I know a lot of people in recovery these days – as, I fear, many of us do. The wine trade, I also fear, is home to many people who should be in recovery but aren’t, or aren’t yet.

This industry, with its endless tastings, lunches and dinners, can conveniently mask addiction. In a business where it’s normal to start a 30-wine tasting at 9am, it’s easy to hide dependency.

For years, comedian John Robins hid his addiction, or hid the way he drank – not ready to admit that it was a problem. In his new memoir, Thirst: Twelve Drinks that Changed My Life (£20 Viking, May 2026), he traces his relationship with alcohol over the course of his life – from a sip of Champagne aged five to a seemingly perfect pint – and eventual journey into sobriety.

For what is undoubtedly a heavy topic, it’s a surprisingly light read, chatty in style and infused with dark humour, yet also with some literary heft (Robins read English at Oxford, so he comes with academic credentials).

The book offers remarkable insight into the different forms that addiction can take, looking at how a life can be controlled by drink – revolving around when and from where the next glass, pint or bottle will arrive.

It’s about the ways in which an addict will rationalise behaviour, the internal rules that render their addiction acceptable – about how addiction doesn’t always fit the stereotype.

You may not be swigging vodka from a hipflask at 7am, but you may still have a problem.

The wine business trades in a drug – one that’s legal, and one that I love, but one that obviously still comes with risks. Those risks apply whether you’re pounding cheap vodka, £4 Pinot Grigio or first growth claret – just because you’re drinking well, it doesn’t mean you’re not drinking too much.

Can alcoholics be ‘high-functioning’? Is Dry January problematic? Is addiction the product of nature or nurture? Robins discusses all of this and more throughout the course of the book, all effortlessly entwined with frank anecdotes about a life that relied on drink – and a life that was, for years, devastated by it.

I’ll warn you now – there’s a certain amount of bodily fluid involved. This isn’t a book that will teach you about wine. I suspect not many ‘wine people’ will read it. But you should.

It’s an important read – as well as a good one – for anyone who enjoys a drink, and perhaps especially for anyone who has ever wondered if they drink too much.

New wine region guides

New and updated

The Classic Wine Library (published by Académie du Vin Library) – publisher of books that are stalwarts for wine nerds – has just released one new and one updated guide.

Leading Portuguese expert Richard Mayson offers up a second edition of his Wines of Portugal (£35, July 2026), while Elizabeth Gabay MW and Ben Bernheim are behind The Wines of Provence (£35, June 2026), a new addition to the range that demonstrates that the varied region boasts so much more than the rosé for which it’s famous.

Related articles

I’ve been lucky enough to meet David Ramey, the rightly lauded California winemaker, a master of utterly delicious Chardonnay, several times.

I vividly remember watching him and the late Jim Clendenen at a masterclass – the room entirely captivated by these two heavyweights of California wine verbally sparring, both opinionated, talented, intelligent and witty.

It seems a bit unjust to introduce Alan Ramey’s debut book Pressing Matters (£20 Académie du Vin Library, April 2026) by talking about his father, but I do so merely to point out that brilliance clearly runs in the family.

'A real treat'

This compact book is a real treat – one that I’d urge you to invest in (and ‘invest’ seems an exaggeration given its reasonable price).

Ramey sets out to tackle ‘the debates, controversies and mysteries that have shaped the world of wine’ – with chapters covering terroir, appellation systems, organics, biodynamics, climate change, quality, value and natural wine.

It’s one of several recent books that take a multidisciplinary approach, and it does so brilliantly.

As he explores each of these topics, Ramey talks to a host of experts and characters both inside and outside the world of wine to help shed light on them.

He discusses rather than opines, underscoring the fact that the answer to almost everything ever is ‘It depends’, and laying out the world of wine in all its glorious shades of grey, highlighting the complexity and nuance that, for me, make wine so fascinating.

Unlike so many wine books, Pressing Matters is genuinely readable – so much so that I devoured it in a matter of days.

Ramey comes across as wonderfully intelligent, yet not at all a bore, with pleasing displays of wit sprinkled throughout. It’s not a light read, but nor is it impenetrable.

And, at just 185 pages long, excluding the comprehensive endnotes, it’s a book that won’t just sit on your shelf – it’s one you’ll actually read.

In Ramey’s concluding chapter, he writes: ‘In my conversations... it became clear that at least part of [people’s] fervour was derived from not having taken the time to meet and intellectually question a person who held a disliked belief. Those conversations by no means have to lead to changing one’s views – in many cases they should not – but at least they lead to better understanding of human values.’

That, I’m sure you’ll agree, is something that holds true far beyond the world of wine.

Listen: Earth sounds

BBC Rare Earth on the 'joy of soil'

The other day I was pottering about in my kitchen with the reassuring sounds of Radio 4 in the background when a program caught my ear (as so often happens).

It was an episode of the series Rare Earth, entitled ‘The Joy of Soil’ – and what a joy it was. It’s not wine-focused, but for anyone interested in the power of mere earth and why the way in which we farm matters, it’s brilliant – and so is much of the rest of the series. Catch it on BBC Sounds (wherever you are in the world).

Related articles

'The Look of Wine: Reading Wine Color'

One of the things that the Master of Wine courses teach you is that colour doesn’t really matter in wine.

It can offer hints – the nutty shade of an amontillado versus a fino Sherry, the generally paler shade of Nebbiolo or Pinot Noir, the ‘rusting’ of reds with age – but it’s rarely a defining factor in figuring out a wine’s identity. In fact, it can often mislead.

But in a new book, The Look of Wine: Reading Wine Color (£35 Abrams, April 2025), colour designer Florence de la Rivière argues that colour is an integral element in assessing wine.

Sight transmits 20 times as much information as smell, and 10 times faster, yet it doesn’t, in her view, get nearly enough airtime in vinous circles.

The book came about after de la Rivière was asked to lecture at the Institut des Sciences de la Vigne et du Vin in Bordeaux.

Inspired by her research, she spoke to a range of producers around the world about wine and colour – building a vivid vocabulary that she brings to life in her book as she encourages drinkers to engage further with wine’s appearance.

Following an introduction to colour and its role in tasting wine, the book is divided into three main sections, looking at reds, rosés and whites, with shades of each explored through the lens of specific grape varieties, wines and famous producers.

There are brief interviews, with different perspectives being brought in by the likes of sommelier Pascaline Lepeltier, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s Aubert de Villaine and Château Cheval Blanc’s Pierre Lurton.

The book is thought-provoking, but the translation stumbles in places. The use of the terms ‘lady sommelier’ and ‘lady winemaker’ is irksome and outdated.

I’d have loved to see more about the effects of whole-bunch fermentation and sulphur dioxide on colour, and there are lines that betray a lack of specialist knowledge.

I found the small section on the history of colour in art fascinating – and couldn’t help thinking that it could be an even more interesting way to look at the topic.

Has the book shifted the way that I think about wine and colour? In short, no.

I agree that a wine’s colour can enhance enjoyment – the glimmer and gleam in the glass, the way it refracts candlelight, its gentle shift at the rim and evolution with time all add to wine’s appeal – but I’m not convinced it’s integral to our understanding of wine.

Regardless of its textual contents, the book is, in itself, an objet d’art: a beautiful hardback with deliciously thick paper, but – most importantly – packed with stunning photography by Jérôme Bryon.

His work is saturated with character – complementing what could seem a somewhat staid topic with colourful shots of wineries, winemakers and wines in the glass.

What I'm listening to

Related articles

After my spotlight on sake books, the Japanese theme continues this month with a new guide to the country’s wines.

I stumbled across this self-published work on Instagram (a reward for my hours of mindless scrolling). Nick Rowan – aka @winefogg on the platform – isn’t an industry veteran, but has clearly fallen hard for the world of wine in recent years, undertaking WSET courses and setting up a blog.

And now, he’s published a book: Japanese Wine: History, Regions, Wineries (and Cheese) (£49 Wine Fogg, December 2025).

A true labour of love

Rowan, who previously lived in Japan, has put an extraordinary amount of thought and work into the book. A true labour of love, it’s a comprehensive guide to the wines of Japan (as well as a nod to the country’s nascent cheese industry), written with the tourist in mind.

It offers a broad-brush introduction to the country’s wines – the history, main grapes and styles, viticulture and winemaking – before diving into profiles of each prefecture and the producers; but you’ll also find shortlists of wine shops, bars and restaurants in every area covered, as well as useful travel tips. (A note for those who are as confused as I was at first: MBA doesn’t stand for Master of Business Administration, but Muscat Bailey A, otherwise Bailey A, an outstanding sibling for Melon B in the Spice Grapes band I’m compiling.)

The appendices include an array of additional information – from the estates with the best winery cats/dogs/goats/ chickens and statistics on wine production to a (very) brief guide to parsing Japanese.

'Ideal if you're planning a vinous tour of Japan'

Dear reader, you may be aware that I don’t always gush with praise when it comes to self-publishing – and it certainly comes with limitations.

Inevitably, there are a few more typos or formatting quirks than in traditionally published books; the design may leave a lot to be desired; and the imagery can be awful. Editors are generally very helpful in shaping a book – and can be sorely missed.

Rowan, however, has managed to dodge the worst of these potential pitfalls. His book is stripped back – text heavy, but for good reason. This isn’t a coffee table book, nor one you’re likely to read cover to cover, but rather a solid reference guide – and ideal if you’re planning a vinous tour of Japan.

An editor would likely have cut the best winery animals from the appendix; I’m glad there wasn’t one to do so. If you buy the book directly through Rowan’s site (rather than Amazon), you can add a custom wine stain, made with a specific Japanese wine of your choice – a curious yet creative way to tip an amateur author if ever I saw one.

Related articles

Exploring books on sake: literary escapism

It seems as though almost everyone I know is going on holiday to Japan – and I’m filled with envy.

I drool over their pictures of ramen and yakitori, ogle the backstreets of Tokyo and gape at the landscapes spied on their high-speed train journeys.

While I wait for someone to whisk me away (invitations are welcome, please and thank you), I’ve been making do with literary escapism – dipping a toe into the sake waters, looking for the best books about Japan’s national drink.

The Story of Dassai: The Art of Sake

Anthony Rose (who wrote the Classic Wine Library’s Sake and the Wines of Japan; £35 Académie du Vin Library, 2024) has recently published The Story of Dassai: The Art of Sake (£40 First Press Editions, October 2025).

While this is a producer-funded publication, and therefore has a certain PR angle, there’s an interesting story within, covering how the relatively modern brewer shifted its focus to quality and became one of Japan’s leading names.

Kanpai: The History of Sake

Last year, too, Eric C Rath published Kanpai: The History of Sake (£17.99 Reaktion Books) – the first history of the drink to make its way into English (kanpai equates to ‘cheers’).

Academic and a little heavygoing in places, this compact publication is nevertheless fascinating, tracing sake’s evolution over two millennia and its place in Japanese history – from why it was once made almost exclusively by women to how medieval samurai had their own version of ‘splitting the G’ (ensuring that the line between the head of a freshly poured Guinness and the beer beneath bisects the word Guinness on the pint glass after your first sip).

Sake: The Art and Craft of Japan’s National Drink

For the ultimate guide to sake, however, look no further than Yoshiko UenoMüller’s Sake: The Art and Craft of Japan’s National Drink (£50 Prestel, 2024).

It swept up awards on release (taking home a James Beard and Fortnum & Mason’s Debut Drink Book 2025, to name two) and it’s easy to see why. It’s stunning – beautifully designed, the text given space to breathe, with gorgeous photography (mostly from Markus Bassler) and serious paper with a mix of finishes that all combine to make it very coffee-table-esque.

This is much more than just a pretty book, however, with thoughtful, precise and evocative writing from Ueno-Müller.

It’s broken down into three main sections: Origins (covering a brief cultural history of sake, raw materials and production), The Country and the People (a look at the places and people that define sake culture today), and A Feast for All the Senses (a tasting and drinking guide, including pairing advice – how to appreciate and enjoy sake).

She brings life to the topic with profiles of real people – brewers, mainly, but also a rice farmer and barrel-maker, for example – in among all the reference material.

It left me desperate to go and buy a whole host of bottles – and maybe book those flights myself. Kanpai, indeed.

Related articles

I never really got YouTube. I know that people love it – the way that Instagram absorbs me, others can spend hours flipping from video to video on YouTube.

There are influencers who’ve made their fortunes on the platform, viral personalities of whom I’m entirely unaware. But it’s a whole world I hadn’t really delved into – and especially not for wine. Until now, that is.

I stumbled across The Back Label, a new series from Mackenzie Casey – the creator and host of the Pour Decisions interview series – designed to take you behind the scenes of the world of wine. The first episode features Domaine Dujac’s Jeremy Seysses – a big Burgundy name and a thoughtful, articulate winemaker – and if this initial offering is anything to go by, the series is well worth following.

So, down the rabbit hole I went. And what a warren it leads to: there’s an enormous amount of content on YouTube, targeted at every level of wine knowledge and of wildly varying quality, in terms of production values and accuracy.

In some ways, it’s an amazing resource; in others, there’s an awful lot to pan through for just a few nuggets of gold.

Among those nuggets is the now famous Tom Gilbey. Gilbey is one of YouTube’s most popular wine gurus and it’s easy to see why: he doesn’t take himself too seriously, his jokey style is entertaining but backed up by real knowledge, and the videos are short, sharp and to the point. He’s one of the few to make tasting wine on camera bearable.

And that is, for me, the problem: most videos centre on tasting wine – but watching someone else sip, slurp (and often spit) on screen, then tell you how it tastes, is incredibly dull.

There are, however, a few other exceptions. Sommelier André Mack’s content for Bon Appétit is excellent – slickly produced and interesting, concise without being reductive – but sadly those videos are few and far between.

