Reading about wine is a great starting point when beginning your wine journey, or to gain mastery of a specific topic as a seasoned professional. If you are studying for a wine certification exam, reading other wine-related books outside of your textbooks can be the catalyst that makes the information you need to retain finally “click.”
Are you curious what it’s like to work in the wine industry as a sommelier, or what it’s like to be a winemaker? A memoir may be for you. Maybe you prefer a more scientific approach to understanding wine and how we experience it. A book with an academic approach will fit the bill. Whether you are an enthusiast or aspiring professional, reading wine-related books will get you on the right path.
With so many different books about wine out there, how do you begin? At Vinum 55 we are a group of passionate wine professionals who eat, drink (obviously), and breathe all things wine. We’ve compiled a list of wine books that are some of our personal favorites, and we know you’ll find at least one that will speak to you.
Vinum 55 Team Top 12 Wine Book Recommendations
Ron Jensen
Scottsdale Cellar Manager
WET L2
Judgment of Paris: California Vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionized Wine
By George M. Taber
If you’re interested in knowing the real story of the Judgement of Paris, read this book!
The Paris Tasting of 1976 will forever be remembered as the landmark event that transformed the wine industry. At this legendary contest—a blind tasting—a panel of top French wine experts shocked the industry by choosing unknown California wines over France’s best.
George M. Taber, the only reporter present, recounts this seminal contest and its far-reaching effects, focusing on three gifted unknowns behind the winning wines: a college lecturer, a real estate lawyer, and a Yugoslavian immigrant. With unique access to the main players and a contagious passion for his subject, Taber renders this historic event and its tremendous aftershocks—repositioning the industry and sparking a golden age for viticulture across the globe. With an eclectic cast of characters and magnificent settings, Judgment of Paris is an illuminating tale and a story of the entrepreneurial spirit of the new world conquering the old.
Raini Keyser
General Manager
Certified Sommelier, CSW, WSET L2
Secrets of the Sommeliers: How to Think and Drink Like the World’s Top Wine Professionals
By Rajat Parr & Jordan Mackay
Do you want to know what it’s like to be a world-class sommelier? This book opens a window into that world, possibly even giving you the expertise and confidence to be your own “home sommelier.”
A fascinating exploration of the inside world of sommeliers, sharing their unique perspectives, extensive expertise, and best stories.
Rajat Parr’s profound knowledge of wines, deep relationships with producers, and renowned tasting abilities have made him a legend in the business. As wine director for the Mina Group, Parr presides over the lists at some of the country’s top restaurants. In Secrets of the Sommeliers, Parr and journalist Jordan Mackay present a fascinating portrait of the world’s top wine professionals and their trade. The authors interviewed the elite of the sommelier community, and their colleagues’ insights, recommendations, and entertaining stories are woven throughout, along with Parr’s own takes on his profession and favorite winemakers and wines.
Along the way, the authors give an immersion course in tasting and serving wine; share strategies for securing hard-to-find bottles at a good price and identifying value sweetspots among the many regions, and teach readers how to make inspired food pairings.
Jordan White
Logistics and Operations Manager
Certified Sommelier
The Billionaire’s Vinegar: The Mystery of the World’s Most Expensive Bottle of Wine
By Benjamin Wallace
This book tells the true story of a 1787 Château Lafite Bordeaux—supposedly owned by Thomas Jefferson—that sold for $156,000 at auction, and of the eccentrics whose lives intersected with it.
Was it truly entombed in a Paris cellar for two hundred years? Or did it come from a secret Nazi bunker? Or from the moldy basement of a devilishly brilliant con artist? As Benjamin Wallace unravels the mystery, we meet a gallery of intriguing players—from the bicycle-riding British auctioneer who speaks of wines as if they are women to the obsessive wine collector who discovered the bottle.
Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France’s Greatest Treasure
By Donald Kladstrup & Petie Kladstrup
This book captures the remarkable untold story of France’s courageous, clever vinters who protected and rescued the country’s most treasured commodity from German plunder during World War II.
In 1940, France fell to the Nazis, and almost immediately the German army began a campaign of pillaging one of the assets the French hold most dear: their wine. Like others in the French Resistance, winemakers mobilized to oppose their occupiers, but the tale of their extraordinary efforts has remained largely unknown–until now.
This is the thrilling and harrowing story of the French wine producers who undertook ingenious, daring measures to save their cherished crops and bottles as the Germans closed in on them. Wine and War illuminates a compelling, little-known chapter of history, and stands as a tribute to extraordinary individuals who waged a battle that, in a very real way, saved the spirit of France.
Suzanne Zupancic
Chandler Cellar Manager
WSET L2
The Wine Bible
By Karen MacNeil
This book is literally The Bible when it comes to wine. A thorough encyclopedia-style handbook that is a companion for wine enthusiasts and professionals alike.
