Question from a Globe and Mail reader: I enjoy wine but have no formal training or education. Which books would you suggest to boost my general knowledge?
There have been countless books over the years written to foster an awareness and understanding of wine and help make sense of the enormous range of styles and quality of wines available throughout the world. Most offer a combination of information with practical tasting tips. The best ones are structured so that readers can build up knowledge in a gradual way, while offering the author’s unique perspective that hopefully fuels a zest for the subject matter.
It’s interesting to note how many begin with a dialogue about technical tasting, detailing steps to take and how to draw conclusions based on the wine’s attributes before tackling the subject of grape varieties, regions and how it’s made. But I suspect the regimen of swirling, sniffing and sipping isn’t necessarily a drawing card. Taking note of acidity, body and length or identifying flavours of plums, cherries or mint isn’t as captivating as the story behind a wine.
The 24-Hour Wine Expert, by Jancis Robinson.Handout
The New Wine Rules, by Jon Bonné.Handout
The Wine Bible, by Karen MacNeil.Handout
Some aficionados seek the legend and lore aspects or the armchair travel elements of wine appreciation. When I was taking an interest in wine, I would check books written by Gerald Asher, Tony Aspler, Steven Spurrier, Michael Broadbent and Jancis Robinson out of the public library. Meanwhile, Berkeley-based wine buyer Kermit Lynch’s Adventures on the Wine Route: A Wine Buyer’s Tour of France is credited by many winemakers, sommeliers and communicators, myself included, as a formative book for instilling a love for wine.
Here are four books with different approaches to unlocking wine’s magic and mystery. Just like selecting a bottle of wine, the best is the one that speaks to you.
The 24-Hour Wine Expert by Jancis Robinson (Penguin)
One of the world’s foremost authorities on wine, Robinson is responsible for serious reference books, including The Oxford Companion to Wine, which are the gospel for students studying for higher industry certifications. This 111-page paperback might be the shortest book in her bibliography, but it’s packed with practical advice and keen insights about understanding wine labels, cellaring wine, and choosing the proper glassware as well as general overviews of major wine producing regions and grape varieties.
The New Wine Rules: A Genuinely Helpful Guide to Everything You Need to Know by Jon Bonné (Ten Speed Press)
This delightfully opinionated tome distills the ABCs of wine into 89 rules that are grouped into eight chapters. For anyone leery of a book that touts rules to follow, its author, who is the former contributing editor of online magazine Punch and former wine editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, aptly describes it as “a handy summary of the practical things I’ve learned about incorporating wine into everyday life.”
The Wine Bible 3rd Edition by Karen MacNeil (Workman)
Written by American journalist and educator Karen MacNeil, The Wine Bible is an engaging and insight introduction to wine. While her regional reports aren’t always up to date, MacNeil’s strength is drawing the reader into the pleasure of wine through her lyrical writing style and common-sense approach.
The World in a Wineglass: The insider’s guide to artisanal, sustainable, extraordinary wines to drink now by Ray Isle (Scribner)
The World in a Wineglass, by Ray Isle.Handout
The executive wine editor for the American magazine, Food & Wine, Ray Isle strives in this book to connect readers with stories about the people and places that shape the style of wine and the flavours they find in their wine glass. It’s a plea to seek out wines made with authenticity and intent, which are illustrated in the behind-the-scenes stores of some 150 wine producers from 15 countries.
Christopher Waters