If you’re an Australian-wine enthusiast, Wine Advocate critic Erin Larkin has a channel that offers the inside track on key new releases and her favourite wines.

There’s some seriously geeky content out there, too – check out the Australian Wine Research Institute’s webinars for a really good nerd-out sesh on pruning, malolactic fermentation or yeast strains.

While nosing around myself, I asked people on Instagram who they liked on YouTube; it seems telling that no one volunteered a name. Mostly, it seems as though the world of wine hasn’t nailed YouTube – or YouTube hasn’t nailed wine – or maybe I still just don’t get it.

Sips and Giggles

Comedians Alan Carr and Lee Peart have launched the new Bottoms Up! podcast, in association with Laithwaites. It’s silly, giggly fun – two friends whiling away time, popping corks and allowing conversation to occasionally stray into the world of wine. If you happen to have a screen to hand, you can watch it on YouTube, too. Will you learn much? No, but that isn’t really the point.

Related articles

• A new Bordeaux book series to follow
• Books: From table to page – new wine books by renowned sommeliers
• Interview: Elaine Chukan Brown on new book The Wines of California

If you’re a proper wine nerd, most of your wine books will be reference guides – hefty things that don’t get read cover to cover, but are pulled off shelves intermittently and leafed through for specific information.

The likes of Inside Burgundy, The World Atlas of Wine and Wine Grapes are peerless resources – but if I were bundling together the ultimate starter pack of wine books, they wouldn’t feature.

You want books that will inspire and absorb you – books that fill you with the urge to visit vineyards and pull corks, and eventually dive into more impenetrable guides.

Bianca Bosker’s Cork Dork (£10.99 Penguin, 2017) is an addictive read, following the journalist’s headlong dive into the sommeliers’ world.

You don’t need to know anything about wine to enjoy it – and it won’t teach you about classification systems or the permitted varieties in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. It will, however, introduce you to some of the fanatics who fill the industry – and ignite your intrigue.

Bosker’s journalistic background shines through in the work – which is part memoir, part vinous adventure, part investigation into the science of taste, all brought together in a witty page-turner that effortlessly holds your attention.

More great wine books featuring personal tales

I’d add to that a trio of personal tales – stories that offer a glimpse into the world of wine, all from slightly different, tangential angles.

Simon Loftus’ Puligny-Montrachet (£12.99 Daunt Books, 1992; republished 2019) takes you behind the scenes in Burgundy, exploring the history, politics, people and way of life that define the region and its wines.

In his Adventures on the Wine Route (£14.99 Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1988; republished 2013), legendary wine buyer Kermit Lynch takes you on the road with him, journeying through France, meeting winemakers – some of the iconic names (and curious personalities) that Lynch introduced to the US market. More than that, he helps you discover, in his words, the ‘world of magic’ that wine offers.

Lesser known, and thus (alas!) significantly harder to find, is Marq de Villiers’ The Heartbreak Grape (HarperCollins, 1993). After he’s served a Pinot Noir at a dinner party, de Villiers goes in search of its source and unravels its story.

As it happens, the wine was a bottle of Calera from Josh Jensen, one of California’s pioneering names – and one you won’t forget after reading this book. (The winery was bought by Duckhorn in 2017 and Jensen passed away in 2022 – bottles from vintages prior to this would be the ideal accompaniment.)

Get behind the subject

Once you’ve explored wine through those who love it, you’ll want to add context. I’d start with Christy Campbell’s Phylloxera (£11.99 Harper Perennial, 2004).

This geeky and surprisingly thrilling read on the louse that wreaked havoc around the world of wine in the late 1800s provides essential background – and explains why this plague still strikes fear in the heart of producers. (Just this year, phylloxera was discovered for the first time in Tenerife.)

Around a century later, in 1976, a wine tasting rocked the world of wine to its core: George M Taber takes you behind the scenes of this pivotal event in Judgment of Paris (ebook £7.99 / other prices vary. Scribner, 2005), a tale packed with colourful characters – including the late (and former Decanter consultant editor) Steven Spurrier – explaining the landmark event’s impact and the rise of Californian wine.

For something totally different, The Billionaire’s Vinegar (£14.50 Crown Publishers, 2008) – Benjamin Wallace’s tale of the famous Jefferson bottles – explores the world of fine wine auctions and fraud. It leads you into wine’s underworld, introducing you to the late con-artist Hardy Rodenstock, who managed to fool many of wine’s leading figures.

Scintillating and, with a film adaptation in development for many years, it’s tough to put down. (Once you’ve read it, it’s worth watching the excellent documentary Sour Grapes about convicted wine fraudster Rudy Kurniawan.)

Matter of opinion

And finally, two very different books on wine that are arguably my favourites. The first is Clark Smith’s Postmodern Winemaking (£30 University of California Press, 2013).

Unlike many of the other books in this list, this isn’t one you should read on a sun-lounger. In this scientific treatise on winemaking today, Smith argues for a balance between art and science in the winery – but most importantly, he fights for the ‘soul’ of wine. He’s unashamedly opinionated and – whether you agree with him or not – his book is well worth a read.

The other is Reading between the Wines (£21 University of California Press, 2011) by Terry Theise, an importer (specialising in German and Austrian wines) and writer.

Theise’s writing haunts me: he has the ability to capture wine so perfectly on the page, grasping its essence with a linguistic dexterity that I envy. This compact, powerful book is about what wine means to Theise – and what it might mean to you.

Prices may vary by retailer or format.

Related articles

• Books: From table to page – new wine books by renowned sommeliers
• Interview: Elaine Chukan Brown on new book The Wines of California
• Books: Delve into three introductory wine titles

I often get asked if I’m a sommelier. The answer is always, firmly, ‘No.’

Sommeliers are at the frontline when it comes to wine, guiding diners with myriad requirements through their list. They have to translate wine-speak for those who simply want a glass of something tasty. They have to translate non-wine-speak into something the table will like. They have to navigate different tastes, budgets, knowledge levels – all with a smile.

It’s thus unsurprising, perhaps, that many sommeliers slip into writing – taking their skills from the table to the page. Two new books graced my postbox recently, both from somms of serious class.

First up is Jordan Salcito’s Smart Mouth: Wine Essentials for You, Me and Everyone We Know (£30 Ten Speed Press, October 2025). Salcito has worked the floor at establishments such as Eleven Madison Park in New York, but she also created Ramona – a canned spritz that littered my social feeds a few summers ago.

Her debut book is conceived to take you ‘from a D student to an A’, building on an initial interest and guiding you through principles of wine – tasting, winemaking, soils and farming – through to common grapes and regions, as well as practical tips on food pairing and storing and drinking wine.

The writing is bright and light, engaging and conversational, and filled with nuggets of knowledge that will leave you hankering for more.

The second book comes courtesy of Bert Blaize, an awarded London-based sommelier who has worked at the Clove Club, and journalist Victoria Brzezinski. Drinking the World: A Wine Odyssey (£22 Harper Collins, November 2025) takes a totally different tack.

The compact hardback is a collection of tales from around the world of wine. It’s broken down by country and region, offering personal introductions to each, but with a focus on lesser-known areas. Each region in the spotlight is explored through the story of a single producer.

Bordeaux doesn’t get a look in, but you’ll find sections on Luxembourg, Poland, Japan and Bolivia. Profiles of each producer are accompanied by quick-fire Q&As, covering the winemaker’s favourite bar and restaurant, artistic influences and more – offering a handy travel compendium for a visit.

Like Salcito’s book, it does an excellent job of reeling the reader in – drawing you ever further into the world of wine, inspiring you to continue the odyssey you’ve started in its pages.

Water and wine

Hock, claret and Port long dominated the wine trade – but why? It wasn’t just their quality – it was also geography, of course: their access to water and, more importantly, the associated flow of trade.

Robert Winder’s Three Rivers: The Extraordinary Waterways that Made Europe (Elliot & Thompson, August 2025, £20) is a riveting new book that dives into how Europe’s most prominent rivers (the Rhine, Rhône and Po – not the Douro/Duero, I’m afraid) have defined the continent’s evolution, including its wine trade – all enlivened by Winder’s evocative writing.

Related articles

• Books: Drunk by Edward Slingerland
• Books: Delve into three introductory wine titles
• Books: Taste the Limestone, Smell the Slate by Alex Maltman

I still occasionally open wine lists and find myself lost. It’s part of wine’s appeal for me – that it’s an endless odyssey, for there are always more producers, more grapes, more styles and bottles to discover. But that’s exactly what can make it frustrating – seeming to be impenetrably complicated. Finding a book that can help you find a way in can also be challenging. The authors of three recent additions to the ‘introductory’ shelf have taken three very different approaches.

First up is Charlotte Kristensen’s Wine Taste Pair Pour (£20 Mitchell Beazley, 2024). This compact 224-pager is neatly put together and offers a supremely practical approach: the bulk of the book is a conventional, broad-brushstroke guide to grapes and wine styles, complemented by information on how to taste, how wine is made and food-pairing tips. This isn’t a book designed to be read cover-to-cover, but it’s a solid reference point for the novice, unlikely to daunt or overwhelm.

In Wine Confident (£25 Académie du Vin Library, 2024), Kelli White takes a different tack. The ex-sommelier consciously avoids looking at grapes and regions, instead focusing on the principles of wine: tasting, talking, buying, handling, collecting, understanding, making and growing. White’s writing is light and accessible yet entertaining and very, very smart. It’s more holistic in its approach, and there’s surprising depth in places, making it better suited for those who are already intrigued, ready to start disappearing down the rabbit hole of wine.

Last but not least is Tyler Balliet’s Rebel School of Wine (£28 Harper Collins, 2024). Too many introductory books can feel staid and stripped of the joy of wine; Balliet’s is determined to do the opposite. From the flurry of stickers that accompany it to the brightly coloured cover, this is a book that sashays into the room. I love Balliet’s approach and agree wholeheartedly with her that it’s the context that makes wine so fascinating.

It’s an ambitious book, encompassing a vast array of topics – which inevitably means some are brushed over a little quickly, but it’s packed with information. There are illustrations and diagrams throughout, handy box-outs and each section is broken down into bite-sized chunks.

Definitely not a traditional wine book, its diversion from the standard is what makes it stand out – it’s chatty, with Taylor Swift references (yes, I got them) and jokes that make it all a little less serious, a little more fun. If you’ve got a solid collection of classed growths and vintage Port in your cellar, this book isn’t for you. But it might just be perfect for your niece or nephew, son or daughter – the one who you desperately want to drink something other than Blossom Hill.

What’s in your glass?

Winner of a James Beard award, Drink: A Look Inside the Glass (2024, available to stream on Prime Video) is a five-part documentary series that goes behind the scenes at five producers – covering whisky, rum, beer, gin and Cognac. It’s slick and glossy but very soothing watching, offering gentle education via trailblazing names – from Will Lowe MW’s pioneering Cambridge Distillery to Mount Gay and Rémy Martin.

Related articles

• Books: Taste the Limestone, Smell the Slate by Alex Maltman
• Books: Drunk by Edward Slingerland
• Books: The Wines of California by Elaine Chukan Brown

Elaine Chukan Brown’s highly anticipated new book, The Wines of California, has been released this week via publisher Académie du Vin Library.

Born and raised in a Native Alaskan fishing village, a long way from the tasting rooms of Napa Valley, Elaine Chukan Brown somehow made California wine country their own.

A writer, speaker, critic and frequent catalyst for diversity and inclusion initiatives in wine, Chukan Brown’s perspective is anything but typical – precisely what makes it essential.

Chukan Brown has spent the last several years in California doing something deceptively radical: paying attention, not just to vineyards, bottles and vintages, but to the people who’ve kept the engine of this industry running – to workers whose stories have long remained just outside the frame.

In The Wines of California, Chukan Brown folds that attention into a book that maps not only the state’s wine geography but also the human terrain beneath it.

It’s less of a traditional reference book and more of a meditation on place – through its people, purpose, and possibility. With a healthy yet necessary and perhaps overdue dose of historical context, political awareness, nuance, and care, they offer a portrait of California wine that finally acknowledges all the hands that shaped it.

Ana Carolina Quintela: What made you want to write this book? What did you feel was missing from the conversation around California wines?

Elaine Chukan Brown: Interestingly, there hasn’t been a book meant to be comprehensive about California wine in quite a while. So I kept thinking, what about California would need to be written if we’re going to do one now?

So I decided that for it to be worth writing a book in the middle of the internet age, the book had to present the complete information, a comprehensive perspective, as this kind of book is meant to, that gives a depth of perspective, that you can’t simply search online.

So I decided that I had to focus on two audiences: people who have been part of wine all along and those who are coming into wine now, but don’t necessarily recognise themselves in the obvious wine-focused books and magazines.

I wanted to write a genuine perspective that shows that people from all over the world and a lot of different backgrounds have been here the whole time and are actually fundamental to the success of wine.

ACQ: The book talks a lot about the labour behind the wine industry. Can you explain how the labour force has evolved over time, and why workers are so often dismissed?

ECB: Since the beginning of the 1900s, the US has depended on inexpensive farm labour across all labour cultures. That’s simply factually true.

In the 1930s, Roosevelt passed a labour rights bill to allow workers to form unions in response to a series of significant strikes happening all over the country, in different industries. However, the agricultural industry in California lobbied to keep this activity excluded from that bill to maintain low-wage labour.

Then, in the 1960s, the farmworker movement in California began to take hold. Despite earlier strikes, it wasn’t until the 1970s, with Dolores Huerta after decades of work, that farmworkers gained real rights with the Agricultural Labor Relations Act.

