Love those recommendations! Aldo Sohm’s Wine Simple is a great quick reference book and a great unpretentious start for anyone looking to start their wine journey
The book I use the most is wine folly. It really comes in handy for the basic information. Thanks for the review. I know what will end up on my Christmas wishlist 🙂
Wine by Jancis Robinson turned me on to wine in the mid 70s. Neither I nor my flatmates came from wine drinking background but this got us interested. We have never looked back. Jancis must have been still a student at Oxford when this was published. She's still an idol of mine.
The Wine Atlas is pretty hard to beat. I also really like Hugh Johnson’s pocket wine book which is updated annually and is a great first reference when you encounter a wine or producer you don’t know much about. I also like his food matching suggestions in the same book.
I still have an old copy of the 1985 "completely revised" 3rd Edition of The World Atlas of Wine by Hugh Johnson which I believe would be a great all around book for someone getting interested in wines even though it's a bit outdated, it still offers a lot.
Yes! thank you for making this video. My favorite wine books are Wine Bible by Karen MacNeil (the first book on wine I ever read) and Adventures on the Wine Route by Kermit Lynch.
Thanks for that! I have the wine atlas and the red book on grape varieties. I also love The Oxford Companion To Wine, probably my favourite wine book of all time! Klaus
Much more introductory, but Windows on the World of Wine by Kevin Zraly is outstanding and was my first deeper dive. Each section has quiz questions and tasting exercise associated with the respective chapter which makes for an interactive text.
Michael Schuster is an excellent teacher and it has been a great privilege to have attended his classes. The book is superb and I’m proud to have my copy signed by him.
Great topic. Congrats. My firs and favourite book about wine is THE HOME WINEMAKERS MANUAL by Lum Eisenman. It gave me the basic of how wine is made and I find it very practical.
I see how you would think the name José Vouillamoz is spanish and should be pronounced as this, but it's not. José is a pretty common first name in french speaking countries (you pronounce the J like the name Jean). And Vouillamoz ("vous-ya-mo") is a last name which finds its origin in the swiss canton of Valais/Wallis (he's born in Saillon, Valais). You surely heard of Valais, since it's a wine-producing region. By the way, are you going to make a video about swiss wines eventually?
Agree, World Atlas of Wine is THE book if you only want one book. For ratings of producers and wines I found André Dominés "Wine" useful as a complement to World Atlas. For region specific books that gives you deeper knowledge my favourites are: Inside Bordeaux - J. Anson Inside Burgundy ed. 2 - J. Morris Champagne (with vineyard maps) - P. Liem Jamie Goode is my favourite author of all! Highly recommend: I Taste Red - how we perceive wine. For example the pshycholigal effect of color or price. Flawless - wine flaws As Wine Science they have a scientific aproach so not for everyone.
Great list, Konstantin! Thanks for sharing it! I would also look at few additional books: "The Wine Bible" by Karen MacNeil: it is an easy-to-read, yet informative book about wines from the key wine-producing countries and a good introduction into the local cuisine; "The Concise Guide to Wine and Blind Tasting" by Neel Burton: a useful book for wine tasting; "Understanding Wine Chemistry" by Andrew Waterhouse et al: a nice introduction into the organic chemistry relevant to making, ageing and tasting wine.
8:13 recognized that KXCD comic, it was a pun on Balmer peaks (peaks in hydrogen emission spectrum) + Steve Ballmer (Microsoft CEO at the time of the release of Windows ME). There's also a kind of an easter egg in that comic, the peak is at 0.1337%
Great video! I would add for the wine student, Understanding Wine Technology by David Bird And Wine Grapes is amazing if you download it to your book application on your phone. Great for when you come across interesting wines in the wild and want to look up details. For fun: The Dirty Guide To Wine Natural Wine For The People French Wine: A History by Rod Phillips The Widow Clicquot All the Kladstrup books And my recent favorite, Wine Girl by Victoria James For French readers: The 12,5° (180° Édition Spécial Vins) magazine is an amazing independent wine publication.
World Atlas of Wine 8th Edition is excellent. I also love Foot Trodden: Portugal & the Wines Time Forgot, and Amber Revolution: How the World Learned to Love Orange Wine, both by Simon J. Woolf.
