Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Book 2026

The brand-new edition of the unrivalled Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Book, the world’s bestselling annual wine guide, including even more pages for 2026 and a special on supplement on the pricing of wine and how to get the best value in every bottle you drink.

＂A thorough guide to just about everything worth drinking.＂ The Times

＂Space for only one wine book in your life? This is it.＂ Howard G. Goldberg, The New York Times

THE WORLD’S BESTSELLING ANNUAL WINE GUIDE

Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Book is the essential reference book for everyone who buys wine - in shops, restaurants, or on the internet. Now in its 49th year of publication, it has no rival as the comprehensive, up-to-the-minute annual guide to wine.

Providing clear succinct facts and commentary on the wines, growers and wine regions of the whole world, the book also reveals which vintages to buy, which to drink and which to cellar, as well as the best growers to look for and why. Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Book 2026 gives clear information on grape varieties, local specialties and how to match food with wines that will bring out the best in both.

This latest edition of Hugh Johnson’s Pocket WineBook includes a supplement on the pricing of wine, explaining why some wines are more expensive than others, the actual costs behind vineyards and winemaking, and how we can use this knowledge to buy cleverly.

Hugh Johnson (Author)
Hugh Johnson is the world’s pre-eminent writer on wine. First published in 1977, his Pocket Wine Book remains the world’s bestselling annual wine guide. Its winning formula of insight, critical appraisal of the world of wine, plus valuable vintage news and wine recommendations has been often-imitated but never bettered.

With the publication of his first book, Wine, Johnson established himself at the age of twenty-seven as the most refreshing and authoritative voice on the subject. During the past four decades he has written books that have become landmarks on the subject, including his classic The World Atlas of Wine, co-authored with Jancis Robinson, his Wine Companion, first published in 2003, The Story of Wine and Hugh Johnson on Wine.

In his spare time he writes about gardening from his home in London.

Margaret Rand (Author)
Margaret Rand has been general editor of Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Book for some 15 years and now, with Hugh’s retirement, has taken over the hot seat. The book’s mix of personal insight and informed recommendations have made it the world’s best-selling annual wine book.

Margaret Rand’s curiosity about wine started several decades ago and led her to a career of writing about wine and editing wine magazines, with the occasional foray into whisky. Her books include Grapes & Wines and 101 Wines to Try Before You Die; she also writes regularly for The World of Fine Wine, timatkin.com and winesearcher.com. When she’s not writing about wine she’s probably walking, reading, or in the kitchen, cooking.