Even with these changes, the reality is that farm labourers are still underappreciated. So I think there’s been this long-standing perception that we need inexpensive labour, primarily for agriculture.

The US has consistently created labour crises, every 15 to 20 years since the late 1800s, by excluding those who were once relied upon for agriculture – immigrants, mostly – and the wine industry hasn’t been immune to this. We tend to cycle through these anti-immigrant measures that ultimately lead to labour shortages, which then trigger an economic crisis. It’s a repeated cycle that we seem to fail to learn from.

Speaking more broadly, part of why I wrote the book in the way that I did was because there are so many things we’re afraid of right now in the wine industry, but it’s like, we have consistently problem-solved these different things and have moved forward.

One of the key lessons is as simple as acknowledging that we need each other to succeed. People in the industry rarely interact with farmworkers, so it’s easy to overlook their importance. Until there’s more collaboration and genuine recognition of the workers, things won’t change.

ACQ: What defines California’s wine identity, and how has it evolved over time?

ECB: I think California’s wine identity is still evolving and difficult to pin down. I think that even as traditional as the wine industry is, part of what California brings is this fresh verve, a willingness to do things that aren’t supposed to work.

Planting varieties in places where they don’t traditionally grow is a prime example of that – in places that don’t resemble where they originally grew at all. And yet you get a good wine from it. As simple as that sounds, much of the world doesn’t do that.

That kind of experimentation and innovation is what California engages in pretty regularly. There’s a kind of spirit of innovation that I think really defines California’s audacity.

ACQ: Speaking of which, you mention in the book how varieties like Zinfandel, Chardonnay and Cabernet have evolved into something like new genres of wine in California. Can you elaborate?

ECB: Yes! Now, Albariño, for instance, isn’t typically grown along the ocean shore here, and I don’t think it would even thrive in California’s coastal climate, but we have grown in such a different way.

We’re finding that there are varieties like Carignan working here. It’s fascinating because we also have varieties like Fiano, and you wonder, ‘Why on earth do we have these here?’

Yet, we keep discovering that they work. California has 130 varieties planted commercially, and it’s this kind of experimentation that makes the region unique.

ACQ: What key historical moments have helped establish California wine globally?

ECB: California’s been the largest producer basically since we first brought wine grapes in. You know, it’s just that during Prohibition, the volume was just grapes, and other people may have turned it into wine. But interestingly, the insurmountable challenge of Prohibition actually expanded grape acreage in California.

It did break our winemaking heritage, but it actually expanded vineyard acreage, which weirdly set us up to then grow and become the producer we are today.

In the 1980s, there was a considerable health movement and a significant downturn in the wine market as people started avoiding alcohol.

But then, the French Paradox aired on 60 Minutes, and suddenly wine was seen as something that could be good for your health. This shifted the narrative around wine and gave it a considerable boost.

The 2008 financial crisis had a significant impact. It made it harder for people to afford land, including vineyard land, and forced the industry to rethink its model.

Immediately after that, we had two of the hardest weather years in the state’s history, which affected yields and forced a shift in wine style to lighter and more restrained. That period opened the door to a new generation of smaller wineries and a fresh approach to wine that became very influential in the industry.

The COVID-19 crisis, along with the 2008 financial crisis, created a space where the industry had to adapt. These events have really shaped the direction of California wine, pushing it to be more innovative and responsive to the shifts in consumer habits.

Elaine Chukan Brown’s book, The Wines of California, is available at Academie du Vin Library.

Related articles

• Books: A ‘genuinely joyous’ and irreverent new tome by Dan Keeling
• Books: The science of tasting wine
• Books: One Thousand Vines by Pascaline Lepeltier

This year again delivered diverse and meaty releases of beautifully-written and designed wines and spirits books. There was a palpable shift in mood, no doubt catalysed by events from within the drinks industry and beyond: brows have lowered and the hedonistic, poetic and humorous sense the subjects at hand have come vividly to the foreground. For the benefit of all readers and wine and spirits lovers – and arguably of authors – such is the sense of enjoyment that runs through the pages of the titles below.

No doubt a sign of the times, there seems to be an ever-greater appetite to explore the essence of the enjoyment of all these unique drinks; an urgency to deploy knowledge while also validating the poetry – and fun – of the pursuit of both storytelling and drinking. This is the thread that runs through all the stand-out titles of 2024 – now sit down and enjoy, each sip and page at a time.

Best wine books 2024

One Thousand Vines: A New Way to Understand Wine

By Pascaline Lepeltier; Mitchell Beazley, £45/$55

Originally published in French, the English edition – beautifully illustrated by Loan Nguyen Thanh Lan – of Pascaline Lepeltier comprehensive oeuvre retains a pure, unapologetic francophone edge, in point of view as well as sensibility. Nothing wrong there, especially given that One Thousand Vines is not an academic pursuit: while it offers in depth technical knowledge, it’s foremost a guide to a personal, poetic (albeit informed) interpretation of wine as a cultural artefact. Lepeltier, the recipient of Decanter’s 2024 Rising Star Award, distills her expertise as sommelier while also leveraging her background as a philosophy graduate student. To the benefit of all those seeking a plunge into the essence of wine culture.

Who’s Afraid of Romanée-Conti?: A Shortcut to Drinking Great Wines

By Dan Keeling; Quadrille £30/$45

Dan Keeling does it again. After the brilliant – literally and otherwise – Wines from Another Galaxy (2020, Quadrille), Noble Rot’s editor returns with another substantial and beautifully-designed tome showcasing his combination of sophisticated wit, seductive self-deprecation and entertaining geekiness. Under the guise of 21st century dilettantism, Keeling takes readers on a journey through a wondrous collection of topics, regions, producers and wines. From Switzerland to Tuscany by way of Jura and, of course, Burgundy; from the ‘Restauranteur’s Holy Grail’ to the wine ‘equivalent to a feel-good romantic comedy’; the scope is broad but Keeling’s words are sharp and focused. Edward Albee (and Martha) would approve.

Behind the Glass: The Sensory & Sensorial Terroir of Wine Tasting

By Gus Zhu MW; Academie du Vin Library £20/$30

A book on the science of wine flavour and tasting might not fit one’s idea of an entertaining read. But that is exactly what Gus Zhu MW delivers in this engaging yet thorough, approachable yet rigorous work that covers the chemistry of flavour, the physiology and psychology of tasting, and everything in between. The true value – and beauty – of this book is to outline the relative and fluctuating nature of tasting by explaining the complex processes behind it. It provides a scientific foundation to the poetic, subjective experience of wine appreciation – making it all the more enjoyable and fascinating.

A Season for That: Lost and Found in the Other Southern France

By Steve Hoffman; Crown Books £25/$30

Perhaps less a wine book than a meditation on self-discovery, cultural clashes and the individual as a part of a complex, shifting collective, Steve Hoffman’s memoir is a particularly fitting read for our troubled times. Both an inspirational narrative and a cautionary tale, his journey from Minnesota to a small village in the Languedoc, family in tow, is at times funny, at times moving and a pleasure to read throughout. His candid tone gives a frank, vivid picture of life in rural France – and of the emotional landscape of all the subjects portrayed, not least Hoffman himself.

Wine Confident: There’s No Wrong Way to Enjoy Wine

By Kelli A. White; Academie du Vin Library, £25/$35

Wine writers can easily become so enthralled by their acquired knowledge that they lose contact with the mothership, forgetting that, ultimately, they should be in the business of hedonism, no matter how erudite. Kelli A. White successfully avoids this in this comprehensive guide, interspersed with trivia and anecdotes, that you read as if chatting with a knowledgeable but very fun friend. White shows great ability to focus on and communicate the truly essential bits of information that can make the reader feel confident and eager to learn more – and relax into the leisure of a good bottle.

See also:

On Tuscany: From Brunello to Bolgheri, Wine Tales From the Heart of Italy

Compiled by Susan Keevil; Academie du Vin Library, £35/$47.50

This beautiful, kaleidoscopic collection of essays on the much-loved (and at times misunderstood) Italian region, is the fifth of the Académie du Vin’s region-themed anthologies. A though-provoking journey by the hands of Hugh Jonhson, DH Lawrence, David Gleave MW and many more.

Natural Wine, No Drama – An unpretentious guide

By Honey Spencer; Pavilion Books £25

It does what it says on the tin: this book by sommelier and restaurateur Honey Spencer does is a clear, structured, candid overview of all things natural wine, from production to food pairing by way of personal accounts from leading industry figures. It emanates from Spencer’s passion for natural wine and insider’s knowledge of its milieu but her tone is never didactic or militant.

Decanter Premium is the perfect last-minute gift for wine lovers!

Best spirits books 2024

The World Atlas of Whisky

By Dave Broom; Mitchell Beazley £45/$52

A revised, updated and expanded edition of Broom’s reference tome, this is a must-have for any whisky lover. An encyclopaedic effort that, as Broom acknowledges himself, is a lost battle: ‘in the time I’ve taken to write this sentence, a few more whisky distilleries will probably have opened up,’ he says in the book’s opening. The vibrancy and growth of whisky production in the last decade more than justifies his enterprise. For this third edition Broom has done a comprehensive rewrite, delving deeper into the classic whisky-producing countries/regions, and introducing new sections on Australia, France and New Zealand. Redesigned maps and beautiful imagery bring it all to life.

In Fine Spirits – A complete guide to distilled drinks

By Joel Harrison and Neil Ridley; Mitchell Beazley £20/$25

At the opposite end of the spectrum from The World Atlas of Whisky, Harrison and Ridley’s book is the opposite of an encyclopaedic attempt, instead offering an approachable and informative introduction to the world of distilled drinks. The writing is clear, engaging yet authoritative, able to break down complexity with unpretentious accuracy. Anecdotes, cocktail recipes and recommendations add dashes of colour throughout.

The Connaught Bar: Cocktail Recipes and Iconic Creations

By Agostino Perrone, with Giorgio Bargiani and Maura Milia; Phaidon £29.95/$39.95

An ode to the finest mixology, from one of its undisputed masters, but also to the art of high-end hospitality, with its theatrical composure and relentless attention to detail. To each of the 100 cocktail recipes – that cover both personal creations and classics – Perrone gives personal introductions that function as reference points of his trajectory as director of mixology at one of the world’s most famous bars and of the history of The Connaught itself. As expected from a Paidon edition, the book is beautifully designed and the photography sleek and moody. Try it at home; at your own risk of (self) disappointment.

The Bartender’s Pantry: A Beverage Handbook for the Universal Bar

By Jim Meehan and Bart Sasso with Emma Janzen; Ten Speed Press £30/$35

A soulful book that celebrates the fact that cocktails are primarily a culinary creation based on the quality and availability of its ingredients – and therefore indelibly linked to origin, history, the economy and the intricacies of supply chains. The authors will force you to think at mixology differently, by looking more attentively at the different components of your favourite drinks. As much as a guide, The Bartender’s Pantry is a challenge to shop more mindfully and to not take any ingredients (and flavours) for granted.

See also:

Rum, A Tasting Course

By Ian Burrell, Dorling Kindersley £20/$25

The historical relevance of rum, as well as its complexity and diversity as a drink, are well-deserving of Burrell’s comprehensive book, covering everything from production to cocktail recipes, from a breakdown of styles to tasting notes for 100 rums. Clear wiring and helpful infographics help convey all the information with ease.

Related articles

• The best wine and spirits books 2023
• Wine & spirits books 2022: the best
• Wine & Spirits Books 2021: the best

Good wine books are few and far between. There are brilliant reference guides and a few classics that deserve to be read in full, but it’s rare to find a wine book that you want to dip into before bed, sink into an armchair with, or bask under on a sunny day. A handful of recent releases, however, break the mould.

The Evolution of English wine

Henry Jeffreys’ Vines in a Cold Climate (paperback £10.99 Allen & Unwin, June 2024) has been snaffling up awards – and justifiably so. The book is a gentle stroll through the history of English wine, meeting the people who have been party to the industry’s evolution from hybrids made by hobbyists to serious wines (sparkling and still) that have earned a place on the world stage. Jeffreys’ prose is as charming as he is, providing an affable, easygoing guide to England’s vineyards and some of its more eccentric characters. It’s not perfect: chapters read like standalone essays, meaning you’ll find some repetition; there are some frustrating typos (one consistently for chaptalisation); and the book would have been even better with a broader context. But these are minor quibbles – it’s a book that will appeal to amateurs and experts alike, sweeping the reader up in the excitement of the movement.

Adventures in Burgundy

While Jeffreys approaches English wine as an onlooker, Alex Gambal’s Climbing the Vines in Burgundy (US$24.99/£18.99 Hamilton Books, August 2023) describes a transition from outsider to insider, as the American moves his family across the Atlantic to settle and develop a small domaine in this rural corner of France. As a self-published title, the book hasn’t gone through formal design or systematic editing processes – which shows in the rather rudimentary layout, abundant typos and occasional overlong sections. Look past these issues, however, and you’ll discover the ins and outs of the Burgundy wine trade, as well as the unvarnished reality of life as a vigneron. This is Gambal’s own story, unedited, and hence just one man’s personal view, but it gives insight into the practical realities of wine-growing and winemaking, as well as the culture-shock of village life in Burgundy (reminiscent of Simon Loftus’ Puligny-Montrachet: £12.99 Daunt, 4th printing 2019). Less pedantic readers will doubtless love exploring Burgundy behind the scenes.