Great video! In the future would be interesting for you to do a video like this for the major wine regions, ie best books on French wine, Italian wine, American wine etc
Just picked up Essential Wine Tasting. The Jancis Robinson ones I already had, and pretty much essential reference material imo. Great recommendations. Thanks!
Honestly I love the wine altas book and have a lot of other wine books. That wine grape book looks fantastic in the shelf and is crazy well made/high quality but fairly useless for the average wine buff. If you are like most people you drink/focus on 4-5 wine grapes and this book has like 1200 lol… it’s also about 250 dollars
@@danielplainview4778 That is true for most people, but some of my favourite wines that are not Riesling, objectively the best grape variety in the world ;), are 100% Romorantin, or Savagnin, I also found a new copy of the book for less than EUR 130.- So I'm thinking about it.
My first wine book was "der kleine Johnson". I hope I cited the title correctly. I actually have only 2 wine books (they come in pairs): It's the "Oxford Companion to Wine" , German edition from 1995. I am using it on a regular basis.
Very interesting! Yesterday I found your channel and I've seen most of your videos and ordered some bottles of wine (MONTE BELLO,...) and I'm going to buy some of your recommended books. Greetings from Austria (Styria)
There are two books I really like but I think both are only available in German but I am not really sure about the second one. The first one is "50 einfache Dinge die Sie über Wein wissen sollten" by Wolfgang Staudt which gives you a great introduction when you are starting your "career" as a wine lover and the second one is "Portwein" by Axel Probst which is rather specific because its about port only but it never gets boring and its maybe the best book on this topic. By the way, I am reading the World Atlas of Wine at the moment and I also like it very much. Its not just a book to look up things but also interesting for reading continously! Last but not least I think the next book about this topic that I gonna buy will be "Drunk" because it sounds really interesting so thank you for telling us about it!
The wine atlas was one of my first two wine books that I read but I no longer have my original copy. The other was The New York Times Book of Wine by Terry Robards, it was the Wine Bible of its time and about the same size. Don't have one favorite but read Remington Norman's Grand Cru recently and loved it. Oz Clarke's History of Wine in a Hundred Bottles was a fun read. Vino Italiano by Lynch and Bastianich and Stephen Brook's Sauternes are two others I really enjoyed and got a lot out of.
The World Atlas of Wine is practically my bible, as well as Wine Grapes! I will award myself this Xmas Drunk, The Science of Wine and Essential Winetasting!
Matt Kramer's Making Sense of Wine. Anthony Hanson's Burgundy. Kermit Lynch's Adventures on the Wine Route, if only for the classic chapter on Lulu Peyraud (RIP at 102). The wonderful Edmund Penning-Rowsell's book on Bordeaux; though a tweedy Englishman, he was a Marxist and a founding member of the William Morris Society. James Conaway's Napa trilogy. Hugh Johnson's Story of Wine. MFK Fisher's Musings on Wine and Other Libations; Fisher has at least a dozen books worth owning. I'm currently reading Bordeaux/Burgundy: A Vintage Rivalry by Jean-Robert Pitte; so far so good.
A few hundred wines! Gosh, I hope you have a good dental plan :) Thanks so much for this most excellent video. I will be looking up: Essential Winetasting and The Science of Wine. For someone in Asia, it can be challenging sometimes to relate to the flavour profiles, as we have very different fruits - tropical ones (mangosteens, papayas, mangos). All the best Sir!
The Hugh Johson classic. But there was a World of Wines paperback I bought in the 70s that was factual and comprehensive. That's how I got my start. It even covered Pineau Charentes.
Great summary! I think that for the vast majority of us, who are not MW level wine drinkers, but who would just like to have a bit more insight, a criterion for the ideal book would be the inclusion of a substantial chapter on The New World, also California, as so much of the popular product hails from these places.. I note the frequent inclusion of Jancis Robinson in this. She appears on Radio 4 quite often speaking on wine, and is very good indeed. Salut! 🍷👍
From the one's you didn't mention Oxford Companion and Aldo Sohm's Wine Simple are also great general wine books. Jancis Robinson's 24h Wine Expert is an excellent kick-start. Wine Folly, which is often mentioned here, I found very sloppily done on the content side and generalizing too much. Great approach though. For personal interest I like Madeira from Alex Liddell, Legeron's Natural Wine and also all wine guides like Gambero Rosso, Slow Wine, Eichelmann and others. I mostly get used older versions to get a general overview of a certain region and do not care too much about the single wine ratings.
