The first edition of Redding's important account of the French wine trade, with detailed chapters on the variant soil qualities (terroir), production processes, and character of the different departments, and much more — including a glossary of the 'names and terms used in France in relation to wines', notes on duties, relative alcoholic strengths, and an alphabetical table of the premier vineyards in the country.

'Redding was a man of letters and a journalist; he had read and travelled much, and he wrote in a simple and pleasant style far better suited to the general reading public than the more ponderous works of Barry or Henderson. Redding's History of Modern Wines was inspired by Henderson's work, but it is an improvement upon the original, and no other book written in English on the subject of wines has ever been more popular not so copiously copied from by later writers than Redding's History' (Simon).

First edition; 8vo (19.5 x 13 cm); ownership inscription in pen to front free endpaper recto, top-edge unopened to rear; publisher's purple cloth, upper cover and spine lettered in gilt, faded and a little stained, slight offsetting to title; xv, 240pp.

Simon p.109.