Decanter 40th lunch, Le Gavroche
Nicolas Catena and Hugh Johnson OBE (right) at Decanter's 40th anniversary lunch in 2015.
(Image credit: Credit Unknown)

Long-standing wine writer and Decanter columnist Hugh Johnson OBE is set to formally donate his research notes and manuscripts for books such as World Atlas of Wine to UC Davis at a ceremony in California this week.

Hugh Johnson, Decanter Man of the Year in 1995 and an Officer in the French Order Nationale de Merité, has chosen to donate his wine papers to UC Davis’ Peter J Shields Library.

There will also be examples of his journalism, television programmes, lecture notes and transcripts, and various other projects accumulated over his unparalleled 50-year career in wine.

A ceremony to mark the donation will be held at UC Davis on Tuesday 23 February, with 160 students and wine professionals in attendance.

Axel Borg, distinguished wine and food science biographer at UC Davis, told Decanter.com, ‘Hugh Johnson created the concept of world wine. He proved the popularity of wine atlases, and proved that you can make a living out of writing about wine.

‘Besides the historical benefits of this collection, we have an undergraduates’ writing programme at Davis, and for them to be able to study his writing process and revisions will be a great honour.’

The emeritus professor of English, Thomas Pinney, author of A History of Wine in America, will hold a filmed Q&A session with Johnson speaking about his career and the specifics of the work included in this donation.

The Peter Shields library holds over 30,000 wine books, with a special collections library of rare manuscripts, maps and imprints from 1450 to 1900. The library already contains the papers and books of legendary American wine writers Leon D Adams and Roy Brady.

‘It’s simply the greatest wine library in the world,’ said Johnson

Johnson’s horticultural papers have been donated to the Garden Museum in London.

Read more about the contents of the US Davis wine library on 25 February, in Jane Anson’s weekly column.

Jane Anson
Jane Anson

Jane Anson was Decanter’s Bordeaux correspondent until 2021 and has lived in the region since 2003. She writes a monthly wine column for Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, and is the author of Bordeaux Legends: The 1855 First Growth Wines (also published in French as Elixirs). In addition, she has contributed to the Michelin guide to the Wine Regions of France and was the Bordeaux and Southwest France author of The Wine Opus and 1000 Great Wines That Won’t Cost a Fortune. An accredited wine teacher at the Bordeaux École du Vin, Anson holds a masters in publishing from University College London, and a tasting diploma from the Bordeaux faculty of oenology.

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