Thanks for this selection, I was looking for books to get right now! I didn't read yet the ones you quote about wine tasting, but I recommand "Le goût du vin" maybe the wine taste in English from Emile Peynaud, a masterclass book about tasting
I have The Wine Bible and Kevin Zraly's Windows of the World Wine Course. No clue if they are any good, but they are my favorites because its what I have.
Definitely out of my league, but my first wine book was Wine for Dummies. Yeah, I probably shouldn’t admit that; but the Wine Atlas is on my wishlist. Thanks, Konstantin, for the great list. Cheers!
I was VERY disappointed with Wine Folly (magnum edition) due to it’s numerous errors that even I with slightly more knowledge than an average wine enthusiast was able to spot. I’ll have to get these books instead!
Seems like wine folly is more concerned with “looking cool/artsy” then the actual information. Tons of pages with useless graphics that mean very little etc
@@Bogo6077, apologies for jumping in, but I thought mentioning some concrete misprints would be helpful here. I am referring to the following edition: “Wine Folly. Magnum edition”, Penguin Random House, UK, 2018. Page 254, the description of the primary aromas of Moscato Bianco (white grape!) contains the completely wrong characteristics : “Black plum, raspberry, olive, red pepper, cocoa”. Page 256, the description of the primary aromas of Soave (white grape!) is wrong as well: “Black plum, raspberry, olive, red pepper, cocoa”. These descriptions seem to be the text copy-pasted from the description of the primary aromas of the black grape Brachetto on page 254: “Black plum, raspberry, olive, red pepper, cocoa”. There were some other misprints I noticed previously but forgot to note down. However, despite these misprints, the book is not too bad: it is quite informative and useful for a novice.
I appreciate the recommendations, but I’m most interested by the throw-away comment that you’d tasted hundreds of wines this week. What circumstances lead to such a prolific week?
Nice. Wine Science is only 4 dollars for a digital copy. Bummer World Atlas is hardcover only. I did get the Wine Bible though for 2 dollars once. It's decently systematic with its regions.
Criminally missing; “Making Sense of Burgundy”, by Matt Kramer. BTW- you can only buy it used because the municipalities in Burgundy made it ILLEGAL to access the records used in researching the subject.
Hello Sir love your content I'm studying wine and wine making in Croatian I'm on 4th year of university this list is going to help me with goal of becoming MW one day... Blessings and keep the good work 🙏👍😁
Hey Konstantin! I am a sucker for book lists and often look at social media and book sites just for recommended lists in a particular subject area. Since you are recommending some of yours, I will share some of my favorite titles in more particular order of preference. Confessions of a Wine Lover by Jancis Robinson, Champagne by Don and Petie Kladstrup, The Perfect Glass of Wine by Ben Canaider, Bacchus and Me by Jay McInerney, French Wines by Robert Joseph (DK Publishers), Wines of the World (DK Publishers), Champagnes & Chandeliers, Grand Dining Celebrations by Bernadette O'Shea. Cheers!
very nice and extremelly interesting chanel. Here is some recoomendation for video content. you are comparing 1.59 wines with 30-100euros wines. I am drinking mostly 5-7euros wines from Edeka and i am interested to buy some more expensive ones. nevertheless i would like to be sure that the wine is not scam. therefore i would suggest you to do testing also for 5-7euros wines and you could also give reccomendations. After that you can give reccomendation for 10-15euros wines and finally for more expensive wines. I personally love Deutsche Weintor from Edeka. you could review it and reccoment a bit more expensive one. if i buy it and i see thar you are right i wouls trust you to buy 30 or more euros wines. BTW love your Keller :)
Thanks for following up on my question with a video. The Science of Wine looks like what I'm after. Ever consider doing a video on vermouth? It's a mystery to me.
Great video. I have a passion for books. My favourite wine book is "Pomerol" by Neal Martin and I also love "Bordeaux and its wines" from 1899. A really great book I have is "Mouton Rothschild Paintings for the Labels 1945-1981" signed by Baron Rothschild.
Great video as usual Konstantin. Which book about wine and food pairing would you recommend? I'm looking for something broad rather than specific wines/vintages paired with fancy dishes. I'd be specially interested on a book focusing on Spanish wines (not necessarily paired with Spanish food). It'd be amazing if you or anyone on your community could recommend a good one.