Good wine science

Also self-published is The New Viticulture, Jamie Goode’s latest release (£34 Flavour Press, October 2023). This isn’t a luxurious book – with unenviable paper and print quality – but its contents offer such depth. The scientist-turned-wine-writer dives into viticulture today, in the face of ‘climate chaos’, looking at the entire ‘agroecosystem of the vineyard’, with a call to arms for true sustainability – which he feels lies in regenerative agriculture. It’s nerdy, almost to the extreme, with a dense style – including interviews and swathes of quotes from producers around the world – that won’t appeal to all wine drinkers. The absence of an index makes it unnecessarily difficult to navigate, and the unwieldy 400-plus pages aren’t the best bedside-table fodder. For those who want to get to grips with the nuances of farming vines today, however, it’s an invaluable resource.

France and Australia: why to go

While Goode’s work is aimed at those with more scientific leanings, every wine lover should make space on their shelf for two ambitious tomes: Jon Bonné’s The New French Wine (£112 Ten Speed Press, March 2023) and How to Drink Australian by Jane Lopes and Jonathan Ross MS (£40 Murdoch Books, September 2023). The former is an extensive, two-volume exploration of the complex face of French wine today. Bonné – former wine editor at The San Francisco Chronicle – spent nine years working on the book, which is broken up into ‘The Narrative’ (looking at the nation by region, with additional spotlights on themes such as natural wine and appellation systems) and ‘The Producers’ (which provides profiles of those he sees as France’s most important winemakers today). It’s an essential reference but also wonderfully readable, light yet precisely phrased and laced with his dry wit. Bonné aims to capture the ‘meta transformation’ that has been taking place across France, and its ‘postmodern reality’.

Equally essential is How to Drink Australian – the wine book that I wish had existed when I visited Australia in 2018. It’s more encyclopaedic in nature, with glorious original maps, created by Martin von Wyss, that help provide insights into each region. American sommeliers Ross and Lopes moved to Melbourne in 2017 and started discovering how good Australian wine really is; this book is their effort to ensure its quality is recognised internationally. The focus here is on what defines each region, with miniature profiles of top producers for each – and icons to provide a quick guide to everything from the must-visits to the new guard, environmental heroes and regional stalwarts. The mass of detail is broken up with personal recommendations for specific wines, illustrations and colourful box-outs, including one on Australian slang. It will fill you with wanderlust, leaving you desperate to book a flight and roam through Australia’s wine regions.

‘It will fill you with wanderlust, leaving you desperate to book a flight and roam through Australia’s wine regions’

Related articles

• The best wine and spirits books 2023
• Distilled – New cocktail book from iconic London bar
• Best food and drink books named at André Simon Awards 2023

This year has been interesting, if challenging, with social, political and economic volatility keeping news streams lively and baffling. The overall instability has fuelled a hunger for analysis and context, in turn shedding new light on the past couple of decades.

The wine and spirits publishing year reflected this general mood, with outstanding titles covering a wide range of regions and issues with depth, insight, wit and critical thinking.

The Decanter Italy Experience: A perfect gift this Christmas

Beyond the inevitable reference titles (on which 2023 also did not disappoint, not least with the release of a revised, fifth edition of The Oxford Companion to Wine), the titles below offer something more: context, analysis and a platform to discuss broader issues.

The release of these excellent books might have been overshadowed by the multiple challenges the wine, spirits and hospitality industries experienced in 2023 (staff shortages, duty increases, inflation, etc). They should not, however, be overlooked; many of them will surely become even more relevant in years to come. And they all make for interesting, though-provoking and beautiful Christmas gifts.

Best wine books 2023

The New French Wine – Redefining the World’s Greatest Wine Culture

by Jon Bonné, published by Ten Speed Press

Available from Amazon UK

Jon Bonné’s nine-year research on the deep transformation of the French wine landscape since the turn of the millennium, has yielded a comprehensive and insightful two-volume opus. The work puts Bonné’s conversational and witty style to good use, delivering a personal, opinionated account of the momentous changes – cultural, historic and socio-economic – that changed the way the French produce and drink wine. A truly fascinating and thought-provoking read that raises deep questions about how France (and Europe) positions itself in the world today – as a leading wine producing country and otherwise.

The Complete Bordeaux Vintage Guide: 150 Years from 1870 to 2020

by Neal Martin, published by Quadrille Publishing

Available from Amazon UK

Rather than merely listing growing conditions and regional variability, Neal Martin takes readers on a journey back in time. Each vintage is put in historical, cultural, social and economic context, making this volume much more than a factual Bordeaux reference book (which it also is). Although playful, Martin’s tone and approach are no less informative and informed, bridging spiritedness and erudition with ease.

How to Drink Australian – An Essential Modern Wine Book

by Jane Lopes and Jonathan Ross, published by Murdoch Books

Available from Amazon UK

American-born Lopes and Ross developed a love for the diversity and exciting evolution of the Australian wine scene while working as sommeliers in the antipodean country. Now back in the US – where they launched an import business dedicated exclusively to Australian pours – they have also worked hard to produce this wonderful book that captures the complexities, stories and many nuances of one of the world’s most important wine producing nations. Technical, historical and geographic information is delivered alongside profiles of key producers, while acknowledging the presence and role of the native peoples of Australia – an important debate with which Australian producers are increasingly engaging.

Vintage Crime: A Short History of Wine Fraud

by Rebecca Gibb MW, published by University of California Press

Available from Amazon UK

A condensed, enjoyable and insightful overview of the many ways in which, since it has existed, wine has been adulterated, ‘bettered’ and counterfeited. By analysing the many altering processes (ill-intended or not), cons and heists involving the precious nectar, Gibb raises interesting and timely questions about the nature of wine itself, the complexities of the industry and the concepts of fault, fraud and authenticity. That Gibb does so in an approachable and engaging way only makes this book more relevant.

(Gibb is donating a percentage of the book’s royalties towards research on a cure for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.)

Other wine titles of note:

The Wines of Piemonte

, by David Way, published by Infinite Ideas

Available from Amazon UK

Thoroughly researched, this book offers, perhaps for the first time, a balanced and in depth overview of the region’s many varieties, varieties and appellations. Rather than giving disproportionate weight to the flagship Barolo and Barbaresco, Way challenges readers to engage with Piemonte’s diversity and complexity.

Vines in a Cold Climate – The People Behind the English Wine Revolution, by Henry Jeffreys, published by Allen & Unwin

Available from Amazon UK

England has been the protagonist of one of the wine industry’s fastest-moving case studies of the early 20th century. Henry Jeffreys traces a trajectory of overall success and incredible evolution, from the mavericks of the 1980s and 90s to the establishment of today’s powerhouses. But he is not afraid of asking pertinent, sometimes uncomfortable, questions and of raising the many issues (quality, price point, positioning and growth limitations) that loom large.

The Book of Sherry Wines, by César Saldaña, published by Almuzara

Available from Amazon UK

Although first released in Spanish in 2022, the very good English translation of Saldaña’s epic journey through the world of Sherry only hit anglophone shelves in 2023. As the Andalucian appellation experiences an exciting moment of self-discovery and reinvention, it’s well worth having this comprehensive tome at hand.

Decanter Premium is the perfect last-minute gift for wine lovers!

Best spirits books 2023

The Essential Tequila & Mezcal Companion: How To Select, Collect & Savor Agave Spirits

by Tess Rose Lampert, published by Union Square & Co.

Available from Amazon UK

Agave spirits have been having ‘a moment’ over the past decade, evolving from niche quirky choices to subjects of cool geekiness. This comprehensive title captures that newly-acquired status, with quasi-encyclopaedic thoroughness. It includes 300 tasting notes and producer profiles, food pairing advice, cocktail recipes and an overview of production methods, history and appellations. The quality of the photographs helps to transport the reader to the landscapes and mythology of agave for a complete, immersive experience.

Signature Cocktails

by Amanda Shuster, published by Phaidon

Available from Amazon UK

The striking yet systematic design, in true Phaidon style, adds to the appeal of this collection of 200 classic cocktail recipes. Amanda Shuster, a Brooklyn-based drinks writer, provides historical and cultural background, outlining the origin and evolution of the cocktails and referencing the venues and/or mixologist behind each concoction. A beautiful, thoroughly researched and approachable work.

The Essential New York Times Book of Cocktails

edited by Steve Reddicliffe, published by Cider Mill Press

Available from Amazon UK

This ‘elevated and expanded’ re-edition of The New York Times iconic reference book was released in late 2022 and therefore missed last year’s round up. It’s almost mandatory to rectify its absence by including it in 2023’s must-have titles. Edited by Steve Reddicliffe and with contributions by the likes of Eric Asimov, Mark Bittman and Amanda Hesser, this deserves a place on the shelf of all foodies and cocktail aficionados. 624 pages and 31 chapters of pure, sophisticated New York happy hour delight.

Perfect. Three cherries

by Adam Handling, published by A Way With Media

Sold as a single volume (£30) or as part of a limited edition box set (£160), both available from adamhandling.co.uk

In counterpoint to the New York-centric titles above, this book brought a modern British touch to the cocktail publishing scene. The Scottish-born chef of Michelin star restaurant Frog by Adam Handling compiled recipes from six years of menus at his central London Eve Bar, located downstairs from the flagship Frog, with the help of his mixology team. The recipes created by Handling & Co reflect his trademark focus on British produce and sustainability, with each cocktail presented in three variations: classic, modern and zero-waste.

Related articles

• Best spirits gifts to buy this Christmas
• Decanter Bookmarks: Things to read, watch and listen to for wine lovers
• Top value supermarket Champagne

The wine publishing year reflected an overall mood of nostalgic reassessment, a looking back rather than forward, a reappraisal of classics, a focus on leading names and their established voices.

This represented a big change from 2021, when there was a more vibrant look at lesser-known regions, a bubbling emergence of new authors and an exploration of alternative editorial formats.

This return to safer grounds was greatly influenced, of course, by a wider context of caution and cost cutting, with publishers taking less risks and investing less in new titles/authors. Still, wine lovers were well served by a star-studded string of new titles and reeditions, all of which celebrate, in one way or another, the personal connection with wine through words.

Decanter Premium is the ideal last-minute gift for wine lovers!

On the spirits front, the publishing schedule was ruled by two major trends – back to basics and moderation – perhaps also showing the same caution and restraint, after a couple of active and creative years. The two titles that lead the spirits section below stand out for their narrative, in-depth approach, avoiding the ‘how to’ and DIY craze.

As ever, the best titles, both on wine and spirits, are also beautifully designed and a pleasure to handle and look at. If looking for last-minute Christmas gifts, these titles are safe, meaningful and stylish choices.

Best wine books 2022

Drinking with the Valkyries – Writings on wine

by Andrew Jefford, published by Académie du Vin Library

£25 from Amazon UK | $35 from Amazon US

Decanter readers will be familiar with Andrew Jefford’s unique writing style and poetic thinking. In tandem, they have shaped one of the most singular voices of wine writing in the English language. His column holds many readers expectant for each new Decanter issue, an expectation now met in luscious abundance with this collection of essays.

Jefford explains how the anthology came to be: ‘My principal writing outlet for the last 15 years has been journalism. I came to realise that many of the things I most wanted to say about wine were hidden in some of the key essays, columns and stories I had written during that time. So I nursed the idea of a collection and happily, Académie du Vin Wine Library said yes to the project in 2021.’

The title was received with unanimous praise since its launch in September. ‘I’ve been thrilled that everyone who has written about the book has picked out a different piece from it to focus on,’ says Jefford. ‘That suggests that it might bring pleasure and intrigue to many different sorts of reader. Maybe even to readers who wouldn’t normally pick up a wine book.’ Indeed you do not need to have a love for wine to enjoy this book. A love of words will more than suffice.

Chianti Classico – The atlas of the vineyards and UGAs

by Alessandro Masnaghetti and Paolo De Cristofaro (translated by Burton Anderson), published by ENOGEA

€70 from ENOGEA

A beautiful volume, with outstanding maps and infographics, delving into Chianti Classico and its eight communes and 11 UGAs. Published by Alessandro Masnaghetti’s own imprint, Enogea, the volume focuses, as expected, on the oenocartographer’s painstaking mapping work, shown in the great detail of each of the three-dimensional projections complete with topographic, geological and landmark details. Masnaghetti is, however, also a talented writer, his style reflecting the same kind of down-to-earth, experiential approachability and sensorial intimacy that makes his maps particularly informative and appealing.

The Wine Bible – 3rd Edition

By Karen MacNeil, published by Workman

£21.78 from Amazon UK | $18.99 from Amazon US

A revised and updated edition of MacNeil’s much-loved and -rated book. With her chatty style and liberal use of metaphors, MacNeil is uniquely engaging and her writing approachable, matched by a smart layout that packs a lot in the page without feeling too busy. What else do you need to bring new wine lovers to bigger depths of knowledge? This bible is, therefore, as relevant today as when it was first published in 2001. 

The Life and Wines of Hugh Johnson

by Hugh Johnson (foreword by Eric Asimov), published by Académie du Vin Library

£28.62 from Amazon UK | $40.14 from Amazon US

It is easy to fall out of love with wine when working in the industry; easy enough to take it too seriously and without enough joy. Whenever I start that dangerous tedium creeping in, I pull one of Hugh Johnson’s books from the shelf and am quickly reminded of the privilege, joy and pleasure of drinking, writing about and discovering wine.

First published in 2005 as Wine, A Life Uncorked, this book already was a great read, weaving biographical recounts with technical and historical information. This expanded and revised edition, updated by Johnson himself to take in two decades of change in the wine world, deserves even more attention. A new foreword by Eric Asimov (another author that can renew one’s belief in the craft of wine and writing), and two new chapters – on digestifs and sparkling wines – make it compulsory purchase, even for owners of the previous edition.

