Best of the Best

Books on or about wine are ubiquitous. You don’t even have to look very hard to find someone somewhere who has penned yet another tome about the pleasures awaiting you in a glass of this or a carafe of that. Some writers just really want to write about certain regions and so you find books on Bordeaux, France, or even just small parts of Bordeaux like St. Emilion.

But if what you want is to learn about wine, to know a little bit more than the basics, then there are some very fine books indeed that are worth their weight in gold and should be on your shelf. Indeed, my own path to wine writing and learning about wine was essentially a self-study course, guided by a few wonderful people who already had some wine knowledge, and then a two-day seminar and test that led to my certification as a sommelier (not a Master, mind you, just a first level guy). Some of the books listed here are ones I used in my course of study. Others, I’ve read since and found a great deal of information indeed. Whatever your level of understanding, a few good pages of wine writing can really enhance your knowledge and bring you a lot of enjoyment as your pursue your (and my!) favorite passion—fermented grape juice. Oh, by the way, a point of interest for the women out there. If it is true that cooking and the chef world is mostly male-dominated, this particular list of books about wine is not. Eight of these books are either by women or by a man and a woman. Just in case you were wondering…