Wie hilfreich ist der kleine Johnson wirklich im Vergleich zu bspw. Vivino? Ich nutze ihm, um Weingüter zu filtern, die ich im nächsten Frankreichurlaub besuchen will, während ich Vivino wirklich regelmäßig kurze. Hat der kleine Johnson noch den Stellenwert wie früher?
I`ve read only two books about wine; one I liked more: A Natural History of Wine by Ian Tattersall and Rob DeSalle, very captivating, a lot of interesting information. After recently discovering your videos I've bought myself this beautiful brick of a book, Wine Grapes, a Bible indeed; and being from Romania I've checked instantly the Romanian ones, Fetească Neagră, of course (learning that is of Moldovan origins actually). Well, I have to make a minor correction, something like a fun fact. The authors translated the name Fetească as "young girl", which is not correct, at least for lack of precision. The word Fetească is a regionalism, an idiomatic word, comes from "fată" (unmarried young woman/girl/young girl/daughter/female servant/virgin), and by its actual form it can be only an adjective, yet used as a name it can be translated as "of the/a girl" (or of the unmarried young woman), "pertaining to the/a girl" (or pertaining to the unmarried woman). Of course, even without my suggestions, one can easily guess the ribald game of meanings this name stands for. In the absence of a proper etymology we can only divine that the naming of the wine had happened while or sometimes immediately after the absorption of the product.
Finished reading "Drunk" a few days ago and I have to say: I really like it! It gives you a totally different view on the consumption of alcohol and its influence on evolution and history. Moreover its also written in a style that does not make it boring to read it. If I had to rate this book (although I am usually no friend of ratings as you know) I would give this book a rating of four out of five stars. Why not the full rating you might think? There are two reasons. The first one is that I (as someone who also likes spirits like whisky or rum) think that Mr. Slingerland overestimates the dangers of drinking liquors as most people do. Sure in drinking cultures where the main drink is a spirit he might be right but all in all I think that most of us would agree that having 12 shots of liquor with with 40% ABV is a lot but seen from another point of view its less pure alkohol than drinking a standard bottle of wine with 13% ABV. The other and in my case much more important reason is that Slingerland tends to give to many examples to support his ideas. Although his examples are usually interesting, there were some points when I thought: "Okay we all got it and we believe what you say, can we please move on to the next aspect?". However, all in all I think its a really good book which will change the readers view on alcohol for sure! So thank you very much for telling us about it!
Für Deutschsprachige (wobei es durchaus sein kann, dass es auch übersetzt wird): mir gefällt "Wein - die neue große Schule" von Jens Priewe - auch sehr empfehlenswert. Soweit ich weiß, wurde auch vor kurzem eine neue Auflage herausgebracht. Gruß
I really want to read a book called "Champagne in Russian culture", but the book isn't new (2007) and the tirage is 3000 units. Out of stock everywhere. Maybe one day I would find it, but still not sure.
Great video as always Konstantin! Just wondering what your thoughts are on the Noble Rot book, Wine From Another Galaxy? Also, is it worth buying both the book and quarterly magazines? Or is this just a double up of information?
Love those recommendations! Aldo Sohm’s Wine Simple is a great quick reference book and a great unpretentious start for anyone looking to start their wine journey
The book I use the most is wine folly. It really comes in handy for the basic information.
Thanks for the review. I know what will end up on my Christmas wishlist 🙂
The Wine Bible definitely deserves a shout. Awesome book
Hardcore fan of Oxford Companion to Wine and Wine Grapes too!
Wine Atlas is a classic of course. When starting my hobby, Oz Clarke's books were favorites of mine.
Wine by Jancis Robinson turned me on to wine in the mid 70s. Neither I nor my flatmates came from wine drinking background but this got us interested. We have never looked back. Jancis must have been still a student at Oxford when this was published. She's still an idol of mine.
The Wine Atlas is pretty hard to beat. I also really like Hugh Johnson’s pocket wine book which is updated annually and is a great first reference when you encounter a wine or producer you don’t know much about. I also like his food matching suggestions in the same book.