To Fall in Love, Drink This: A Wine Writer’s Memoir

by Alice Feiring, published by Scribner

£12.69 from Amazon UK | $13.76 from Amazon US

Although best known as the doyenne of natural wine, Alice Feiring’s writing is widely recognised even by critics of the movement (or is it the style?…). Her sixth, and most accomplished, book is a candid, witty collection of essays that show how Alice, the girl, came to be Alice Feiring, the respected wine writer. As much coming-of-age tale as a love letter to wine, and the many ways in which it touches life, this book is entertaining and inspiring in equal measures. To fall in love with wine, read this.

Best Spirits books 2022

A Sense of Place: A Journey Around Scotland’s Whisky

by Dave Broom, published by Mitchell Beazley

£35 from Amazon UK | $32.95 from Amazon US

This is not a guide or reference book; it is, rather, a beautiful and atmospheric exercise on storytelling and character portrait which will transport you to the many landscapes of Scottish whisky. Sense of Place, as of terroir, are usually thought of as qualities of wines that evoke their origins, craftsmen and history. In this volume Broom shows that the same applies to Scottish single-malts. With a pristine design and exquisite specially commissioned photography by Christina Kernohan, this book is a great accomplishment and a luxurious immersion in one of the world’s finest spirits.

Cure: New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix ’Em

by Neal Bodenheimer and Emily Timberlake, published by Harry N. Abrams

£21.99 from Amazon UK | $21.99 from Amazon US

If you’re looking for a cocktail recipe book, this title is not for you. Here, cocktails are more a pretext than an end in itself, used as narrative conduit to tell the story of New Orleans and of its incredible culture and people. Co-authored by Neal Bodenheimer, himself a protagonist of the local hospitality scene and owner of the iconic bar that gives name to the book, this really is a tribute to the vibrant legacy of the multicultural city. And all that jazz.

The best for the home mixologist

From the many guides and recipe collections released this year, we highlight two that will be a safe addition to any library and a good everyday reference for the home mixologist.

60-Second Cocktails: Amazing Drinks to Make at Home in a Minute,

by Joel Harrison and Neil Ridley (published by Mitchell Beazley, Princeton Architectural Press)

£10.60 from Amazon UK | $18.73 from Amazon US

The fourth book from Joel Harrison and Decanter contributor Neil Ridley. The duo have compiled an easy-to-make selection of drinks With tips on cocktail kit, glassware and how to create your home bar.

The Cocktail Edit, by Alice Lascelles (published by Quadrille)

£23.49 from Amazon UK | $17.78 from Amazon US

Everything you need to know about how to make all the drinks that matter. The second book by Alice Lascelles, built around a capsule collection of 12 cocktails, each with six twists, this also includes chapters on ingredients, equipment and techniques.

The best for no-and-low inspiration

With readers looking for ways to cut on alcohol units, we’ve seen a good number of titles hitting the shelves this year focused on lighter or virgin cocktail options. Here are two of the best.

Drink Lightly: A Lighter Take on Serious Cocktails,

by Natascha David (published by Random House)

£16.99 from Amazon UK | $13.88 from Amazon US

Get those lycra leggings out. This book, featuring 100 recipes for non-alcoholic and low-abv drinks, will get you in proper Flash Dance mood. Penned by Natascha David, renowned bartender and owner of the now closed but much-loved Nitecap bar in NYC. Also available in a kitchen/bar-friendly spiral-bound version.

Free Spirit Cocktails: 40 Nonalcoholic Drink Recipes, by Camille Wilson (published by Chronicle Books)

£14.99 from Amazon UK | $14.36 from Amazon US

A simple-to-follow and unpretentious book focused on drink ‘inclusivity’, so that no one is left out at parties or celebrations.

Related articles

Best spirits gifts to buy this Christmas

Festive treats: 16 top buys priced £20-£50

Give a Decanter Premium subscription this Christmas

When you have an idea that, in your first flush of inspiration, you think deserves to get beyond the breakfast table, you run straight into the modern dilemma. Is it a Tweet? Is it one for Facebook or Instagram? Should you just try it out on your nearest and dearest, or is there a book in it? A slim volume, or does it need several tomes to expound its profundity?

My trade being what it is, and royalties being as modest as they are these days, I’ve rather given up on books. Writing new ones, that is. Giving the old stuff a new airing is another matter – a truth realised, developed and brought to an elegant conclusion by, in the first place, Steven Spurrier. The memory of this marvellous man is kept alive with each new release from the Académie du Vin Library, the young publishing house that inherits the name of his famous Paris wine school (see ‘Wine to 5’ on its MD Hermione Ireland).

So far it has issued a dozen titles, as varied as they are worthwhile. One of my favourites is In the Vine Country, a hilarious account of two young Irishwomen in the Médoc at vintage time in the days of long skirts and wide hats… and uncleaned vats. My two are The Story of Wine – a reasonable choice, I suppose, under the heading of ‘classic’, or at least historical. A good read, too, so people tell me. Also a new version of my memoirs, formerly A Life Uncorked – now a veteran of 30 years, so help me, but spruced up and refreshed as The Life and Wines of Hugh Johnson.

Steven believed that good thoughts on wine, well expressed, are rare enough to be worth preserving, and repeating to those who missed them the first time round. Classics in fiction, in biography, in science are brought out again and again in new editions. Look at the Everyman library. Yes, vintages come and go, but the qualities in wine that produce consensus about what is interesting and worth pursuing are remarkably durable. In fact, George Saintsbury’s Notes on a Cellar Book has not been out of print in a hundred years. (Spoiler: don’t bother, it’s a fusty indulgence that says very little about wine.)

Veteran wine books, true, are by modern standards short on facts. But facts soon go out of date, only becoming interesting again much later, as history. The first book of wine facts I know was written by the Parisian sommelier André Jullien in 1816: Topographie de Tous les Vignobles Connus (a title I might well have pinched for my World Atlas of Wine more than a century later). How well he knew the vineyards of Azerbaijan or Paraguay is open to question, but he tells us lots about them. The wines of Paraguay, he wrote, are pretty revolting on first acquaintance, looking and tasting like rhubarb juice kept in tarred animal skins. ‘However, after a few days’ practice they seem rather good; they have body and warmth.’ Topographie ran into several editions; sadly not yet one in English. What an opportunity.

My own copy of Jullien was published in 1848 and is already the fourth edition; there was clearly a demand. From the start he classified every wine into a category, from Ordinary to Great; happily no points out of a hundred.

The first English author to have a go at something so comprehensive was Cyrus Redding in 1833 with his A History and Description of Modern Wines. Redding was a polemicist, incensed by the degree of fraud in the wine trade and the English fashion for beefing up the alcohol content.

The all-round journalist Henry Vizetelly wrote his illustrated history of Champagne and another Englishman, Charles Cocks, in 1846, his Bordeaux et ses Vins, a detailed guide to the region that morphed into the celebrated Cocks et Féret (Féret being his Bordeaux publisher) and is still going strong 16 editions later. Moving on to 1906 we find a Frenchman, André Simon, writing a history of the English wine trade – with his lectures, Simon was the spiritual founder of the Wine & Spirit Education Trust. One seminal book, Chaptal’s Traité sur la Culture de la Vigne of 1801, doesn’t seem to have ever been published in English, despite having been on every French wine-grower’s bookshelf for at least a century.

Our predecessors’ words, their tastes and judgements, may seem quaint, and sometimes just old hat, but the best of them illuminate as nothing else can the processes that brought us to where we are today.

The Life and Wines of Hugh Johnson is available through Académie du Vin Library (£30, June 2022)

This week’s wines at home

An off-piste bunch, widening our horizons: Mencía from Bierzo in northwest Spain, a bright purple ‘Beaujolais’ sort of wine, savoury, rustic, and good for simple grills; and Hungary’s most memorable (very) dry white, Juhfark from Somló. If you haven’t tasted Juhfark, you must. (Best of Hungary is offering Kreinbacher’s Juhfark from Somló at £15, the 2020 vintage of which just won a Bronze medal at this year’s Decanter World Wine Awards.)

Related articles

• Hugh Johnson: ‘I’ve formed a bond with Grillo and flirted with Verdicchio’
• Hugh Johnson: In praise of half bottles
• Hugh Johnson: ‘What can irritate me is change for change’s sake’

This year delivered a very healthy and high yielding crop of books that wine and spirits lovers will want to line their shelves with.

Knowing more about the cultures, regions and people behind each bottle only makes drinking an even more complete and enjoyable experience. These books are a testament to that.

Perfect companions for a long evening, glass in hand, reading by the fire. Both interesting and beautiful, these titles also make perfect Christmas gifts.

Best Wine books 2021

On California: From Napa to Nebbiolo… Wine Tales from the Golden State

Edited by Susan Keevil, published by Académie du Vin Library

£24.95 from Amazon UK | $36.73 from Amazon US

Although 2021 robbed us of the great Steven Spurrier, his legacy lives on through, amongst many other things, the Académie du Vin Library, a publishing project he revived in the last years of his life. On California is a formidable compilation of essays from British writers on all things California.

The book follows the same format as previous publication On Bordeaux. It offers a comprehensive and multifaceted overview of the topics and issues that built the past, shape the present and frame the future of wine in the Golden State.

Contributors include names familiar to Decanter readers, such as Clare Tooley MW, Hugh Johnson, Jane Anson, Elin McCoy, Stephen Brook and Margaret Rand, among many others.

Oz Clarke on Wine: Your Global Wine Companion

by Oz Clarke, published by Académie du Vin Library

£23.99 from Amazon UK | $44.34 from Amazon US

Another brilliant title from Académie du Vin, penned by the bigger-than-life Oz Clarke. Trained as an actor before becoming a wine writer, Clarke’s Shakespearean vocation comes through in each paragraph of this memoir/travelogue/wine manual.

An exploration and celebration of the pleasure of great bottles and of sharing it with others. Revel in Clarke’s oratorial writing, which flows with a spring in its step and a hint of mischievous laughter behind each word.

South of Somewhere: Wine, Food and the Soul of Italy

by Robert V Camuto, published by University of Nebraska Press

£18.99 from Amazon UK | $18.60 from Amazon US

If you’re prone to pandemic blues this one is not for you. Robert V Camuto’s South of Somewhere is a seductive travelogue that will have you reaching for your passport and booking a plane ticket. A great evocation of the places, people and culture of Southern Italy that vividly captures the passion and fatalism that run through the region’s veins and pulse in its soul. Your wine writing answer to an Antonioni film.

Following titles dedicated to France and Sicily, this is the third book that Camuto has penned for the University of Nebraska Press ‘At Table’ series.

Château Haut-Bailly: an exceptional terroir

By Jane Anson, published by First Press Editions and Château Haut-Bailly

£55 from Berry Bros. & Rudd London | €65 from Mollat | US $75 from Sotheby’s New York & Hong Kong

Jane Anson’s exceptional new book documents both the past and present of one of Bordeaux’s most-loved estates. Twenty years in the making, the beautifully written and designed book traces the roots of Château Haut-Bailly, Crus Classés de Graves back to the 14th century, detailing the property’s rich heritage, its remarkable owners, pioneering precision viticulture and great vintages from the 20th century, concluding in the unveiling of a brand-new cellar earlier this year.

The estate is offering one Decanter reader the chance to win a copy of the book, in French or English. Simply email the answer to the following question to editor@decanter.com for a chance to win:

Inside Burgundy – the second edition

by Jasper Morris MW, published by Berry Bros & Rudd Press

£65 from Berry Bros & Rudd London | US $90 from Sotheby’s New York & Hong Kong

When Inside Burgundy was first published in 2010 it was received with much excitement and showered with accolades, including the André Simon Drink Book of the Year award. Following his retirement in 2017, Jasper Morris MW took up the challenging task of updating his encyclopaedic oeuvre. His three years of work are now available in this second edition, which even those who bought the first might be tempted to get.

Most of the producer profiles have been completely rewritten and details of the vineyard holdings been expanded and/or updated. The chapters on geology, weather and winemaking have also been revised, reflecting the ongoing pressures and tensions imposed by climate change. The edition also includes fresh maps and a breakdown of planting plans for important vineyards.

What makes Morris’ writing interesting and relevant, now as before, is his ongoing fascination for his chosen specialism. ‘Burgundy: still a source of magic? It is for me!’ he writes. And he successfully seduces readers with his studious yet engaging writing.

The South America Wine Guide – The definitive guide to wine in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia and Peru

by Amanda Barnes, self-published (printed by Kingsbury Press)

£35 from the author’s website

An outstanding, self-published, effort by regular Decanter contributor Amanda Barnes. Beautifully written and designed, with stunning photography, this book offers a passionate and knowledgeable journey across the wine landscapes of South America. The book covers Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Brazil, but also Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Columbia, Venezuela and Ecuador, countries that readers might be surprised to see included in a wine book at all.

Based in Mendoza, Barnes has the benefit of experience as an insider rather than a curious visitor, which only highlights how awkward, and ‘socially distanced’ other wine books can be. None of that here: Barnes is highly engaged, and engaging, with the people and landscapes whose stories she recounts.

Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Book 2022

Edited by Margaret Rand, published by Mitchell Beazley

£11.04 from Amazon UK | $12.18 from Amazon US

Stocking filler alert!!

There’s a reason why classics become classics. Their staying power is testament to their renewed relevance and capacity to appeal to faithful as well as new readers alike. All this could be said of Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine, now in its 45th year of publication. Edited by Margaret Rand and enlisting an impressive line-up of regional experts, the Pocket Wine Book offers a quick reference guide to grape varieties, wine and vintages to buy, as well as producers to look out for and food pairing advice. This edition also includes a colour supplement on The Ten Best Things About Wine Right Now.

