The English wine author Hugh Johnson (born 1939) is one of the most successful wine journalists in the world. He is considered both a wine expert and a great stylist. As successor to the founder André Simon (1877-1970), he became editor of the magazine "Wine and Food" for several years and later also Secretary General of the International Wine & Food Society. His first book "Wine" was published in 1966, and the "Great Wine Atlas" (follow-up edition "The New Wine Atlas"), published in 1971, became his most successful work, describing all the wine-growing regions of the world with maps.
This was followed by "Enjoying Wine", "How Wine is Made - Given by the Gods, Made by Men", "Atlas of German Wines" (together with co-author Stuart Pigott), "Atlas of French Wines" (together with co-author Hubrecht Duijker), "The Great Johnson" and "The World Atlas of Wine" (2001 - together with co-author Jancis Robinson). The wine guide "The Little Johnson for Wine Connoisseurs" describes and rates all the important wines of the world and was first published in 1977, and since then has been updated annually. The Little Johnson is the world's best-selling wine guide according to the cover text.
Based on his book "Wine History - from Dionysos to Rothschild", a 13-part television series was created in the USA under the title "Vintage: A History of Wine". He has been a GAD (Gastronomie Akademie Deutschland) prize winner several times. His books reached a total circulation of over 3.5 million copies. In addition to his many wine books and publications, Johnson also wrote works on trees and horticulture. He is the director of the world-famous premier cru classé winery Château Latour in the Médoc and co-owner of the Australian winery Coldstream Hills. By the way, he is a fierce opponent of wine evaluations with point awards. He uses his own verbal scheme in 12 steps, ranging from "One-time sniff, no more" to "Buy the vineyard". See also other wine authors under literature.