Berry Bros and Rudd has launched Jasper Morris MW's definitive Inside Burgundy on iPad – the first wine book to use Apple's iBooks Author programme.
The 650-page, £50 tome, which has sold nearly 9,000 copies, was published in October 2010 by Berry Bros and Rudd Press, the London wine merchant’s publishing arm set up in association with publishers Segrave Foulkes.
BBR Press has now launched two sections of Inside Burgundy as an ebook, the first time a wine book has been published using bespoke technology.
Available on iPad and on computers via iTunes at present, the first two sections to be published are Inside Burgundy: Côte de Beaune, which costs £14.99, and Morris’s Inside Burgundy: Annual Report, which is free.
The electronic version is based on the text of the book – exhaustive detail of the thousands of growers and producers of the region gleaned from Morris’s 30 years’ expertise on Burgundy – with interactive, detailed maps. It adds dozens of photographs which are not in the book, and videos of Morris discussing aspects of the Burgundy vineyard. There is also a note-taking facility.
At the end of the summer, BBR says, the Côte de Nuits section will be available, followed by Beaujolais.
The Côte de Beaune section incorporates material on new growers that did not make it into the hardback, Morris said. It also has the advantage of being fully and instantly updateable.
He added that they hoped the iPad version would broaden the market for in-depth information on Burgundy. ‘It is less intimidating than the book,’ he said.
While sales of the book version are healthy – the first print run of 9,000 in English has ‘almost sold out’, Morris said, with 800 sold by Beaune wine emporium Athenaeum, and more than 3,000 copies sold of the Japanese version, BBR says it has ‘no idea’ how the new iPad version will sell.
‘We need to sell 2000 to break even,’ publisher Chris Foulkes said, adding that they were in 50 markets around the world.
BBR are in talks with publisher Hachette over a French version, and a Chinese version is ‘under active discussion – there is a deal on the table’, Morris said.
Inside Burgundy is BBR’s first publishing venture. A similar work on Bordeaux is being written by negociant Bill Blatch of Vintex.‘Three more titles on related aspects of the world of wine’ will be announced this year, all of which are designed to be published in print form and as an interactive ebook, BBR says.
Inside Burgundy: Côte de Beaune and Inside Burgundy: Annual Report are available through the Apple bookstore and Inside Burgundy, the book version, is available through Berry Bros & Rudd
Written by Adam Lechmere
