Focus Multimedia Ltd Oz Clarke's Wine Guide 2002

the food and wine section is really cleverly done and is in many ways the best part of the software. It includes a wine matching service--you tell the software what food you are using (you can combine several foods to get the best match, and can also impose limitations on the region, grape variety, wine style (red, white, sparkling and so on) and other criteria) and the software sorts through its records and produces a number of suggestions, including an indication of the best year for each wine and, of course, oz's tasting notes. As far as tasting itself is concerned, there is a good primer on how to do just that complete with videos of oz giving gems of information in his own inimitable way.

there is plenty in oz clarke's wine guide 2002 for the more knowledgeable enthusiast too, including a world atlas of wine which explains the wine output of various areas and a wine encyclopaedia with more than 2000 entries. Much of the content of oz clarke's wine guide 2002 is also in his printed guide, but the cd-rom allows you to link and cross-link between topics, save your own wine lists and complete with your own notes, and watch videos of oz doing his thing. This is what multimedia is all about. --sandra vogel