Decanter at Home – Masterclass tickets selling fast

Book now for:Vérité: The evolution of a decadeChâteau Angelus: A philosophy of excellenceBonneau du Martray: One site, two Grands Crus

Best Spirits books 2021

The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails

Edited by David Wondrich and Noah Rothbaum, published by Oxford University Press

£29.50 from Amazon UK | $50.48 from Amazon US

A first, ground-breaking edition that will sit alongside the iconic Oxford Companions to wine and beer. This major scholarly reference work explores all the historical, technical, and cultural aspects of the distilled branch of the alcohol family.

Like its wine and beer counterparts it includes over a thousand entries, which also cover cocktails, cocktail bars, and influential bartenders, with contributions from experts all over the world in a range of industry sectors. Edited by David Wondrich, senior drinks columnist at the Daily Beast (DB) and author of the hugely popular Imbibe!, and Noah Rothbaum, editor for the Half Full section at the DB. The duo also co-host the DB’s award-winning podcast Life Behind Bars.

The Japanese Art of the Cocktail

by Michael Anstendig and Masahiro Urushido, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co

£17.18 from Amazon UK | $19.15 from Amazon US

Japan has been setting the pace in mixology for quite a few years now, thanks to the distinctive style of its bars and bartenders – particularly the scene in Tokyo. This is reflected in multiple books dedicated to Japanese mixology that have been released this year. Leading the way is The Japanese Art of the Cocktail, written by Michael Anstendig, editor-in-chief of Hanna Lee Communications, and Masahiro Urushido, head bartender at the legendary Greenwich Village bar Katana Kitten, one of the world’s most celebrated drinking dens. The book includes more than 80 recipes for cocktails and snacks that have featured on Katana Kitten’s menu, as well as contributions from other top mixologists who have been influenced by Japanese cocktail culture.

Fans of Japanese mixology should also seek out the beautiful The Way of the Cocktail: Japanese Traditions, Techniques, and Recipes by Julia Momosé and Emma Janzen.

A Journeyman’s Journey: The Story of Jim McEwan

by Jim McEwan and Udo Sonntag, published by Plassen Verlag

£44.47 from Amazon UK | US$73 from Amazon US

Now one of the best known figures on the Scotch whisky scene, Jim McEwan began his career as a cooper at Bowmore Distillery. He went on to become the legendary Master Distiller of Bruichladdich, where he played a leading role in popularising single malts and breathed new life into the distillery. His autobiography is an enjoyable and inspiring read for whisky and history enthusiasts alike – and definitely a good one for under the Christmas tree.

The Big Book of Amaro

by Matteo Zed, published by Countryman Press

£19.82 from Amazon UK | $15.99 from Amazon US

An in-depth exploration of Italy’s traditional bitter digestif, in all its complex variations. Beautifully illustrated, it offers an encyclopaedic yet user-friendly take on how the drink is made, looking at its full history, from medieval alchemic concoction to modern hipster sensation. The author, Matteo Zed, is bar manager of the iconic The Court in Rome, a professional background that explains his knowledge and practical understanding of amari. His varied advice includes bottle recommendations, cocktail recipes and use in the kitchen, both as pairing drink and cooking ingredient.

Related Content

Christmas 2021: Wine & Spirits Advent calendars

Best spirits gifts to buy this Christmas

Give a Decanter Premium subscription this Christmas

Cooking with wine can really help enhance a dish, whether that’s adding some to a slow cooked meaty sauce, a splash as you start a risotto or even as a marinade.

But given how much thought goes into choosing wine to drink, how much should you think about which wines you cook with?

Best wine for cooking – and what not to use

‘The cardinal rule is if you wouldn’t drink it, you shouldn’t cook with it,’ said food and wine expert Fiona Beckett in Decanter magazine.

This is why you shouldn’t use corked wines in cooking. ‘The cork taint will come through in the finished dish.’

Avoid cheap ‘cooking wines’ say our experts, and stick to the level of wines you would tend to drink.

‘At best they won’t add anything to your finished dish, and at worst they’ll actively make it unpleasant,’ Pete Dreyer, food writer at Great British Chefs, previously told Decanter.com.

However, don’t feel you have to use an expensive wine, said Beckett, who wrote The Wine Lover’s Kitchen: Delicious recipes for cooking with wine.

A bottle around the £8 mark should be fine.

‘The only time to [use more expensive wine] is if a dish needs only a small amount of wine and you’d otherwise have to open another bottle,’ wrote Beckett in The Wine Lover’s Kitchen.

For example, her book includes a Champagne and mushroom risotto recipe.

‘It might seem wantonly extravagant…. But you need only a glass and the bonus is that you can drink the rest with the risotto.’

If you are going to use a separate wine for cooking with, you could take inspiration from the style you would drink with the dish, but go for a cheaper alternative.

‘An inexpensive Côtes du Rhône, for example, in a dish with which you’d drink a Gigondas,’ suggested Beckett.

If you’re worried about needing to open a bottle that then won’t be drunk, try this hack:

‘Freeze leftover wine in an ice cube tray and keep the cubes handy in a freezer bag to add to a dish,’ she wrote.

Can I use a corked wine for cooking?

Don’t use corked wine for cooking, Beckett previously wrote in Decanter magazine, as ‘the cork taint will come through in the finished dish.’

Feel free to use up leftover wine, once you’ve checked it though.

‘That doesn’t mean you can’t use up the tail end of bottles, but not if they’ve dried out or turned to vinegar,’ said Becket.

Cooking with white wine

Dishes that could use some white wine include risottos, white wine sauces (of course) or coq au Riesling.

As a starting point, crisp, dry, unoaked whites work well.

‘Pinot Grigio is really versatile – also Sauvignon Blanc; those are the two I would reach for first, and unoaked Chardonnay is fine,’ said Dreyer.

‘In most sauces, the most important thing is to consider the sweetness and acidity. As you cook off the alcohol and reduce the wine, both will become more pronounced, so you’re best off sticking to dry whites, with a reasonable amount of acidity.’

However, you could use a more aromatic variety if you wanted to.

Beckett wrote, ‘Wines with a pronounced aromatic character, such as Riesling or Gewürztraminer, are less flexible, but may turn out to be delicious with, for example, a creamy sauce. Feel free to experiment.’

‘When cooking fish, I often use Gewürztraminer as it holds its character and aromas,’ said chef Raymond Blanc, in his ‘Perfect Pairing’ recipe and wine matching.

Cooking with red wine

The best red wines to cook with are medium-bodied but not overly tannic, like Merlot or Grenache.

Tannins in wine become more concentrated as you cook them, so a tannic wine may dry out the dish or cause astringent flavours.

‘If cooking with reds, I avoid Pinot Noir. It is too elegant for the heat of a pan. Instead I reach for something inexpensive, big, spicy and rich,’ said Blanc.

Red wine isn’t just for meaty sauces.

‘You might not think of pouring red wine into a risotto but with beetroot it works beautifully,’ suggested Beckett.

Dryer added, ‘It seems a bit weird, but it can work with flavours that traditionally accompany red wine – for example, mushroom risotto can work with red or white wine.’

Fortified wines, such as Sherry, Madeira and Marsala, are also great for cooking.

A small quantity adds strength, depth and often a welcome sweetness. Some recommend Vermouth for risottos too.

If you cook with wine is there any alcohol left in the dish?

‘There is a widespread misconception that it all cooks out, but unless you’re cooking the dish for three hours or more there will be a residue – depending on how much wine you’ve used,’ said Beckett.

‘Worth bearing in mind if you’re cooking for kids or non-drinkers.’

‘It isn’t essential, but before cooking with wine – red or white – I boil it for 10-20 seconds, removing most of the alcohol and intensifying the flavours,’ said Blanc.

Buy The Wine Lover’s Kitchen Amazon UK – £12.75 / Waterstones UK – £16.99  / Amazon US – $10.25 / Target US – $17.99 

Buy Simply Raymond Amazon UK – £17.49 / Waterstones UK – £21.99 / Amazon US – $64

Fiona Beckett also blogs on her own website, Matching Food And Wine

This article was originally published in 2017 and has been updated in 2021.

More articles like this:

What to do with leftover wine

Pairing wine with tricky ingredients

How many calories are there in wine?

Best wine books: Latest releases 2020

Inside Bordeaux, Jane Anson

As any regular readers of her Decanter columns will know, Jane Anson has incredible knowledge and access to Bordeaux.

Her highly anticipated book, Inside Bordeaux, profiles 600 châteaux across the region in exceptional detail, and examines both the history of the region and modern trends.

UK – £60 BBR.com / US – $80 Sotheby’s Wine

Big Macs + Burgundy, Vanessa Price

For a fun, light-hearted guide to wine pairing, Big Macs + Burgundy is from sommelier Vanessa Price, who writes for New York magazine’s Grub Street blog.

From fried chicken and brut Champagne to pairing wines with a Big Mac, Price argues that exceptional matches can be found everywhere and that ‘you don’t need truffle-dusted sunchokes or sous-vide pheasant loins to unlock the joys of an exceptional or even just-plain-good bottle of wine’.

UK – £13.51 Amazon / US – $19.99 Amazon

Noble Rot: Wines from another galaxy, Dan Keeling and Mark Andrew

From the duo behind the two London sites of Noble Rot, and the magazine by the same name, Wines from another galaxy sets out to demystify parts of the wine world. A definitive guide to ordering wines, talking about wines and knowing how to find what you like.

UK – £30 Amazon / UK – £30 Waterstones / US – $45 Amazon

The pocket wine guide 2021, Hugh Johnson

Always a great choice for a stocking filler, Decanter columnist Hugh Johnson’s ever popular annual pocket wine guide is back. In its 44th year of publication, it’s a practical guide for wherever you’re buying wine, including what to drink in 2021 and what vintages to hold on to.

For a heartier read, look out for Johnson’s new edition of The Story of Wine: From Noah to now, which examines how wine became the global phenomenon it is today. It’s available from the Académie du Vin Library.

UK – £8.99 Amazon / UK – £12.99 Waterstones / US – $15.75 Amazon

Tasting Victory: The Life and Wines of the World’s Favourite Sommelier, Gerard Basset

This is the fascinating memoir of the late Gerard Basset OBE MW MS, the world-renowned sommelier who also founded the Hotel du Vin. The book provides a rich insight into an extraordinary career, during a period of significant change on the UK culinary scene. Decanter’s Amy Wislocki also notes that, when reading this book, ‘it is striking just how much work went into the preparation for all of the many sommelier competitions that Gérard entered.’

UK – £17.23 Amazon UK / UK – £25 Foyles / US – $30 Amazon US

Château Lafite: The Almanac, Saskia de Rothschild

Released in December 2020, this book charts 150 years of vintages at the First Growth estate from 2018 back to the Rothschild family’s arrival in 1868.

It includes tasting notes, information on vintage conditions and blends, as well as historical documents, and has been written by Saskia de Rothschild, a former journalist who succeeded her father, Baron Eric de Rothschild, at the helm of Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) in 2018.

DBR (Lafite) has also announced that it will release 300 cases containing a numbered magnum of Lafite Rothschild 2018 and a copy of The Almanac. Stockists for the book only are listed below:

UK – £125 Waterstones / UK – £93 Amazon / US – $118.48 (List price $175) Amazon US

Wine and Food: The perfect match, Ronan Sayburn MS and Marcus Verberne

Another food and wine pairing choice, Wine and Food: The perfect match, is from 67 Pall Mall’s head of wine, Ronan Sayburn MS, and head chef Marcus Verberne. This coffee table book includes food and wine pairing advice, plus guidance on wine service. Read an extract on pairing wine with tricky ingredients. The book’s guide to canapé and wine matching can also be found in the current Decanter magazine (January issue).

UK – £40 / RoW £50 – 67 Pall Mall

On Bordeaux: Tales of the Unexpected from the World’s Greatest Wine Region, Various authors.

A guide to all things Bordeaux, Jane Anson wrote the introduction to this, and some of the chapters. Other wine experts offering insights include Decanter contributors James Lawther MW and Fiona Beckett.

Chapters cover a range of topics, including the history of the region, the châteaux and the rivalries – from Left vs Right Bank to Mouton vs Lafite – plus Bordeaux in the modern world.

UK – £25 Amazon / UK – £30 Académie du Vin Library / US – $46 Amazon

A Life in Wine, Steven Spurrier

Steven Spurrier has updated his 2018 memoir (Wine a way of life), revamping the original and also including two new chapters, with one on the value of a life in wine. A fascinating look back over a significant wine career – and the changes across the industry in that time.

UK – £30 Académie du Vin Library

Steven Spurrier’s top wine memories

Great wine books to read while in self-isolation – something for every kind of reader

Written March 2020

If you want a memoir… ‘Cork Dork’, Bianca Bosker

For an insight into the life of working in the New York wine scene, settle in to Bianca Bosker’s Cork Dork. A ‘high-octane account of her year in the New York wine scene’, Bosker was previously an editor at Huffington Post before pursuing a career in wine. As a New York Times bestseller, it’s got a broad appeal, for both the beginner and the seasoned oenophile.

Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US

If you want to laugh and learn… ‘Red and White: An unquenchable thirst for wine’, Oz Clarke

Oz Clarke’s Red and White marks a slight departure from his previous books. Not just a technical reference book, it’s part autobiographical, including Clarke’s first venture into the world of wine, but also includes plenty of serious wine content. It’s ‘full of joie de vivre, wit, opinion and anecdotes,’ and it’s laugh-out-loud funny at times, said the Decanter review.

Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US

If you’re improving your knowledge… ‘The World Atlas of Wine’, Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson MW

The eighth edition of the World Atlas of Wine was released at the end of 2019, and is an essential item on the book shelf of any self-proclaimed wine lover. Written by Jancis Robinson MW and Hugh Johnson, this is the longest edition yet, with 230 maps, 22 of which are new – showing how much the wine world is evolving.

