She’s a passionate wine lover as well as the UK’s most famous wine critic, with an international reputation that she’s built over the past 30 years.

The 57-year-old Robinson is tall and slim, with blond bangs and rimless glasses, thoughtful enthusiasm, and a modest but definite way of talking about herself and wine. She pens a weekly column for the Financial Times as well as lectures widely and churns out books, more than a dozen so far, including an entertaining autobiographical memoir.

Her latest, just published, is the sixth edition of The World Atlas of Wine, which she updates every few years, with its original author, famed UK wine writer Hugh Johnson. Last year she was promoting the just-released third edition of The Oxford Companion to Wine, her weighty 813-page compendium that includes nearly everything you might want to know about the subject. She’s garnered a shelf-full of awards, and passed the wine world’s equivalent of the PhD exam to earn the title Master of Wine – she was only the 10th woman to do so. There are only about 250 recipients in the world; now 40% are women, she notes. In 2003, she was given an O.B.E. (Order of the British Empire).

So no surprise that last year, when the World Economic Forum at Davos wanted to include a couple of wine tastings as a break from discussions about “The Shifting Balance of Power,” Robinson was the wine expert they called to organize and lead them.

With all this, her website www.jancisrobinson.com claims most of her time. When she launched it back in 2000, Robinson says, the dot.com bust had just happened. “Other writers offered dire warnings – they’d be surprised if I got 100 subscribers. Today I have more than 5000 in over 70 countries.” Interestingly, all the people who work on her website, from transcribers to her assistant to a US correspondent, are women, but, she says, not by design. Still, she contends that women have a special sensitivity to wine nuances – something scientific research confirms.

Like so many people who end up in the wine world, including winemakers, Robinson started on an entirely different track, studying maths and philosophy at Oxford University, where she first discovered wine. She worked for a travel company, lived in Provence, and learned she wanted a life filled with wine, food and travel.

Robinson starts her day in bed with a cup of green tea and her laptop, whether she’s at home or in some farflung hotel, posting new material on her website. (Some information on it, by the way, is free.) It might be tasting notes from a recent event or visit to a wine region or comments on an issue she’s been thinking about, like organic vineyards, globalization, or attitudes towards wine in Korea. A recent recommendation: 2006 Domaine Gauby Les Calcinaires Rouge from the Côtes du Roussillon in southern France, where she has a second home.

Fortunately her husband, Nick Lander, a former restaurateur, the restaurant critic for the Financial Times and a food consultant, is the family chef. Then there are their three children, Julia 25, Will, 23, and Rose, 16; luckily, says Robinson, they all love food and travel.

Staying up to date is ever more difficult for wine writers as the world is changing rapidly. New regions seem to emerge annually even in unlikely spots such as Brazil. “But,” says Robinson, “wine quality has improved everywhere.” She is already gathering notes for the next book updates. “The hardest part is keeping everything I’m learning in my memory,” she says.

There are many more women in the wine world today, too. Robinson says she didn’t “feel in a minority” when she started out in 1975 because there were a number of female wine writers in England. “It was easier for a woman to be a writer than in the trade,” she says. And it still is, both in England and in the US. On the other hand, there are now hundreds of women winemakers, in every wine region from Bordeaux to New Zealand.

Still, she has never had any interest in making wine herself. “Absolutely not,” she says firmly. “I’m a control freak. I couldn’t stand being in thrall to what nature brings.”

McCoy’s Top Wines & a Spirit

Bubbly

NV Henriot Blanc Souverain Champagne ($35)

Rich and toasty, yet lively. All chardonnay, it matches sparklers twice the price.

NV Piper-Heidsieck Rosé Sauvage Champagne ($45)

Beautiful deep pink, very fruity flavors, great bubbles. Same wine in special bottle, $90.

Crowd Pleasers

Red: Christian Moueix Pomerol ($20)

Smooth, plummy merlot blend from owner of Bordeaux’s famous Chateau Petrus.

White: Evans & Tate Chardonnay Margaret River Australia ($18)

Bright and fresh, with pear flavors and not too much oak.

Grand dinner

Red: 2005 Merry Edwards Olivet Lane Vineyard Pinot Noir Russian River Valley

($60)

Complex, intense, mouthwatering, with gorgeous black cherry flavors. All her pinots are stunning.

White: 2006 St. Supéry Virtú White Meritage Napa Valley ($25)

A round, balanced, subtle and very classy blend of semillon and sauvignon blanc.

on the sweeter side

2006 Mount Horrocks Cordon Cut Late Harvest Riesling (half-bottle, $35)

Heady meld of honey and candied lemon made by Australia’s talented Stephanie Poole.

Spirit to sip

Grand Marnier

Cuvée du Centenaire

Triple Orange Liqueur

($115)

Warm, smooth, and seductive blend of citrusy orange and aromatic old cognacs.