WINE BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS
Here are recommendations from wine loving students around the world. I polled you for your very favourite wine and spirits books, and received a cornucopia of suggestions!
The books are linked below so you can peruse with ease. Keep in mind that although many are readily available new, some are well out of print, and available in used editions only. I’ve attempted to categorise them, although many could rightly be placed in several different groups, especially those that are found in Wine Stories.
By far, the most recommended books were:
#1 Cork Dork: A Wine-Fueled Adventure Among the Obsessive Sommeliers, Big Bottle Hunters, and Rogue Scientists Who Taught Me to Live for Taste (Bianca Bosker)
#2 Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France's Greatest Treasure (Don & Petie Kladstrup)
#3 Books by Oz Clarke! He was by far and away your most popular wine writer, praised for the enjoyment and accessibility he brings to the many books you’ll see listed below.
For those just jumping into wine, or looking for a good gift for the wine curious, the most recommended beginner wine books were (tied for #1):
The Wine Bible (Karen MacNeil)
& Kevin Zraly Windows on the World Complete Wine Course: Revised & Updated / 35th Edition (Kevin Zraly) > Previous Edition
Thank you to every one of you who took time to write in with your favourite book. I’ve found so many excellent suggestions for my reading list, and hope you will find something inspiring, education, or diverting here too.
Have a suggestion for a book? Please do send a note using the form at the bottom of the page.
Many of the links on this page are affiliate, I appreciate your support in using them!
PS: a note on audiobooks… I love them :) They’ve enabled me to triple the number of books I ‘read’ per month. Many of the books below are available in this format. I listen to them via Audible (you can receive two free audiobooks from audible by signing up for a free trial account here).
SPIRITS
Calvados: The Spirit of Normandy (Charles Neal)
The Complete Whiskey Course: A Comprehensive Tasting School in Ten Classes (Robin Robinson)
The World Atlas of Whisky: New Edition (Dave Broom)
VITICULTURE
Vines & Vinification (WSET)
Vineyards, Rocks, and Soils: The Wine Lover's Guide to Geology (Alex Maltman)
Viticulture: An introduction to commercial grape growing for wine production (Stephen Skelton MW)
Voodoo Vintners: Oregon's Astonishing Biodynamic Winegrowers (Katherine Cole)
Wine and Place: A Terroir Reader (Patterson, Buechsenstein)
WINE BY COUNTRY
ARGENTINA
The Vineyard at the End of the World: Maverick Winemakers and the Rebirth of Malbec (Ian Mount)
AUSTRIA
Wine in Austria (Willi Klinger, Karl Vocelka)
FRANCE
Bursting Bubbles: A Secret History of Champagne and the Rise of the Great Growers (Robert Walters)
Champagne [Boxed Book & Map Set]: The Essential Guide to the Wines, Producers, and Terroirs of the Iconic Region (Peter Liem)
Inside Bordeaux (Jane Anson)
Inside Burgundy (Jasper Morris MW)
The Champagne Guide: The Definitive Guide to Champagne (Tyson Stelzer)
The New France: A Complete Guide to Contemporary French Wine (Andrew Jefford)
Wines of Alsace (Benjamin Lewin MW)
GEORGIA
The Wines of Georgia (Lisa Granik)
ITALY
Italy's Native Wine Grape Terroirs (Ian D’Agata)
Palmento: A Sicilian Wine Odyssey (Robert Camuto)
The New Wines of Mount Etna: An Insider's Guide to the History and Rebirth of a Wine Region (Benjamin North Spencer)
Vino Italiano: The Regional Wines of Italy (Joseph Bastianich, David Lynch)
USA
Napa: The Story of an American Eden (James Conaway)
WINE BY STYLE
Amber Revolution: How the World Learned to Love Orange Wine (Simon J. Woolf)
Christie's Encyclopedia of Champagne and Sparkling Wine (Tom Stevenson, Essie Avellan) ~ note: can anyone tell me why the new edition of this book is so expensive?!?
WINE FICTION
A Good Year (Peter Mayle)
Corkscrew: The highly improbable, but occasionally true, tale of a professional wine buyer (Peter Stafford-Bow)
Drops of God Vol. 1 (Tadashi Agi, Shu Okimoto)
WINE FOR BEGINNERS (and beyond!)
