitter and you'll find a steady, quiet stream of haiku – or, as he prefers to describe them, ‘short texts'. These feeds are – like Jefford –gently honest; absent of ego, flash and fanfare. His prose is poised and purposeful, each word carefully considered yet never weighed down by pointed effort. He is a rarity in the world of wine: a writer whose (main) topic happens to be wine. ― Fine + Rare
There are wine books to be referenced. There are wine books to be studied with intensity. There are wine books to be read. And then there are wine books to be savored....If you happen to be someone who has not yet encountered Jefford's work, oh boy do I have a treat for you. Very few people writing in the English language are as thoughtful, incisive, lyrical, and passionate about wine as Jefford....Jefford often weaves a dizzyingly broad fabric of historical, cultural, and artistic references into his writing, all in support of the magic trick that lies at the heart of good wine writing....This is wine writing in the style of a 19th Century salon: a room filled with carefully curated intellects, leisurely but carefully interrogating an idea both for the pleasure of the act and in the hopes of progressing one's thinking towards someplace closer to understanding. ― Vinography
In a candid and wide-ranging interview to mark the publication of his superb new book Drinking with the Valkyries, WFW contributing editor Andrew Jefford looks back over his distinguished career, opening up about the art and craft of (wine) writing, his abiding love of wine, and his hopes and fears for its future. ― The World of Fine Wine
The Académie, which lists Hugh Johnson as an advisor, leans toward the literary, as exemplified by “Drinking with the Valkyries,” by Andrew Jefford, which seems to have been nominated for every award the wine world bestows lately, and quite deservedly. ― The Wine Conversation
About the Author
Andrew Jefford grew up in Norfolk and, after studies at the Universities of Reading and East Anglia, worked first in publishing and (since 1988) mainly as a wine writer, based successively in the UK, Australia and France (where he has lived since 2010). He is the author of the influential The New France (2002) and the much-praised Whisky Island (2004, reissued 2019) about the Scottish island of Islay, as well as Andrew Jefford's Wine Course (2008, reissued 2016).
In reviewing Drinking with the Valkyries, Karen MacNeil (author of The Wine Bible) has described Jefford as “the greatest living wine writer in my opinion … more than a writer, Jefford may well be the most profound wine thinker”, while Tamlyn Currin, writing on www.jancisrobinson.com, calls the book a “tumble of short stories” which “reveals the kaleidoscope landscape of a staggeringly beautiful, complex mind, reflecting a staggeringly beautiful, complex world”. For Henry Jeffreys, writing in The Critic, Jefford is “the wine writer's wine writer” and “that rare thing in the wine world, a genuine intellectual. … There are more ideas in each of these short essays than in most books.”
Wine creator Randall Grahm has called Jefford “the most thoughtful person we have writing about wine” and says of the “brilliant writing” collected in Drinking with the Valkyries that “No one does it better”. “If you're ever feeling tired of wine,” says Oz Clarke, “open this wonderful book – at any page – and read, for one minute, for 10, for an hour. The inimitable Andrew Jefford will restore your belief in its ability to intrigue, to challenge, to enchant and to amaze.”
“It's not wine writing,” concludes novelist Jay McInerney, in the Foreword to Drinking with the Valkyries. “It's writing.” Fellow novelist Michèle Roberts calls the book “An entrancing companion for wine lovers. Celebratory, discerning writing with all the variety and unexpectedness of the wines explored.”
Jefford writes regular columns for Decanter magazine and for The World of Fine Wine. He also publishes short texts on Twitter (@andrewcjefford).