I still have an old copy of the 1985 "completely revised" 3rd Edition of The World Atlas of Wine by Hugh Johnson which I believe would be a great all around book for someone getting interested in wines even though it's a bit outdated, it still offers a lot.
Great list! Having read WineFolly, this is just what I needed.
Yes! thank you for making this video. My favorite wine books are Wine Bible by Karen MacNeil (the first book on wine I ever read) and Adventures on the Wine Route by Kermit Lynch.
Thanks for that! I have the wine atlas and the red book on grape varieties. I also love The Oxford Companion To Wine, probably my favourite wine book of all time!
Klaus
Much more introductory, but Windows on the World of Wine by Kevin Zraly is outstanding and was my first deeper dive. Each section has quiz questions and tasting exercise associated with the respective chapter which makes for an interactive text.
Another vote for The World Atlas - & a plug for anything written by Hugh Johnson- always good reading, & can count on learning something!
Yeah, I have an old 1985 edition and it still has some great all around information.
Michael Schuster is an excellent teacher and it has been a great privilege to have attended his classes. The book is superb and I’m proud to have my copy signed by him.
Also, can't skip What to Drink with What You Eat. Its a great reference guide for all levels
I've really enjoyed Rajat Parr's and Jordan McKay's "The Sommelier's Atlas of Taste: A Field Guide to the Great Wines of Europe"
Great topic. Congrats. My firs and favourite book about wine is THE HOME WINEMAKERS MANUAL by Lum Eisenman. It gave me the basic of how wine is made and I find it very practical.
I have two favorites. Bianca Bosker's Cork Dork and Raj Parr & Jordan MacKay's Somm Atlas of Taste.
I just finished reading Cork Dork by Bianca Bosker and Adventures on the Wine Route by Kermit Lynch. Great starting point for a wine newbie.
I see how you would think the name José Vouillamoz is spanish and should be pronounced as this, but it's not. José is a pretty common first name in french speaking countries (you pronounce the J like the name Jean). And Vouillamoz ("vous-ya-mo") is a last name which finds its origin in the swiss canton of Valais/Wallis (he's born in Saillon, Valais). You surely heard of Valais, since it's a wine-producing region. By the way, are you going to make a video about swiss wines eventually?
Defitnetly The World Wine Atlas.
True, its so stacked with important information and you with the maps you get really good overview about all the regions ;)
Agree
On a narrower lane, A Scent of Champagne, by Richard Julien, if you are, or
may become a Champagne lover this book is amazing, highly recommend
Agree, World Atlas of Wine is THE book if you only want one book.
For ratings of producers and wines I found André Dominés "Wine" useful as a complement to World Atlas.
For region specific books that gives you deeper knowledge my favourites are:
Inside Bordeaux - J. Anson
Inside Burgundy ed. 2 - J. Morris
Champagne (with vineyard maps) - P. Liem
Jamie Goode is my favourite author of all! Highly recommend:
I Taste Red - how we perceive wine. For example the pshycholigal effect of color or price.
Flawless - wine flaws
As Wine Science they have a scientific aproach so not for everyone.
Great list, Konstantin! Thanks for sharing it!
I would also look at few additional books:
"The Wine Bible" by Karen MacNeil: it is an easy-to-read, yet informative book about wines from the key wine-producing countries and a good introduction into the local cuisine;
"The Concise Guide to Wine and Blind Tasting" by Neel Burton: a useful book for wine tasting;
"Understanding Wine Chemistry" by Andrew Waterhouse et al: a nice introduction into the organic chemistry relevant to making, ageing and tasting wine.
8:13 recognized that KXCD comic, it was a pun on Balmer peaks (peaks in hydrogen emission spectrum) + Steve Ballmer (Microsoft CEO at the time of the release of Windows ME). There's also a kind of an easter egg in that comic, the peak is at 0.1337%
Interesting. I am a coder and I actually didn't know it was also about hydrogen emissions, I thought it was just a joke about Steve Ballmer.
Wine Folly by Madeline Puckette. I’ve learned so much from her book and blog.
Great video! I would add for the wine student, Understanding Wine Technology by David Bird
And Wine Grapes is amazing if you download it to your book application on your phone. Great for when you come across interesting wines in the wild and want to look up details.
