Which wine magazine should I buy for a friend?

I want to give a friend a subscription to a wine magazine. Which would you recommend?
B.T., Nunawading, Vic

A: The two I admire the most at present are Noble Rot and The World of Fine Wine, but they probably appeal to somewhat different types of people. The World of Fine Wine, published in the UK four times a year, is very highbrow. It contains quite detailed and lengthy articles on subjects as esoteric as the geology behind terroir and the wine cultures of ancient worlds.

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There are interviews, tastings, columns, book reviews and obituaries. It’s wide-ranging, beautifully presented, filled with stunning pictures and stylish graphics and is, in my opinion, the most collectable wine magazine of them all. Its contributors are a roll call of the smartest wine brains and most acute palates around. It runs to at least 200 pages and is guaranteed to keep you absorbed for the three-month wait between issues. I wouldn’t give a subscription to just any wine-lover: they’d need to be something of a geek.

On the other hand, Noble Rot is more accessible and fun and presents a democratic view of the wine scene. The tenor of the mag is refreshingly light-hearted. When I see articles titled, “Traumatic Price Stress Disorder: Are big price increases of top bottles stifling wine’s democratic aspirations?” by American writer Jon Bonné, and an interview with documentarian Louis Theroux (“Scraping Theroux”), I want to read them.

Likewise, an article exploring the pros and cons of blind tasting. The magazine grew out of an excellent London restaurant named Noble Rot, and there is as much writing about food as wine. There’s also generous coverage of the “natural” wine movement, so it appeals to a younger audience. Natural wine guru Alice Feiring writing about “mousey” wine?

Now, that I’ve got to read.

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