See our interview with Robinson and Johnson, on what’s changed over the years of producing the Atlas. 

Buy Amazon UK / Amazon US

If you want some light relief from the news… ‘Monsieur Pamplemousse’ series, Michael Bond

Best known for creating Paddington Bear, Michael Bond also wrote a series of novels for adults, around a character called Monsieur Pamplemousse – a Michelin inspector who also solved crime, with his canine sidekick ‘Pommes Frites’.

A series of culinary adventures are set in France, continually referencing fine wines of Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rhône and more… Read a taster of the books here. 

Buy Waterstones UK / Amazon US

If you’re looking for a novel…. ‘My Italian Bulldozer’, Alexander McCall Smith

Jane Anson shared some of her favourite novels that manage to effortlessly weave wine into the main story. My Italian Bulldozer is a romantic novel set in Tuscany, about a food writer who is travelling to get over a breakup.

See Jane Anson’s other wine novel suggestions here. 

Buy Amazon UK / Amazon US

If you want a visual guide to wine… ‘Wine Folly: The essential guide to wine’, Madeline Puckette and Justin Hammack

Online publication Wine Folly made a name for itself with its easy to understand graphics that help you get to grips with learning about wine. This book, which offers a visual guide to wine, was published in 2016 and covers major grapes and regions, as well as food pairing, glassware and methods of production. It may be particularly useful for anyone using this time to revise for future WSET exams.

Buy Amazon UK / Amazon US

See also

Top wine shows to stream while in self-isolation

Chianti with The Sopranos? Top TV shows and wine pairing ideas

Wine pairing with eggs

Egg yolk coats the mouth in a very glutinous manner, and crumbly hard-boiled eggs have a sulphurous quality. As eggs usually are not eaten alone, except at breakfast, wines should be matched against the main flavour ingredient in an egg dish. This could be onion, bacon, salmon, or even red wine, as in Oeufs en Meurette.

To match with hollandaise sauce, Chardonnay is often best, with its creamy, buttery overtones and some oak; if the hollandaise is more lemony, then choose assertive, crisp, high acid wines. Airy, light soufflés do not have a problem with the coating texture of the egg, so when matching food with soufflés, concentrate on the main flavouring.

If it’s cheese, you want a lactic flavour in the accompanying wine, so choose something that has been through malolactic fermentation. Try oak-aged, creamy-textured wine with soft acidity, such as a barrel-aged Chardonnay.

A smoked salmon soufflé, on the other hand, works well with young, assertive Sauvignon Blanc. Mayonnaise can have similar issues to runny egg yolks, so you need a wine match with the acidity to cut through that oiliness.

Therefore, with a Waldorf salad, an English Bacchus would work well, with its very strong celery and grapey character and high acidity. Quail’s and gull’s eggs are more delicate in taste and match well with young Champagne, especially when hard-boiled and dipped in celery salt.

Wine pairing with certain vegetables

Especially tricky to match with wine are artichokes, asparagus, fennel and spinach. Artichokes may make wines taste metallic or sweet, due to a chemical known as cynarin.

Serving the vegetables with lemon juice, light vinaigrettes or lemony hollandaise (all difficult to match with wine in their own right) can help remedy this, as long as you choose young, punchy, crisp wines.

Sauvignon Blanc works well, as does Chenin Blanc, Riesling or Pinot Grigio. Braising the vegetables, adding cream, Parmesan cheese or lemon juice is the best way to soften their edges, making it easier to match them to a wine.

As the vegetable is often a side dish, it does not cause too many problems at a dinner.

Wine pairing with truffles

There is an affinity between truffles and the Nebbiolo grape of northern Italy. Truffles, with their deep, rich and earthy flavours, may overpower some wines, but should not cause issues when used sparingly as a garnish. Old Champagne works very well with white truffle, although Richard Geoffroy – who has been making Dom Pérignon since 1990 – told me his favourite food-and-wine match ever was 1959 Dom Pérignon with a virgin olive oil ice cream, which was s served to him at elBulli restaurant. Classy

Wine pairing with oily fish

Oily fish may distort the flavour of wine, so a wine with a high acid content is best to cut through the oil. High-acid, gentle-flavoured wines are best. Try pairing mackerel or herring with Muscadet, or Gaillac, Soave, Trebbiano or Sauvignon Blanc, or even ice-cold Scandinavian eau de vie.

Try Vinho Verde from northern Portugal with sardines grilled on the beach, or even the red Vinho Verdes. Oily fish are better suited to cooler climate, high-alcohol styles of red wine; try northern Italian reds made with varieties such as Schiava or Viosinho, which is used in Portugal for red Vinho Verde.

I had one of the best seafood meals of my life in Portugal: oily sardines with a red Vinho Verde with rich red cranberry fruit and low tannins.

Wine pairing with smoked foods

These can be difficult to match with wine, depending on just how smoky we are talking. Manzanilla and Fino Sherries go well with smoked foods as do Rieslings from Germany and Australia, with their high acidity and touch of sweetness.

Smoked salmon is quite forgiving with wine, and is classically matched with Chablis or Champagne.

Wine pairing with pickles and sauces 

When you are serving a food with a sharp, sweet, intense accompaniment such as chutney, cranberry sauce, or apple or mint sauces, to name a few, tread carefully.

If you pair a roast leg of lamb with expensive Bordeaux, then throw vinegary mint sauce over the meat, it will kill the wine. Take care and use prudence with any high-sweetness vinegar flavours.

Wine pairing with vinaigrettes 

When you are making a dressing for a dish to be paired with a good wine, consider using flavoured oils, or dressings made with lemon juice or wine. Use vinegar sparingly. Wines to go with vinaigrettes should be sharp whites and, even then, more mellow vinegars such as balsamic, Cabernet Sauvignon and Sherry can be more forgiving.

Or Buy Food and Wine, The Perfect Match here, from Foyles

See also:

‘Nightmare’ food and wine matches – from the sommeliers

Decanter’s guide to pairing wines with truffle dishes

Cooking with wine: The expert advice on what to use

It’s not even Black Friday yet and I’m about to save you a tonne of money.

If you’re not sure what to buy your wine-loving friends for Christmas – and they already have the latest World Atlas of Wine plus a back-catalogue of wine books – then make them happy by choosing a novel where wine is weaved into the story so effortlessly and brilliantly that it puts professional wine writers to shame.

I would still give AJ Liebling’s Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris as my gift of choice to any aspiring wine lover, or writer, but as it’s not fiction, it doesn’t make this particular list.

You could start with the classics like Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited and Roald Dahl’s short story Taste.

But you can also find plenty of more recent novels where wine sneaks into the plot and becomes an essential part of the story. Pairing while reading is definitely encouraged.

A Gentleman In Moscow, Amor Towse (2016)

Easily one of the best novels that I have read this year and one where wine is deftly written into the fabric of the story, becoming an essential part of building the character of the wonderful Count Alexander Illyich Rostov.

Set in 1922, which was not a great time to be a member of the Russian aristocracy, we follow Count Rostov during his enforced arrest within the Hotel Metropol as Moscow falls under Bolshevik control.

He learns to live with, and then take pleasure from, his reduced circumstances, and wine is used along the way to illuminate politics and character.

All the labels, for example, in the hotel’s 100,000-bottle wine cellar are removed in order to uphold the spirit of communism.

Each one is to be sold at a single price as merely red or white, even though, as the Count points out, ‘the contents of the bottle in his hand was the product of a history as unique and complex as that of a nation, or a man’.

Among the wine regions and bottles that you’ll find here are Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Rioja, Pouilly Fumé, Muzakani, Barolo, Champagne and a 1921 Château d’Yquem.

I would name-check more bottles but the truth is that I was given this book by a friend who works in wine, and as soon as I finished it I sent it on to someone else who does.

That’s how good it is; you just want to share it with people you know will love it as much as you do.

The paperback version came out in March.

The Debt to Pleasure, John Lanchester (1996)

For foodies and wine lovers, this is one of the all-time great books and is Lanchester’s first novel.

It revolves around main character Tarquin Winot – real name Rodney – who is travelling from the Hotel Splendide in Portsmouth down to his Provence home, and along the way is revealed to be both a sociopath and psychopath.

This is not a spoiler, by the way. You get the idea pretty quickly, mainly because of how he talks about food and wine – also making this an equally brilliant gift for anyone who has ever been overbearingly smug in their wine knowledge.

You’ll know what I mean when you read Winot’s take on rosé wine, which includes this snippet:

This is dark humour at its darkest and most delicious. It runs from the opening when he warns us that ‘this is not a conventional cookbook’ to the ‘rapturous gloating’ in finding the perfect mushrooms in the closing pages.

I know this is an old one to recommend, but it has lost none of its power.

Lanchester’s latest book, The Wall, came out this year.

A Long Finish, Michael Dibdin (1998)

Part of a series of crime novels based around the fabulously-named Italian detective Aurelio Zen, this is the sixth book in the series, but you can definitely get away with reading it on its own (like I did).

It is set among the hills of Alba, where the son of prominent Piedmont winemaker Aldo Vincenzo is being charged with his brutal murder.

A famous film and opera director is determined to get him released in time to make what looks to be an exceptional vintage – not because he cares about his innocence, but because the 30-year-vertical of Vincenzo wine that he has been collecting would be under threat if any other winemakers got hold of the grapes.

Along the way we get lines like ‘Barolo is the Bach of wine… Barbaresco is the Beethoven… Brunello the Brahmns’.

His descriptions of white truffle hunting will make you want to jump on a plane while they are still in season. There should still be a few weeks after Christmas if you’re lucky. I can’t give you many more recent novels, because Dibdin died way too young, aged 60 in 2007. But this is a brilliant tribute.

My Italian Bulldozer, Alexander McCall Smith (2016)

Here is a change of pace, courtesy of McCall Smith, who you probably know from the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency.

This is a romantic novel, also set in Italy but this time in Montalcino, Tuscany.

The main character Paul Stuart, a food writer, is a handy device for McCall Smith to knowledgeably weave food and wine into the story, as Stuart travels through the Italian countryside to research his latest cook book and get over a bad breakup with his girlfriend.

There really is a bulldozer that is central to the plot, and that plays a particularly useful role in converting a Rosso di Montalcino vineyard into a rather more valuable Brunello di Montalcino one.

McCall Smith apparently got the bulldozer idea after a particularly frustrating wait at Rome airport for a hire car.

Funny, as well written as you would expect, and extremely easy to enjoy.

The Templars’ Last Secret, Martin Walker (2017)

Set a little closer to home for me, I had read about these books for years before I finally opened one.

This is one of the most recent and is set in the Dordogne in the fictional medieval town of St-Denis, although anyone who has been to the Dordogne will recognise every detail.

Walker’s series follows Bruno Courrèges, the local chief of police, as he investigates the death of a young archaeologist who was searching for a religious artifact that is linked both to the Knights Templar and Islamic terrorists.

A good story, but you really read Walker for the food and wine, and he does a brilliant job here.

Courrèges does everything that you imagine you would if living in the Dordogne – cooking lots of stews and terrines, tending to his vegetable garden and his chickens, and sampling the local wine.

There are several namechecks in the book, including the brilliant Domaine de L’Ancienne Cure.

 According to New York Times columnist Eric Asimov, Walker keeps a rooster named Sarkozy and makes his own liqueur from local walnuts.

If you want to be totally up to date, you have to go The Body in the Castle Well from earlier this year. I haven’t read that yet so, if you have, please let me know if I should.

Read more wine book reviews here

Find a wine to drink while you read

Oz Clarke delivers a rollicking read together with some great wine knowledge in his new book. Settle in and enjoy the ride...

The first wine book I bought was Oz Clarke’s Wine Guide back in the late 80s, when Oz still had hair. I still have it on my bookshelves alongside several more well-thumbed tomes, such as his seminal ‘New Classic Wines‘, ‘Grapes & Wines’ (with Margaret Rand), ‘Bordeaux‘ and ‘The History of Wine in 100 Bottles’.

Oz was also the first person I saw on tv who talked about wine in an engaging and entertaining way, so it’s probably fair to say that he has done more to spark, inspire and maintain my interest in wine than anyone else. I suspect that’s the case for a lot of Decanter readers too.

His new book ‘Red & White: An unquenchable thirst for wine‘ is something of a departure. Unlike much of his recent work, this isn’t a purely a technical reference book for wine geeks like me. Instead, it’s aimed at anyone who likes wine, wants to know more and loves a damn good yarn in the process.

That said, I defy any wine geek not to love it because it is so full of joie de vivre, wit, opinion and anecdotes. And despite the light touch and lyricism, it’s certainly not lacking serious wine content. For instance, Oz covers how to taste and what to look for in different grape varieties as well as key wine trends, styles and regions.

It’s also very personal book. The touching inscription to his young daughter really sums it up, saying simply, ‘This is Daddy’s world.’

Falling in love with wine

The early autobiographical chapters on ‘Planet Oz’ are laugh-out-loud and we first meet him at Oxford where he falls head over heels in love with wine. From there he makes his way onto the West End stage, at which point he has to decide whether to continue to tread the boards or make his way in wine. Happily, for us oenophiles, he chose wine over acting. And from then on, the world of wine literally opened up before him, largely to due his innate charm and a fair dollop of ‘front’.

Although there’s no doubting Oz’s ability as a professional taster, he seems to do a lot more drinking than spitting in the book. (Setting the tone, he first gets drunk on page one, aged just three, while his brother was dramatically rescued from drowning at a family picnic).

While I know this to be true, I’m fairly sure that some of the tales are a tad tall in the telling. But no matter because one of the many great things about this book is how Oz makes you feel you are right there with him, every inebriated step of the way.