Comprehensive, entertaining, authoritative, and endlessly interesting, The Wine Bible is a lively course from an expert teacher, grounding the reader deeply in the fundamentals—vine-yards and varietals, climate and terroir, the nine attributes of a wine’s greatness—while layering on tips, informative asides, anecdotes, definitions, photographs, maps, labels, and recommended bottles.
Discover how to taste with focus and build a wine-tasting memory. The reason behind Champagne’s bubbles. Italy, the place the ancient Greeks called the land of wine. An oak barrel’s effect on flavor. Sherry, the world’s most misunderstood and underappreciated wine. How to match wine with food—and mood.
Plus everything else you need to know to buy, store, serve, and enjoy the world’s most captivating beverage.
Wine Folly
By Madeline Puckette & Justin Hammack
Wine Folly is another must-have book for any wine enthusiast. Its easy-to-understand language and clear and informative graphics and maps will have you speaking wine in no time!
Wine Folly: The Essential Guide to Wine will help you make sense of it all in a unique infographic wine book. Designed by the creators of the Wine Folly website, which has won Wine Blogger of the Year from the International Wine & Spirits Competition, this book combines sleek, modern information design with data visualization and gives readers pragmatic answers to all their wine questions, including:
• Detailed taste profiles of popular and under-the-radar wines.
• A guide to pairing food and wine.
• A wine-region section with detailed maps.
• Practical tips and tricks for serving wine.
• Methods for tasting wine and identifying flavors.
Packed with information and encouragement, Wine Folly: The Essential Guide to Wine will empower your decision-making with practical knowledge and give you confidence at the table.
A couple of Suzanne’s other favorite wine books:
Voodoo Vintners: Oregon’s Astonishing Biodynamic Winegrowers
By Katherine Cole
Beyond Flavour
By Nick Jackson, MW
Jon Smith
Logistics Manager
CMS L1, WSET L2
North American Pinot Noir
By John Winthrop Haeger
This is the definitive work on pinot noir in North America. A comprehensive reference for winemakers and aficionados as well as a sourcebook for casual enthusiasts, it includes extensive historical and viticultural background on pinot noir in the New World and profiles of six dozen prominent producers in California, Oregon, British Columbia, and New York.
John Winthrop Haeger, known for his perceptive wine writing for more than fifteen years, gives contextual and comparative information about pinot noir in Burgundy and then tells the story of wine producers’ early failures, frustrations, and breakthroughs in North America. He discusses plant genetics and clones, identifies the essential conditions for really good pinot, tells where the best wines are grown and made, and analyzes the factors that determine wine styles and signatures.
In the second part of the book, he presents detailed producer profiles with accessibly written tasting notes on recent and mature vintages. A final section covers glassware, vintages, wine and food pairings, and other matters of interest to consumers. Maps prepared especially for this book cover all the major pinot-producing regions in North America.
A Man and His Mountain: The Everyman who Created Kendall-Jackson and Became America’s Greatest Wine Entrepreneur
By Edward Humes
This book is the fascinating biography of Jess Jackson: his business decisions, victorious triumphs, and agonizing defeats. A man partially driven by ruthlessness, but entirely guided by his passion. Learn how one man’s compulsion to work led him to overcome depression-era poverty.
Jess Stonestreet Jackson was one of a small band of pioneering entrepreneurs who put California’s Wine Country on the map. His life story is a compelling slice of history, daring, innovation, feuds, intrigue, talent, mystique, and luck. Admirers and detractors alike have called him the Steve Jobs of wine — a brilliant, infuriating, contrarian gambler who seemed to win more than his share by anticipating consumers’ desires with uncanny skill. Time after time his decisions would be ignored and derided, then envied and imitated as competitors struggled to catch up.
He founded Kendall-Jackson with a single, tiny vineyard and a belief that there could be more to California Wine Country than jugs of bottom-shelf screw-top. Today, Kendall-Jackson and its 14,000 acres of coastal and mountain vineyards produce a host of award-winning wines, including the most popular Chardonnay in the world, which was born out of a catastrophe that nearly broke Jackson. The empire Jackson built endures and thrives as a family-run leader of the American wine industry.
Kim Hoffman
Digital Marketing Specialist
WSET L3, CMS L1
Neuroenology: How the Brain Creates the Taste of Wine
By Gordon M. Shepherd
Have you ever been curious about what is actually going on during the very cerebral exercise of mindful wine tasting? This book breaks down exactly what is happening mechanically within the body, and how the brain processes the experience. You will learn how you can be more present in your own tasting, taking your skills to a new level.
