British author and wine expert Hugh Johnson (OBE) refers to his introduction to wine tasting as a 'Damascene moment' that caught his imagination as an undergraduate at King's College, Cambridge. He is now considered one of the world's leading wine writers, and one of his first major publications, The World Atlas of Wine (1971) is still in print.

Johnson produced this pop-up wine book in 1989 to complement his more serious wine writing. It was engineered by paper designer Ron Van der Meer and features pop-up and moveable illustrations of various aspects of wine and wine-making. Of all the pieces exhibited, this book contains the largest variety of moveable formats:

• a V-fold pop-up
• liftable flaps
• stage-set pop-ups
• a pull-out insert
• a wine and food pairing wheel
• a pull tab
• a wine label-language booklet
• tear-out wine tasting notepaper

In the dining table pop-up, Johnson is the wine waiter at the celebrity dinner he would like to have hosted. The pop-up guests are from left to right: Ludwig van Beethoven, Sir Winston Churchill, Cleopatra, Napoleon Bonaparte, Sir Thomas Jefferson, and an anonymous pair of feet under the table. Johnson gives a description of their possible favourite tipple and alludes to their drinking, and cigar smoking habits.

The most spectacular pop-up is the detailed three-dimensional illustration of a typical Bordeaux chateau. In the rest of France a chateau is a castle but in Bordeaux it is a wine estate. A typical chateau would encompass the vineyard, manufacturing, warehousing, marketing, tasting area and the family home. All the features of the chateau's workings are described to annotate the pop-up, which can be viewed from many different angles. The roof of the side buildings lifts up so that the workings of the different areas can be seen.

Strangely enough, this book was found in our Children's Literature Research Collection. It was probably assumed to be for children because it is a highly illustrated colourful pop-up book. However although it could be seen as educational, it was certainly not produced for children.

The State Library of South Australia holds one of the largest collection of materials on the topic of wine in the world, encompassing thousands of items including books, pamphlets, periodicals, wine labels, company records and many other examples of exquisite oenography. The largest book collection is the Thomas Hardy Wine Library which is on open access for easy browsing. An excellent introduction to the Library's resources on wine can be found in Oenography: words on wine in the State Library of South Australia published in 1993 by Valmai Hankel AM PSM.

The State Library has endeavoured to identify and or locate copyright holders of material digitised for this website. Where the copyright owner has not been able to be traced and or located, the Library has decided in good faith to proceed with digitisation and communication on-line.

Material is made available for research or study. You may order a high resolution copy.

For any other use refer to the State Library of South Australia's website information about orphan works. The State Library invites persons who believe they are the copyright owners to contact the Library to discuss usage of this item.