For fun:
The Dirty Guide To Wine
Natural Wine For The People
French Wine: A History by Rod Phillips
The Widow Clicquot
All the Kladstrup books
And my recent favorite, Wine Girl by Victoria James
For French readers:
The 12,5° (180° Édition Spécial Vins) magazine is an amazing independent wine publication.
World Atlas of Wine 8th Edition is excellent. I also love Foot Trodden: Portugal & the Wines Time Forgot, and Amber Revolution: How the World Learned to Love Orange Wine, both by Simon J. Woolf.
Inside Burgundy by Jasper M.
Highly recommend it.
And “Inside Bordeaux” both are excellent
'Vinyards, Rock ans Soils', also a suggestion of yours, I believe. Excellent book!
A great book!
Great video! In the future would be interesting for you to do a video like this for the major wine regions, ie best books on French wine, Italian wine, American wine etc
I know what to do with my Amazon Voucher now
I have Jancis Robinson’s book. Worth every penny. Elizabeth Schneider has an excellent book also
Love your suggestions, Konstantin, I personally love the wine atlas that it is really useful to understand the geography!
Just picked up Essential Wine Tasting. The Jancis Robinson ones I already had, and pretty much essential reference material imo. Great recommendations. Thanks!
I only have the atlas, but considering the wine grapes book, that one looks awesome.
Honestly I love the wine altas book and have a lot of other wine books. That wine grape book looks fantastic in the shelf and is crazy well made/high quality but fairly useless for the average wine buff. If you are like most people you drink/focus on 4-5 wine grapes and this book has like 1200 lol… it’s also about 250 dollars
@@danielplainview4778 That is true for most people, but some of my favourite wines that are not Riesling, objectively the best grape variety in the world ;), are 100% Romorantin, or Savagnin, I also found a new copy of the book for less than EUR 130.- So I'm thinking about it.
I kind of went on a shopping spree and also bought the science of wine and Native Wine Grapes of Italy by Ian D'Agata.
My first wine book was "der kleine Johnson". I hope I cited the title correctly. I actually have only 2 wine books (they come in pairs): It's the "Oxford Companion to Wine" , German edition from 1995. I am using it on a regular basis.
Du hast ein kleine Johnson
My favourite to pick up from time to time is the wine encyclopedia.
Good video Love to see the prints you bought from noble rot. Favorite wine book Hedonist in the wine cellar.
Very interesting! Yesterday I found your channel and I've seen most of your videos and ordered some bottles of wine (MONTE BELLO,...) and I'm going to buy some of your recommended books. Greetings from Austria (Styria)
Wow. Thanks Konstantin, I was just looking for wine books yesterday !
Perfect!
Nice list. My favorite is "Great Vineyards and Winemakers"
There are two books I really like but I think both are only available in German but I am not really sure about the second one. The first one is "50 einfache Dinge die Sie über Wein wissen sollten" by Wolfgang Staudt which gives you a great introduction when you are starting your "career" as a wine lover and the second one is "Portwein" by Axel Probst which is rather specific because its about port only but it never gets boring and its maybe the best book on this topic.
By the way, I am reading the World Atlas of Wine at the moment and I also like it very much. Its not just a book to look up things but also interesting for reading continously!
Last but not least I think the next book about this topic that I gonna buy will be "Drunk" because it sounds really interesting so thank you for telling us about it!
Let me know whether you liked it.
The wine atlas was one of my first two wine books that I read but I no longer have my original copy. The other was The New York Times Book of Wine by Terry Robards, it was the Wine Bible of its time and about the same size. Don't have one favorite but read Remington Norman's Grand Cru recently and loved it. Oz Clarke's History of Wine in a Hundred Bottles was a fun read. Vino Italiano by Lynch and Bastianich and Stephen Brook's Sauternes are two others I really enjoyed and got a lot out of.
The World Atlas of Wine is practically my bible, as well as Wine Grapes!
I will award myself this Xmas Drunk, The Science of Wine and Essential Winetasting!
Tip: I bought the book Wine Grapes as e-book. Will be very handy to have all that information on my mobile.
Matt Kramer's Making Sense of Wine. Anthony Hanson's Burgundy. Kermit Lynch's Adventures on the Wine Route, if only for the classic chapter on Lulu Peyraud (RIP at 102). The wonderful Edmund Penning-Rowsell's book on Bordeaux; though a tweedy Englishman, he was a Marxist and a founding member of the William Morris Society. James Conaway's Napa trilogy. Hugh Johnson's Story of Wine. MFK Fisher's Musings on Wine and Other Libations; Fisher has at least a dozen books worth owning. I'm currently reading Bordeaux/Burgundy: A Vintage Rivalry by Jean-Robert Pitte; so far so good.
