Wine Book Nook (vol. 1)
Reading them all so you don't have to...
If you're like me, you're probably always looking for good reference books for growing your wine knowledge. And also if you're like me, you are cost-conscious and not keen on dropping a lot of money on books that might not meet your needs. Here, I will break down four "basic" wine books and let you decide where you want to invest. I will say that I prefer actual physical books over ebooks for studying, but that's up to you. Prices and sources provided here are for physical books, new and used. And, yes, these are in order of my own preference.
1)
Wine Folly: Magnum Edition-The Master Guide (2018) by Madeline Puckette and Justin Hammack [$37.28
on bookshop.org or $15.39
used on Thriftbooks]
This is my go-to reference book for studying wine. Madeline is a PNW Somm who writes fun, approachable wine information on her site, Wine Folly (which I also recommended in an earlier post). This master guide is visually appealing and laid out well which makes it very easy to follow and fun to pick up. It starts with some basic information about wine and wine tasting terminology such as how wine is made, what tannins are, and how flavors/aromas are described in wine. Then, there is a huge section on grapes and wines which is in alphabetical order and has all the information you need about each wine. Madeline uses her signature graphics and helpful taste charts which is very user-friendly. Love this!
The book finishes off with information about major wine regions of the world which is really helpful if you're studying for WSET or similar. It doesn't have everything, though, and won't substitute for the text books that are required for in-depth wine study. However, this is a book that you can pick up and find what you need quickly, and I highly recommend it.
Aldo has an impressive background story which he lays out in the introduction of the book (worth the read!), and I found this book really appealing. It has four chapters that explain wine, including the key varietals, how to drink wine, how to improve your palate, and how to pair wine and food. Though not as much detail as Wine Folly, Wine Simple is fun, practical, and approachable, and Aldo uses helpful and clear footnotes throughout to define key terms.
It's not really a book I pick up as a quick reference, but it's
a good read section by section. Aldo writes in a way that's easy to understand and will provide a great introduction to the often intimidating world of wine. It's a good entry-level book and/or nice gift for a wine lover or wine student in your life!
3)
Wine Confident: There's No Wrong Way to Enjoy Wine (2024) by Kelli A White [$32.62
on bookshop.org or $26.07
used on Thriftbooks - it's a pretty new book, so the used price is not that different]
I really like this book! Kelli has a similar philosophy about enjoying wine that I do, and she uses similar terms to talk about how to approach wine. As an educator, I believe that wine should not be scary, and Kelli writes in a way that is knowledgeable yet approachable. She makes you feel at ease learning how to talk about wine. She covers tasting wine, talking about wine, and buying wine. She dives into handling wine and collecting wine, and then she tackles actually understanding wine itself. Like Wine Simple, this book is not a quick reference guide to wine, but Kelli's practical information and advice is useful and enjoyable to read. She does not dive into different wine grapes and their typical tasting notes beyond a quick reference appendix, but she does explain the basics well and covers different ways that people (experts) approach and talk about wine, so it's a great intro. It's good to read section by section (with a glass of wine in hand) to improve your own wine confidence.
This book by sommelier Marnie Old has a lot of great information and is written for people who don't necessarily have any wine knowledge before they pick up this book. It is written in four sections, and Marnie hopes that folks will treat the chapters as individual lessons. There are four chapters in total, and the book starts with building wine skills like tasting, choosing, and using wine (pouring and storing). Then she moves on to different styles of wine in both reds and whites and covers pairing with food. Then she goes on to discuss different choices in wine making along with cultural influences. The final chapter is all about wine grapes (she goes over 10 common varietals) and the "must-know" wine regions of the world. This last chapter can be used as a quick reference, but the rest of the book needs you to sit down and absorb the info. One fun thing about the book is that it is interspersed with practice tastings to emphasize the concepts, so when Marnie is explaining lighter red wine styles, for example, she has a tasting exercise with a few different wines for you to try. The book has nice graphics, but my biggest issue is the sheer density of information in the book. The font is sometimes really small to fit it all in! I'm not sure if it's a super user-friendly reference, and there are some generalizations that may not be helpful, such as some of her information on the style differences between old and new world wines (it misses the nuance of Oregon totally). That said, Wine: A Tasting Course is a good read and would make a great gift!
Choose one of these books to start or enhance your wine journey, and I think you'll be satisfied. But the better news is that we have quite a selection of wine books at Studio Vino Wine Hub, so you could always come by to peruse them for free (with maybe a drop-in class to support your studies ;).
Happy reading!
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