Neuroenology is the first book on wine tasting by a neuroscientist. It begins with the movements of wine through the mouth and then consults recent research to explain the function of retronasal smell and its extraordinary power in creating wine taste. Shepherd comprehensively explains how the specific sensory pathways in the cerebral cortex create the memory of wine and how language is used to identify and imprint wine characteristics.
Intended for a broad audience of readers—from amateur wine drinkers to sommeliers, from casual foodies to seasoned chefs—Neuroenology shows how the emotion of pleasure is the final judge of the wine experience. It includes practical tips for a scientifically informed wine tasting and closes with a delightful account of Shepherd’s experience tasting classic Bordeaux vintages with French winemaker Jean-Claude Berrouet of the Chateau Petrus and Dominus Estate.
Champagne: The Essential Guide to the Wines, Producers, and Terroirs of the Iconic Region
By Peter Liem
This book is a groundbreaking guide to the modern wines of Champagne–a region that in recent years has undergone one of the most dramatic transformations in the wine-growing world. Liem gives very detailed accounts of the history and genesis of this region and its producers, wine laws, and the study and preservation of its inimitable terroir. A must-read for every bubble-head!
Champagne is assuredly among the most important references to this captivating region. It is more than a tome for experts, however, and will prove an invaluable introduction to the curious novice as well. It delves satisfyingly into the back story, explaining thoroughly yet in a highly-readable fashion the reasons for the great diversity of styles that one finds in Champagne today.
Liem tackles the big issues in the region with diplomacy and insight and leaves the reader with a deep appreciation for the complexity of champagne. Of particular note are his well-chosen appreciations of single cru and single-vineyard wines in each sub-region, and his affectionate yet discerning profiles in the final section of the book. This is required reading for the dedicated fan and curious novice alike.
A couple of Kim’s other wine book recommendations:
Windows on the World Complete Wine Course
By Kevin Zraly
The Sommelier’s Atlas of Taste: A Field Guide to the Great Wines of Europe
By Rajat Parr & Jordan Mackay
Sandra Scott
Scottsdale Assistant Cellar Manager
CMS L1
Perfect Pairings: A Master Sommelier’s Practical Advice for Partnering Wine with Food
By Evan Goldstein
Release your inner sommelier and start pairing like a pro! This book breaks down how to simply pair wines with food.
Perfect Pairings, by well-known Master Sommelier and respected restaurant industry veteran Evan Goldstein, provides straightforward, practical advice for how to pair wine with each meal. The quintessential resource for matching wine and food, Perfect Pairings acts as a guide to wine, wine terminology, and wine-growing regions as well as a cooking guide: this versatile coffee table book includes 58 companion recipes developed by celebrated chef Joyce Goldstein that showcase each type of wine.
Perfect Pairings combines in-depth explorations of twelve grape varietals, sparkling wines, and dessert wines with guidance about foods that enhance the wide range of styles for each varietal. Whether the Chardonnay is earthy and flinty, or rich, buttery, and oak-infused; whether the Pinot Noir fruity and tropical, or aged and mature, Goldstein explains how to match it with dishes that will make the wine sing. His clear, educational, and entertaining approach towards intimidating gastronomical questions provides information for all readers, professional and amateur chefs alike.
Rob Ortiz
Wine Director
CMS L1
The New Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia
by Tom Stevenson
If you’re serious about diving deep to broaden your understanding of viticulture, this book will take your wine knowledge to new heights. Its exhaustive portrayal of wine from grapes to glass will hone your knowledge of wines of the world.
Fully updated and revised for the first time since 2011, this new 800-page edition of Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia reflects the most recent trends in the dynamic world of wine, written by experts around the globe. Beautifully illustrated with more than 400 images and 100 brand-new National Geographic maps, this definitive guide is arranged geographically to highlight the regions and climates that produce the best vintages. From the countries of Southeast Europe to the Eastern Mediterranean, each page is packed with information on flavor notes, vineyard profiles, tasting room guides, grape know-how, and special information on unique varietals.
The book also features top wines organized by maker and year—a troubleshooter’s guide to potential wine faults, a taste chart to help identify flavors, up-and-coming producers, unusual wines, food pairings, and more. You’ll find timelines depicting the chronology of wine from 500 million B.C., expert sommelier tips, and thousands of recommendations for the latest and greatest reds, whites, and rosés. The most up-to-date and comprehensive wine reference in the world, this stunning book is an oenophile’s dream—and a must-have for anyone looking to become an expert in wine.
The Pursuit of Knowledge: Reading Between the Wines
“A person with increasing knowledge and sensory education may derive infinite enjoyment from wine.” —Ernest Hemingway
The quest for wine knowledge is one that is never-ending. That is a reason why so many of us fall in love with wine in the first place—there is always something new to learn around every corner. Whether you are a new wine enthusiast, or you are pursuing advanced wine certification, there is always a good reason to curl up with a glass of wine and a book. Cheers!