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Books on Wine Appreciation and Winemaking

Although nothing can replace actually tasting wines in order to figure out what you like, wine books often provide an interesting perspective with recommendations by wine region or by wine type. Other wine books offer more of a perspective on the winemaker's philosophy. Together, they can give you the courage and enough curiosity to try something new. For a first book on simply tasting and enjoying wine, I would highly recommend the The Wall Street Journal Guide to Wine (2nd Edition). (All books available from Powell's Bookstore.)

  Wine Appreciation

Featured Books

The Wall Street Journal Guide to Wine: New and Improved; John Brecher, Dorothy J. Gaiter
This is one of those wine books that is fun-to-read. It makes the intimidating subject of wine appreciation much less scary. Gaiter and Brecher bring a few decades of wine tasting experience and the perspective of years of happy partnership to the book. This book brings the joy of tasting and exploring wines to the reader. The book offers lots of good, common-sense advice on "simple" tasting procedures, on how to buy wine, on how to taste and enjoy wine, and other topics. It also offers a healthy perspective on wine rituals, skewering some of the more pretentious in the process. One of the things that we enjoyed about this book is that it offers a broad perspective on what to expect with different wine varietals. It covers everything from Barbera (from the Piedmont region of Italy) to Zinfandel, the "native" grape of California. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys wine or would like to enjoy wine. (Buy from Powell's or Amazon.com.)

Adventures on the Wine Route: A Wine Buyer's Tour of France by Kermit Lynch
With this semi-travelogue through the many wine-growing regions of France, Lynch presents a very strong case for a natural style of wine-making that is very similar to the perspective of Patrick Matthews as detailed below. As a wine merchant, Lynch has relationships with many more winemakers than any average person and his penchant for wines made with little intervention shines through the writing. (Buy from Powell's or Amazon.com.)

Real Wine: The Rediscovery of Natural Winemaking by Patrick Matthews
This book is not about wine appreciation per se but it does delve deeply into many of the choices that winemakers must make as they decide how 'natural' or how 'interventionist' they want to be. This book is part of an anti-reaction in favor of those who use natural techniques (not necessarily organic but leaning that way) versus the lakes of generic industrial wine that are produced today. The chapter describing the use of reverse osmosis devices to tune wines' alcohol levels and flavoring is chilling. (Buy from Powell's or Amazon.com.)

Jancis Robinson's Guide to Wine Grapes by Jancis Robinson
If you just drink the wine, then this is still helpful to give you a sense of the history of your favorite variety. For an amateur vineyard grower, this is a fine background text to help you identify and select grape varieties that you can try. (Buy from Powell's or Amazon.com.)

Other Highly Regarded Books

Regional Wine Guides and Tasting Notes

Featured Books

Wine Spectator's California Wine by James Laube
A refreshing perspective to those serious about California wine. It draws on more than 50,000 personal tasting notes and two decades as a wine writer -- most of it as the Napa-based correspondent for the Wine Spectator. California viticulture has seen a lot of changes -- vineyards replanted, wineries sold, CEOs turned vintners asking $100-plus for their first bottlings -- and Laube has tasted pretty much all of it. (Buy from Powell's or Amazon.com.)

Connoisseurs' Handbook of the Wines of California and the Pacific Northwest by Norman S. Roby, Charles E. Olken.
We live in the Northwest so this is a useful reference as it is the most complete reference we have found of our region. More than 700 wineries and labels are listed (including 100 for the first time). This edition features the latest word on all the wines of Oregon and Washington State. (Buy from Powell's or Amazon.com.)

Italian Wines 2004: A Guide to the World of Italian Wine for Experts and Wine Lovers by Gambero Rosso
Unlike Parker's 100 point scale, the Gambero Rosso only scores wines with 3, 2, 1 (and zero) glasses. This simple scoring system results in more flexibility for different styles of wines to shine and for enthusiasts to have more fun in choosing their favorites. (Buy from Powell's or Amazon.com.)

Oz Clarke's Pocket Wine Guide 2005 by Oz Clarke
For a small pocket guide to wines, this book is about as comprehensive as they get. Given its size and the number of descriptions, we found this book to be one of the easiest to find the wines that we were looking for. As a bonus, the thumbnail descriptions offered more than a basic sketch of the wines which makes it even more valuable. (Buy from Powell's or Amazon.com.)

Other Highly Regarded Books

Wine-Related History

Featured Books

Wine and War: The French, the Nazis and the Battle For France's Greatest Treasure by Don Kladstrup, Petie Kladstrup
This book details the conflict between the Germans and the French for control of wine during World War II. Sources include numerous anecdotes from many winemakers and their families which lends credibility to the narrative. (Buy from Powell's or Amazon.com.)

Other Highly Regarded Books

Wine Tasting Guides

Featured Books

How to Taste: A Guide to Enjoying Wine by Jancis Robinson
(Buy from Powell's or Amazon.com.)
In fairly simple steps, this book describes exactly how to taste wine starting from how the various equipment our body provides (eyes, nose, tongue) work in order to discern differences in color, aroma, bouquet, taste, and mouth-feel among different wines. With a detailed set of notes describing what is expected to be different between even closely-related wines (cabernet sauvignon is different from cabernet franc, etc.), this is a very useful guide to have on any wine-lover's bookshelf.

The Wine-Tasting Class Notebook: Expertise in 12 Tastings by Judy Ridgway
(Buy from Powell's or Amazon.com.)

Wine References and Encyclopedias

Featured Books

The Oxford Companion to Wine; Jancis Robinson (Editor), et al.
With more than 3,000 entries on every aspect of wine from vine pests to grape varietals, this has something for everyone. It work covers all aspects of wine, traveling back in time to early Greece, then returning to today's wine centers to explore all aspects of wine appreciation. A third of the book is dedicated to specific wines and wine-producing regions. Together with the Sotheby's guide, this is a great reference. (Buy from Powell's or Amazon.com.)

New Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia; Tom Stevenson. Hardcover
Within the first sixty pages, this weighty tome offers a very good introduction to some differences in wine-making techniques and geography -- followed by pages and pages of thumbnail sketches of thousands of wineries from around the world. This book is arguably a better reference for "old world" wines with extensive coverage of French, Italian, and German wines. Coverage of "new world" wines from the US, Australia, and South America is somewhat skimpy so I would balance this with a book providing better coverage of your area. (Buy from Powell's or Amazon.com.)

Other Highly Regarded Books

A Companion to California Wine: An Encyclopedia of Wine and Winemaking from the Mission Period to the Present by Charles L. Sullivan, Hugh Johnson

If you want to obtain a deeper appreciation of wine, we sugest two other book pages to check out:

Return to The Ragen's home page on wines.

For other books on our best books list, follow the links below.