And it’s a hell of a journey. Over a 40-year period Oz has been everywhere and back again, several times. Like a brilliant tour guide he breezily escorts us to all the various wine regions he has visited and become passionate about. We also meet many of the characters he befriends en route – Len Evans, Jilly Goolden, Serge Hochar, Bob Mondavi, Michael Broadbent, Piero Antinori and more. There are also some delightful walk-on parts by the likes of Patrick Stewart, Julian Fellowes, Hughie Green, James May and Trevor Nunn.

You can tell from his delicious prose that the author thoroughly enjoyed writing this book. I found multiple passages I wanted to sip and savour, but mostly I just gulped them down greedily. My advice therefore is not to read it on the tube unless you’re happy to miss your stop.

But I do urge you to buy and read it for yourself and then buy it for your friends for Christmas – even (or especially) if they are only half-interested in wine. They’ll be hooked before Oz has even left Oxford.

Oz Clarke discussing Red & White at our Decanter Fine Wine Encounter in November.

‘Red & White: An unquenchable thirst for wine‘ is published in hardback by Little, Brown priced £25. Buy here

Andrew Jefford reviews professor Alex Maltman’s recently published book, Vineyards, Rocks, & Soils.

There are wine books, and there are essential wine books. The former sit in a bookcase to the right of my desk, but the latter fill two small shelves within grabbing distance to the left.

Essential wine books need not be exquisitely written nor sumptuously illustrated; they tend not to contain a single tasting note. They become, though, worn, scuffed and annotated by dint of usage. These are the key sources of factual reference through which wine’s complexity can be explored and understood.

I’ve just added a new volume to the shelves on the left. It’s called Vineyards, Rocks, & Soils: The Wine Lover’s Guide to Geology by Professor Alex Maltman (Oxford University Press). I have contributed a small (unpaid) Foreword to this book, but it is Maltman’s lucid, dense and deeply informative text which merits its inclusion in the dog-eared pantheon.

No student of wine should be without this book; every wine writer and sommelier should read it, several times. Supposing that we all do this, the language and discourse of wine will move forward, and the common understanding of the ways in which vines interact with soils and rocks will change from folkloric to something which is sustainably scientific. The book is an essential contribution to the as-yet-inexistent academic discipline of ‘Terroir Studies’.

Readers may be familiar with James Wilson’s book Terroir (a descriptive geology of France’s vineyard regions) and Great Wine Terroirs of Jacques Fanet (a non-exhaustive look at the geology of global wine regions), as well as Robert E.White’s Understanding Vineyard Soils (a technical work for viticulturalists). Maltman’s book is much broader in scope than these, as well as more useful in practical terms for wine drinkers. Wilson’s and Fanet’s books are liable to be misconstrued without careful reading of Maltman’s work.

His aim is to help those who enjoy wine understand something of the diversity of rocks types found in vineyard regions, and learn how the soils which lie on top of them are formed. He explains, too, how rocks move, both at a vast tectonic scale as well as via folding, flowing and faulting; and he gives readers an account of weathering, of topography and of landscape formation. Most geologists litter their writing with jargon and technical terms, and the result is usually opaque and incomprehensible for the lay reader. After a lifetime of teaching undergraduates, Maltman writes with clarity and limpidity. His breadth of culture is palpable in his literary references and evident interest in etymology. Nothing in this book is opaque; much is entertaining.

In the middle section, there are necessary chapters on the three families of rocks (igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary), seasoned with notes as to where you may find such rock types in wine regions. They will help you use the terminology accurately and thus avoid confusing tuff with tufa, and encourage you to relax about the differences between slate and schist. You’ll grasp the vital difference between the physical characteristics of a rock and its chemical or mineral composition (and so realise that there can be many different types of slate, schist or limestone, meaning that use of these terms alone is rarely descriptively adequate).

To my mind, the most useful chapters of the book come at the beginning and the end, however. I’ll take the two parts separately.

Vine roots never explore ‘limestone’ or ‘schist’: those are our classificatory labels of convenience. What vine roots interact with are a suite of varying chemical compounds called minerals, combined in soil with organic matter. The first three chapters are about these minerals, and Maltman puts particular emphasis on the process by which mineral nutrients become available to vines and other plants: the exchange of ions between soil particles and roots. The functional differences between mineral assemblies (sand, for example, and clay) is in this respect enormous. Anyone using the term ‘minerality’ should familiarise themselves with the concept of cation exchange capacity.

This, though, is theoretical knowledge. Fast forward to chapter nine, where Maltman explains another vital distinction – between geologic minerals (analytically present in rocks and soils) and nutrient minerals (those which are actually bioavailable to vines and other plants). The bioavailable minerals taken up by vines, he suggests, tend to come from the soil’s organic matter (humus), or from fertilizers. The percentages of geologic minerals that are bioavailable in bedrock or soil are small or tiny, meaning that the elaborate coverage they receive in much wine literature is of anecdotal interest only.

Soil pH affects nutrient uptake dramatically, and vines themselves have an armoury of selective devices to modify nutrient uptake. Fermentation, finally, changes the nutrient content of grape juice, to the extent that “the proportion of mineral nutrients in a finished wine bear only a complex, indirect, and distant relationship to the geologic minerals in the vineyard” (p.176). Most minerals, he is careful to point out, have no sensual identity of any sort. Whatever ‘minerality’ is, concludes Maltman, “it is not the taste of vineyard minerals” (p.177).

Although he distances the presence of geologic minerals from finished wine aroma and flavour, he does not underplay the role of the soil (in particular the way in which soil delivers water to vines – see chapter 10), nor does he contest the notion of terroir in itself. Detailed climate considerations are beyond the scope of his book, but it is significant that in the vital pages 191-95 (‘Bringing It All Together: Terroir’) Maltman alludes to the astonishing significance which tiny nuances in topography and mesoclimate have for vines. He returns to this theme in the Epilogue to the book, contrasting the easy and accessible simplicity of chanting vineyard geologies as a response to the enigma of flavour with the “patient data collection and analysis … [of] intangible technical details like air velocity, UV intensity, spectral wavelength, and bacterial taxa” (p.213). It is these, he suggests, which may in the end be the terroir factors that most affect the aroma and flavour of wine.

He is also surely right to fault the complete absence of discussion of rootstocks in most wine writing (rootstocks are those parts of the vine, after all, which actually have a direct relationship with soils and bedrock), and to stress that in general that ‘the action’ of cation exchange and nutrient uptake nearly always happens in soils and not bedrock itself, meaning that the importance of pedology greatly outweighs that of geology in terroir analyses. The ‘unnaturalness’ of vineyard environments, with their comprehensively modified drainage systems, is another important point noted by Maltman.

In many ways, this is a work of thoroughgoing, patient and measured inconoclasm, and you’ll find examples throughout the book of Maltman skewering groundless assertions, confusions, banalities, stupidities and generalisations connected with vineyard geology and its supposed direct, causal relationship with the sensual character of a wine in what he calls ‘populist writings’ on wine. He deftly pricks other unscientific balloons when they sail past, such as the ‘gravitational significance’ of the moon on anything much smaller than Lake Huron.

He does not assert a zero relationship between geology, soils and wine character – though I note that the section entitled ‘Science Begins to Show Some Connections’ is a mere three pages long. He understands the importance of metaphor in communicative writing, by the way, and has no objections to the metaphorical use of geological or pedological terms in wine descriptions – provided such terms are understood as being metaphorical. He also points out that when rocks or soils do ‘smell’, it is generally due to the organic matter (bacteria, algae and moulds) which film geologic surfaces.

Read this book, in conclusion, to use geological terms with precision and accuracy, and to understand what is and is not possible when a grafted grapevine (rootstock and scion) is planted in topsoil over bedrock, and spends 60 or 70 years growing there in situ. Read it, too, for one other reason.

You and I both know that compelling differences between wines exist. We’d like to understand where they come from. Wine producers have made vast technical strides in viticultural and wine-making techniques over the last half-century – yet, far from delivering some kind of ‘grand qualitative unification’, these advances have simply served to underscore the fact that a few site-variety combinations produce wines of outstanding quality, while most do not.

The easiest answer to this conundrum is to look down to the soil medium and the bedrock: it has a physical presence; its differences can be measured and named; and we love the comforting narrative of ‘sustenance from the soil’ since it seems to chime with our own mammalian identity and nutritional habits — even though plants are very different beings from mammals, and derive most of their nutrition from sunlight and air.

The result is that geology has, cuckoo-like, pushed every other fledgling out of the nest of our primitive understanding of terroir. As a wine-loving (and wine-making) earth scientist, Maltman is uniquely well-qualified to see the damage caused. His book is an accessible, carefully argued attempt to redress the balance, to set limits to geological influence, and to rescue some of the other possibilities requiring investigation in our long journey towards the understanding of terroir.

You may also like:

Read more Andrew Jefford columns on Decanter.com

Bianca Bosker’s Cork Dork is a high-octane account of her year in the New York wine scene, from slaving as a cellar rat to training as a sommelier and partying in the city’s inner sanctums…

Cork Dork is pitched as a ‘wine-fuelled adventure among the obsessive sommeliers, big bottle hunters, and rogue scientists who taught me to live for taste’.

What’s in store is part memoir, part dissection of taste and what it means to devote your life to wine — with a great deal of humour and colourful characters thrown in.

Chapters including ‘The Secret Society’, ‘The Magic Kingdom’ and ‘The Orgy’ give you a flavour of the style. But above all, it is penetrative and debates the question, ‘what is good wine and why should I care about it?’

Curiosity piqued, she made the bold move of jacking in her job and throwing herself headlong into the world of wine…

From tech head to cork dork

Bosker was the executive tech editor for The Huffington Post, when she chanced upon a man who was preparing for the World’s Best Sommelier Competition.

Curiosity piqued, she made the bold move of jacking in her job and throwing herself headlong into the world of wine, training to become a sommelier.

But once you get to know her — and you do get to know her intimately (see page 249 for her Chablis bedroom mishap) —you realise that Bosker is first and foremost a professional journalist, with a sharp mind and structured approach.

Bridget Jones’ wine diary

At times, Bosker casts herself as an oenophilic Bridget Jones, haplessly falling into situations where others carry her along and shape her journey for her.

‘Along the way, you’ll meet the madman who hazed me, the cork dork who coached me, the Burgundy collector who tried to seduce me, and the scientist who studied me.’

In reality, Bosker is clearly a force to be reckoned with when it comes to navigating her way into the wine world’s inner sanctum.

In just one year she manages to access the Court of Master Sommeliers, New York’s most exclusive restaurants and the decadent La Paulée de New York – a ‘$1,500 BYOB gala dinner’. We finally leave her in a neuroscience lab in South Korea.

Controversy and acclaim

As a New York Times bestseller, Cork Dork clearly has broad appeal.

Its style has already caused a degree of controversy in wine circles, and not least Bosker’s subsequent praise for so-called ‘mass market’ wines in an opinion piece for the New York Times in March this year.

But, this book is in many ways a celebration of wine experts’ raison d’être, and for beginners it’s a fascinating behind-the-scenes tour.

Where you can buy it

UK £8.99 Amazon

US $9.88 Amazon

More like this:

• Best wine books of 2016: Decanter reviews

• See winners of the André Simon wine and food book awards

• I Taste Red by Jamie Goode: Book Review

Judges named Volcanic Wines as the best drinks book published in 2016 during a ceremony in London that was a pointed riposte to the current trend for clean-eating fads. See other winners below.

Volcanic Wines by John Szabo MS scooped the drinks book prize, announced Decanter contributor Fiona Beckett at the André Simon 2016 book awards ceremony held in London’s Goring hotel.

• Click on the book titles for stockist information

On the food side, Fuschia Dunlop’s ‘Land of Fish and Rice‘ won the 2016 prize for food writing. It is based on traditional cooking and ingredients used in China’s Lower Yangtze region.

Related

• Best wine books of 2016: Decanter reviews

• Wines to drink with Chinese food

André Simon, who died in 1970, was a French born, UK-dwelling wine merchant and food and wine writer described by Hugh Johnson OBE as having led the English wine trade ‘for almost half of the 20th century’.

As a result, the awards are highly regarded in the wine and food world.

Volcanic Wines beat a strong short-list, including Patrick Comiskey’s American Rhône.

The judges ‘praised Szabo’s balance of science, history and personal detail in an ambitious project exploring geology, volcanism, viticulture and soil sciences together with maps and wine labels’.

This week’s award ceremony also provided a riposte to clean-eating fads. Food assessor Bee Wilson said that judges had been inundated with books on clean-eating themes, but wanted to get away from such a faddish culture.

Young cook and columnist Ruby Tandoh, of Great British Bake Off fame, got a special commendation for her book Flavour: Eat What You Love.

Judges praised Tandoh for ‘putting the focus back on taste and enjoyment, rather than presentation, health or fashion’.

Winner of the John Avery award went to a Nigerian food writer named Yemisi Aribisala for her ‘Longthroat Memoirs: Soups, Sex and Nigerian Taste Buds‘. Judges praised its new insight into Nigerian food and culture.

Other finalists in the drinks category were Pete Brown’s The Apple Orchard, Bill Nesto and Frances Si Savino’ Chianti Classico and Tristan Stephenson’s The Curious Bartender’s Gin Palace.

More on wine books

Best wine books of 2015: Decanter reviews

Iran bans the word wine in books – report

Iran's culture ministry has reportedly banned the use of the word 'wine' in books as part of a new set

Winespeak: How to talk about wine

Get to grips with winespeak and learn how to talk about wine with expert Charles Jennings.

Best wine books of 2016: Decanter reviews

See Brian St Pierre's pick of the most outstanding wine books of 2016...