Blog Article
The Five Best Wine Books You Should Read Now
ABOUT WINE BOOKS IN GENERAL
All of these books, except mine, use the traditional grapes and geography style of wine education that is almost universal today.
As you know, I prefer working from the qualities of the wine, itself rather than what it’s made of or where it’s from. Also my book is a collection of stories, not grapes. The traditional way of teaching is valid, too—I learned that way and the first book below is the one I learned the most from when I was starting out.
You can only come to know wine by the experience of tasting it, but you can learn about wine in some great and entertaining books full of photos, maps and information. They all make great gifts for the wine lovers living among you.
To me there are three kinds of wine books: technical information, wine stories (often travel or history style books), and food and wine pairing books (recipes and such).
This list is about the first two categories.
1) THE WORLD ATLAS OF WINE, 9th Edition, October 1, 2019
Hugh Johnson & Jancis Robinson
89% five star ratings on Amazon out of 267 (new edition, 2020)
2020 James Beard Award Winner
New Edition of the Original Hugh Johnson classic
Hugh Johnson & Jancis Robinson
This is the wine book I started with and I’ve had it with me for 50 years. It guided me on buying trips, vacation trips and helped me in my seminars to show people how vineyards work. It’s a book of maps of major wine regions and for getting an overview of where the most important vineyards in the world are. This is still the best to me. The cover above is the latest edition which has been updated for 2020 James Beard Cookbook Hall of Fame writer Jancis Robinson.
2) THE WINE BIBLE (Paperback) – Illustrated, October 13, 2015
87% five star ratings on Amazon from 846 ratings
#1 Best seller in Wine Collecting
Consistent Best Seller for years
This book is a classic. If you want to know the vineyards of China or the secrets of Greek wines this book has it. It has an amazingly broad scope. Naturally, it covers the traditional vineyards areas and wines and a lot more.
3) Wine Folly: Magnum Edition: The Master Guide Hardcover – September 25, 2018
by Madeline Puckette
90% five star rating from 2066 ratings on Amazon
#1 Best Seller in Wine Buying Guides
James Beard Award Winner
Wine Folly has detailed maps of the wine regions, food and wine pairings, more than 100 grapes color coded by style…you get the idea. It’s incredibly comprehensive and visual with lots of charts and graphics.
4) The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine
by Benjamin Wallace | Apr 14, 2009
“The season's wine reading cannot get off to a better start than with The Billionaire’s Vinegar, one of the rare books on wine that transcends the genre ...Though the story is the collector’s world, the subject is also greed and how it can contort reality to fit one’s desires. It’s been optioned for Hollywood. I hope the movie’s as good as the book.”
—New York Times
Ok, so it only got 43% five star rating on Amazon but it was optioned for a movie for God’s sake. It’s in here because it’s about the most expensive bottle of wine in the world. Now, who doesn’t want to know about that?
5) Inventing Wine: A New History of One of the World's Most Ancient Pleasures, 2013
by Paul Lukacs
James Beard Award Winne
Cliquot Award Winner
Republished in 2013
Another story style book that only garners 56% five star reviews on Amazon, but I put it here because you will read about things in the wine business here that I’ve never seen written about in one place anywhere else.
6) A RARE LOOK INTO THE WINE BUSINESS THAT OUTSIDERS NEVER SEE
Since it’s my newsletter, I get to throw one of my books into the mix as a bonus choice.
I’m pretty sure this is the greatest wine book ever written since, you know, I wrote it.
My mother didn’t actually read it but if she had she would have loved it.
Maybe.
She was against alcohol, so I can’t be sure of anything.
The Secret Life of Wine: and other mostly true tales from the vineyards (Secret Life of Wine Series) Paperback
A funny insider's view of real life adventures in the wine trade from the unique perspective of a winery owner who started out as a clerk at Neiman Marcus in Texas and ended up an owner in not one but two different wineries in Napa Valley.
https://www.amazon.com/Does-God-Drink-mostly-vineyards/dp/1720438862/?dchild=1&&&s=books&sr=1-1
Also, here’s my Amazon Author’s Page in case your curiosity gets the best of you: https://www.amazon.com/Larry-Alan-Leigon/e/B0096FV810?ref_=dbs_p_pbk_r00_abau_000000
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