A few hundred wines! Gosh, I hope you have a good dental plan :)
Thanks so much for this most excellent video. I will be looking up:
Essential Winetasting and The Science of Wine.
For someone in Asia, it can be challenging sometimes to relate to the flavour profiles, as we have very different fruits - tropical ones (mangosteens, papayas, mangos).
All the best Sir!
Sounds good!
I'm currently reading 2016's 'New Zealand Wine: The Land, the Vines, the People'. Amazing story and a primer for any visit to kiwi wine country.
The Hugh Johson classic. But there was a World of Wines paperback I bought in the 70s that was factual and comprehensive. That's how I got my start. It even covered Pineau Charentes.
Wine - A Life Uncorked by Hugh Johnson would be up there for me..
My favorite wine book is the majestic catalogue 😉
The World Wine Atlas is nice. I also just read The New Wines of Mount Etna by Benjamin Spencer.
Great summary! I think that for the vast majority of us, who are not MW level wine drinkers, but who would just like to have a bit more insight, a criterion for the ideal book would be the inclusion of a substantial chapter on The New World, also California, as so much of the popular product hails from these places.. I note the frequent inclusion of Jancis Robinson in this. She appears on Radio 4 quite often speaking on wine, and is very good indeed. Salut! 🍷👍
From the one's you didn't mention Oxford Companion and Aldo Sohm's Wine Simple are also great general wine books. Jancis Robinson's 24h Wine Expert is an excellent kick-start.
Wine Folly, which is often mentioned here, I found very sloppily done on the content side and generalizing too much. Great approach though.
For personal interest I like Madeira from Alex Liddell, Legeron's Natural Wine and also all wine guides like Gambero Rosso, Slow Wine, Eichelmann and others. I mostly get used older versions to get a general overview of a certain region and do not care too much about the single wine ratings.
Thanks for this selection, I was looking for books to get right now! I didn't read yet the ones you quote about wine tasting, but I recommand "Le goût du vin" maybe the wine taste in English from Emile Peynaud, a masterclass book about tasting
I have The Wine Bible and Kevin Zraly's Windows of the World Wine Course. No clue if they are any good, but they are my favorites because its what I have.
I liked your video quite a lot, I will get a copy of the World Atlas of Wine, I really like Jancis Robinson
Definitely out of my league, but my first wine book was Wine for Dummies. Yeah, I probably shouldn’t admit that; but the Wine Atlas is on my wishlist. Thanks, Konstantin, for the great list. Cheers!
You have to start somewhere. I'm sure not everyone would admit that.
I was VERY disappointed with Wine Folly (magnum edition) due to it’s numerous errors that even I with slightly more knowledge than an average wine enthusiast was able to spot. I’ll have to get these books instead!
Seems like wine folly is more concerned with “looking cool/artsy” then the actual information. Tons of pages with useless graphics that mean very little etc
I own it as well and i thought it would be more informative, but can you tell me some errors?
boombox05, absolutely agree with you. It is a cool looking book with lots of nice graphics, but it contains too many copy-paste errors.
@@Bogo6077, apologies for jumping in, but I thought mentioning some concrete misprints would be helpful here. I am referring to the following edition: “Wine Folly. Magnum edition”, Penguin Random House, UK, 2018.
Page 254, the description of the primary aromas of Moscato Bianco (white grape!) contains the completely wrong characteristics : “Black plum, raspberry, olive, red pepper, cocoa”.
Page 256, the description of the primary aromas of Soave (white grape!) is wrong as well: “Black plum, raspberry, olive, red pepper, cocoa”.
These descriptions seem to be the text copy-pasted from the description of the primary aromas of the black grape Brachetto on page 254: “Black plum, raspberry, olive, red pepper, cocoa”.
There were some other misprints I noticed previously but forgot to note down. However, despite these misprints, the book is not too bad: it is quite informative and useful for a novice.
I just bought Michael Schuster - Essential winetasting. At 4 euro's for the eBook its also quite inexpensive :)
Just finished "Cork Dork" by Bianca Bosker, and would certainly recommend it. Very easy read, but informative nonetheless.
