By Paul Strang and Jason Shenai

Price: £16.25

Languedoc-Roussillon is one of France's oldest wine regions and this illustrated book explores the terroir, traditions, winemaking practices, laws, personalities and wines of the region.

Chapter by chapter the author identifies each of the region's most important wine-producing areas, exploring their local grape varieties and influences on wine growing.

He then highlights the winemaking methods used in each area and profiles the producers and their wines. The book includes maps detailing rivers and roads, main wine towns and villages and where each producer can be found.

The colour and black-and-white photography illustrates the diversity of the landscapes and personalites, while fact boxes offer information about the climate, soil and grape varieties in each area.

By Michael Broadbent

Price: £22.75

Packed with detailed analysis, full of anecdote and opinion, it offers the reader: First-hand records of an extraordinarily impressive number of wines - 10,200

• Unprecedented coverage of the truly great wines of the world
• Tasting notes that range from ancient glories to future stars - 1653 to 2001
• Analysis of trends, tastes, styles and developments across the spectrum of fine wine
• A unique storehouse of wine information and a wine-loving browser's paradise

By Andrew Jefford and Jason Lowe

Price: £24.00

Author Andrew Jefford has travelled extensively in each of France's 14 wine regions to investigate the personalities and producers who have masterminded the resurgence of the French wine industry.

Producer listings are a significant and important feature of the book as Jefford covers the background of the producers he feels worthy of mention for their contribution to the world of wine and their own individual wines.

The book includes research on terroir and its effect on the wines of each region, and how accurately it is reflected by the appellation controlee system.