How to Drink Like a Billionaire: Mastering Wine with Joie de Vivre (Mark Oldman)
Kevin Zraly Windows on the World Complete Wine Course: Revised & Updated / 35th Edition (Kevin Zraly) > Previous Edition
Oz Clarke's Let Me Tell You About Wine: A Beginner's Guide to Understanding and Enjoying Wine (Oz Clarke)
Secrets of the Sommeliers: How to Think and Drink Like the World's Top Wine Professionals & The Sommelier's Atlas of Taste: A Field Guide to the Great Wines of Europe (Rajat Parr, Jordan Mackay)
The Wine Bible (Karen MacNeil)
The Wine Book (Matthew Jukes)
What's a Wine Lover to Do? (Wes Marshall)
Wine Folly: Magnum Edition: The Master Guide (Madeline Puckette, Justin Hammack)
Wine for Normal People: A Guide for Real People Who Like Wine, but Not the Snobbery That Goes with It (Elizabeth Schneider)
Wine Simple: A Totally Approachable Guide from a World-Class Sommelier (Aldo Sohm, Christine Muhlke)
24-Hour Wine Expert (Jancis Robinson MW)
WINE FOR THE INTERMEDIATE STUDENT (and beyond!)
Wine Myths & Reality (Benjamin Lewin MW)
WINE GRAPES
Godforsaken Grapes: A Slightly Tipsy Journey through the World of Strange, Obscure, and Underappreciated Wine (Jason Wilson)
Grapes & Wines: A Comprehensive Guide to Varieties and Flavours (Oz Clarke, Margaret Rand)
WINE HISTORY
A History of the World in 6 Glasses (Tom Standage)
Inventing Wine: A New History of One of the World's Most Ancient Pleasures (Paul Lukacs)
The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine (Benjamin Wallace)
The History of Wine in 100 Bottles: From Bacchus to Bordeaux and Beyond (Oz Clarke)
Wine and the Wine Trade (Andre Simon)
Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France's Greatest Treasure (Don & Petie Kladstrup)
WINE REFERENCE
Oz Clarke's Wine Atlas : Wine and Wine Regions of the World (Oz Clarke)
The World Atlas of Wine 8th Edition (Hugh Johnson, Jancis Robinson MW)
WINE SCIENCE
Flawless: Understanding Faults in Wine (Jamie Goode)
The Art and Science of Wine (Hugh Johnson, James Halliday)
The Science of Wine: From Vine to Glass (Jamie Goode)
Understanding Wine Technology: The Science of Wine Explained (David Bird MW)
WINE STORIES
A Life Uncorked (Hugh Johnson)
A Man and his Mountain: The Everyman who Created Kendall-Jackson and Became America’s Greatest Wine Entrepreneur (Edward Humes)
A Vineyard in My Glass (Gerald Asher)
Adventures on the Wine Route: A Wine Buyer's Tour of France (Kermit Lynch)
American Wino: A Tale of Reds, Whites, and One Man's Blues (Dan Dunn)
Cork Dork: A Wine-Fueled Adventure Among the Obsessive Sommeliers, Big Bottle Hunters, and Rogue Scientists Who Taught Me to Live for Taste (Bianca Bosker)
Gallo Be Thy Name (Jerome Tuccille)
Hugh Johnson on Wine (Hugh Johnson)
In Vino Duplicitas: The Rise and Fall of a Wine Forger Extraordinaire (Peter Hellman)
Le Gourou du Vin (Michel Rolland)
Reading between the Wines, With a New Preface (Terry Theise)
Red & White: An unquenchable thirst for wine (Oz Clarke)
Shadows in the Vineyard: The True Story of the Plot to Poison the World's Greatest Wine (Maximillian Potter)
Waugh on Wine (Auberon Waugh)
What Makes a Wine Worth Drinking: In Praise of the Sublime (Terry Theise)
Wine Wars: The Curse of the Blue Nun, the Miracle of Two Buck Chuck, and the Revenge of the Terroirists (Mike Veseth)
WINE TASTING
Beyond Flavour: The Indispensable Handbook to Blind Wine Tasting (Nick Jackson MW)
Wine Tasting: A Professional Handbook (Ronald S. Jackson)
WINE & FOOD
Daring Pairings: A Master Sommelier Matches Distinctive Wines with Recipes from His Favorite Chefs (Evan Goldstein)
The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs (Karen Page, Andrew Dornenburg)
WINEMAKING
Postmodern Winemaking: Rethinking the Modern Science of an Ancient Craft (Clark Smith)