‘Scholarly’ beer tome wins André Simon

The Oxford Companion to Beer has won the prestigious André Simon Memorial Award Drinks Book category.

Garrett Oliver, editor of the Oxford Companion to Beer, a scholarly reference book published by Oxford University Press, with some 160 contributors, picked up a cheque for £2000 at the award ceremony in London last night.

This is the 34th edition of the André Simon award, which seeks to reward original research.

David Gleave MW, this year’s assessor for the Drink Book, said that while much of the wine now sold in the UK was a simply a ‘beverage with alcohol’, he was pleased to see that the tradition for good drink writing continued, especially for the four shortlisted books.

Oliver (pictured, on left, with David Gleave) said he was delighted that a beer book had been given equal status to books on wine and praised the diversity of beer. The Companion to Beer follows in the OUP tradition – Jancis Robinson’s Oxford Companion to Wine won the 1994 André Simon Award.

The Finest Wines of Rioja and Northwest Spain by Jesús Barquín, Luis Gutieérez and Víctor de la Serna with photos from Jon Wyand won a special award for presentation.

de la Serna tweeted, ‘Getting a commendation for a book we wrote in English is particularly awe-inspiring for us!’

The other two shortlisted books were Authentic Wine by Jamie Goode and Sam Harrop MW (University of California Press) and In Search Of Pinot Noir by Benjamin Lewin MW (Vendange Press)

Dan Lepard won the food book category with Short and Sweet – The Best of Home Baking.

Written by Jim Budd