YOU may not have seen him on the telly for a while but Oz Clarke is still one of Britain’s best-known and most revered wine experts.

Each year, for the past two decades, he has burst into print and published what has come to be a series of invaluable guides to the best wines.

And what’s best about them is that slim though each volume may be they are fat on information and small enough for keeping in a pocket ready to whip out for a quiet consultation when browsing the shelves at your friendly local vintner – or as is the case with us lesser mortals, the wine aisles of Waitrose, Tesco, et al.

This year’s Oz Clarke’s Pocket Wine Book 2012 (Pavilion, £9.99) names 7,500 wines, 4,000 producers, charting what’s at its peak and what’s not. There are also invaluable sections on how to make the most of wine and how to match it with food. But with the latter, don’t expect the normal dictats. Clarke says: “The pleasures of eating and drinking operate on so many levels that hard and fast rules make no sense. If I’m in the mood for champagne, then champagne it will be with whatever I’m eating.”

For a tiny tome, this is bursting with entertaining information, much the same as Clarke’s idiosyncratic descriptions: a Bordeaux cabernet has “a fragrance of cigar boxes”; amontillado “should taste of raisins and buttered brazils”.

No fan of cheap buys he warns against pouncing on low-cost finds: “It’s probably not a bargain at all. Any discount you think you’re getting was built into the intended price when the retailer was purchasing the wine.”

Clarke’s list of top value wines for 2012 include Portuguese alentejo and Peter Lehmann whites from Australia. Among the regions to watch are Patagonia and he also has good words to say about Three Choirs Vinyard at Newent, near Ledbury.

Take heed of Clarke’s knowledge and phenomenal palate and you’ll discover that India is now starting to produce consistently good quality wines and that some particularly interesting Japanese wine is made from koshu, a pinkskinned grape that equates to being clean, dry, light bodied and its delicate citrus character pairs well with sushi and sashimi.

Also, the up and coming place for wine production is China...

which, incidentally, is where his book is printed.