Topographie de Tous les Vignobles Connus. Contenant leur position geographique, l'indication du genre et de la qualite des produits de chaque cru, les lieux ou se font les chargements et le principal commerce des vins, le nom et la capacite des tonneaux et des mesures en usage, les moyens de transport ordinairement employes, les tarifs des douanes de France et des pays etrangers, etc., etc. - Andre Jullien, Charles Edouard Jullien 1866 - Mme Ve. Bouchard-Huzard, Paris - Cinquieme Edition, Revue, Corrigee et Augmentee [Fifth Edition, Revised, Corrected and Enlarged] A finely bound edition of Jullien’s important and encyclopaedic work, with text in French. Half of this work is on foreign wines, and considered by Andé Simon as one ‘of the highest interest because most of the information it contains is absolutely original’.

Set in two parts, the second, covering the rest of the world, deals, amongst others, with the vineyards of Portugal, Africa, the Rhine and Moselle, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Switzerland, Austria, Russia, America, Africa, Chile, Syria, Hungary, and China.
  ‘André Jullien (1766-1832) was a wholesale wine-merchant in Paris who regularly visited the principal wine-producing districts of France. According to André Simon, “he obtained a vast amount of practical knowledge about the vineyards he visited, the different species of vines he saw and the different wines he tasted, and he made it a practice to write down everything that interested him; later on in life he undertook to visit most of the vine-growing districts of Europe, and even passed into Asia. In 1816, he published in Paris a book entitled Topographie de tous les Vignobles Connus, which is of the highest interest because most of the information it contains is absolutely original.”’ – Gabler, Wine Into Words.

‘Jullien's work is encyclopedic in scope. Considering the date, it is surprising to find several pages devoted to grapes and wine in Canada, the United States (Pennsylvania, Virginia, Louisiana, Mississippi River, etc), and New Spain (especially Nouvelle-Californie and Mexico). In the general classification of foreign wines, California is listed in the third of five classes for wines from “San-Diégo, San-Juan, San-Gabriel, San-Buonaventura, Santa-Barba [sic], San-Luis-Obispo, Santa-Clara et San-Jose”. For dessert wines, second class is attained by “Passo-del-Norte, dans le Nouveau-Mexique ...”.

This is the fifth edition [first was 1816] of a work that inspired other writers (Henderson, for example), irritated Adlum by its treatment of American wines, was copied and/or quoted by McMullen and others. Thanks to the existence of an English edition, it is one of very few important French wine books to be highly sought by all wine book collectors in the English-speaking world.

The wines and vineyards of France occupy more than half of the book, which is of course as it should be. Of some interest is a comparison of Jullien's classification of Bordeaux growths compared with the 1855 classification. The first class looks familiar, with “clos Lafite ... clos Latour ... clos du Château-Margaux ... Haut-Brion...”. And as for other countries, there's barely a corner of the rest of the world that isn't at least mentioned. Here's what Jullien says, in part, on port wine: “The factory wines, with [one twelfth] of added brandy, are at first very ruddy, firm, full-bodied and too alcoholic; but, when they have matured in barrel, and have subsequently spent a certain amount of time in the bottle, the taste of the brandy is no longer there, the color becomes paler, they become fine, delicate, and then have an alcoholic aroma [=sève] which is their chief merit. The wines of Porto do not have all the qualities which distinguish our fine first class wines; but they may be compared with the best of our second class: their taste is a little like that of the wines of the Côte Rôtie, Rhône department.” A useful addition to the book is a short dictionary of terms employed to describe the various qualities of the wines, e.g. arome-spiritueux, also called sève (used mostly in Bordeaux).

A few excerpts from the entry in Dictionaire de biographie française (Paris, 1994): “... He came to Paris around 1795 and went into the wholesale wine business ... He not only sold wines but invented instruments for the handling of wine and he did research on its history. In 1809 he published a work on [devices for decanting wine with or without contact with the outside air]. He had invented aerating tubes [cannelles aérifères] to transfer wine into bottles and a powder for its clarification, which obtained medals at various expositions of industrial products and the congratulations of Chaptal. In 1813 he published the Manuel du sommelier ... which saw four editions in his lifetime. Finally, in 1816 he presented his Topographie de tous les vignobles connus ... for which he received a gold medal from the Soc. d'encouragement.

This work cost him a fortune and his business suffered to the point where he was obliged to seek employment in the national guard.” He was married in Paris in 1794 and had two sons and two daughters. The older son (Jules, 1795-1860) went into the porcelain business, while the younger, Édouard, (with his mother) settled his father's business. Pauline (1805-1860) took up painting.’ - Quoted with thanks to Eberhard Buehler,
Viniana.

Provenance: G. Gastine, Pharmacist of Marseille. With his signature dated 13 April 1880, and stamp to title page.

Octavo, (binding size 21.8x14.5cm), pp. [2] xii 567 [3].

References: Simon,
Bibliotheca Vinaria 20. Simon, Bibliotheca Gastronomica, 892. Eberhard Buehler, Viniana, J38 [2nd]. See also the entry for Cavoleau C39. Oberlé, Bibliothèque Bachique/Fritsch, 170 [1st]. Maggs, Food and Drink Through the Ages (Cat. 645) 440 [3rd]. Vicaire Bibliographie Gastronomique, 471. Jancis Robinson, Oxford Companion to Wine, 535. Gabler, Wine into Words, G25870 [English].
  Contemporary binding of half crushed brown morocco over matching marbled boards, titled and tooled in gilt to spine, marbled endpapers.   Condition: Near fine, toning and light foxing to first and last blank pages, in very good binding, rubbing to corners and spine ends, lightly sunned spine.   Ref: 107477   Price: HK$ 5,000