I appreciate the recommendations, but I’m most interested by the throw-away comment that you’d tasted hundreds of wines this week. What circumstances lead to such a prolific week?
I went to a tasting of the best wines of Germany for a couple of days. Will make a video about that soon.
Nice. Wine Science is only 4 dollars for a digital copy.
Bummer World Atlas is hardcover only. I did get the Wine Bible though for 2 dollars once. It's decently systematic with its regions.
Checked out the comments below and your stack and found that I already have Essentials of Wine Tasting by Michael Schuster. Zraly, too.
Love your videos! One of my favorite books is Wine Folly
I learnt a tonne early in my wine journey from "A good nose and great legs" by Robert Geddes MW.
How to Taste by Jancis Robinson
Fear of Wine is kinda fun
French Dirt by Goodman is a nice story
Criminally missing;
“Making Sense of Burgundy”, by Matt Kramer.
BTW- you can only buy it used because the municipalities in Burgundy made it ILLEGAL to access the records used in researching the subject.
I would add WineFolly here as well for a beginner friendly book!
Such a great video, great suggestions
Hello Sir love your content I'm studying wine and wine making in Croatian I'm on 4th year of university this list is going to help me with goal of becoming MW one day... Blessings and keep the good work 🙏👍😁
For German wines, Hugh Johnsons book of the same name is an excellent resource.
Hey Konstantin! I am a sucker for book lists and often look at social media and book sites just for recommended lists in a particular subject area. Since you are recommending some of yours, I will share some of my favorite titles in more particular order of preference. Confessions of a Wine Lover by Jancis Robinson, Champagne by Don and Petie Kladstrup, The Perfect Glass of Wine by Ben Canaider, Bacchus and Me by Jay McInerney, French Wines by Robert Joseph (DK Publishers), Wines of the World (DK Publishers), Champagnes & Chandeliers, Grand Dining Celebrations by Bernadette O'Shea. Cheers!
Thanks for your suggestions!
Confessions of a wine lover is an absolute classic, the wines and tastings Jancis describes are incredible 🍷👍
This was a great video thank you, my favorite wine book is 99 Bottles: A Black Sheep's Guide to Life Changing Wines by André Hueston Mack
very nice and extremelly interesting chanel. Here is some recoomendation for video content. you are comparing 1.59 wines with 30-100euros wines. I am drinking mostly 5-7euros wines from Edeka and i am interested to buy some more expensive ones. nevertheless i would like to be sure that the wine is not scam. therefore i would suggest you to do testing also for 5-7euros wines and you could also give reccomendations. After that you can give reccomendation for 10-15euros wines and finally for more expensive wines. I personally love Deutsche Weintor from Edeka. you could review it and reccoment a bit more expensive one. if i buy it and i see thar you are right i wouls trust you to buy 30 or more euros wines.
BTW love your Keller :)
Thanks for following up on my question with a video. The Science of Wine looks like what I'm after. Ever consider doing a video on vermouth? It's a mystery to me.
Wine Folly
The oxford companion to wine, obviously!
I have started on Nick Jackson MW book on tasting blind which is quite good and interesting approach.
Amazing video, thanks for the info
godforsaken grapes! open doors to new wine varieties in my life :)
"The Dirty Guide to Wine" by Alice Feiring. A wonderful guide into wine organized by bedrock.
I giggled when he said Hugh Johnson
Winefolly book is my go to! Really approachable.
Great video. I have a passion for books. My favourite wine book is "Pomerol" by Neal Martin and I also love "Bordeaux and its wines" from 1899. A really great book I have is "Mouton Rothschild Paintings for the Labels 1945-1981" signed by Baron Rothschild.
Sounds great!
Great video as usual Konstantin. Which book about wine and food pairing would you recommend? I'm looking for something broad rather than specific wines/vintages paired with fancy dishes. I'd be specially interested on a book focusing on Spanish wines (not necessarily paired with Spanish food). It'd be amazing if you or anyone on your community could recommend a good one.
Not really ... there is a good one that is only available in German and there are a few books that also talk about food and wine matching
Wie hilfreich ist der kleine Johnson wirklich im Vergleich zu bspw. Vivino?
Ich nutze ihm, um Weingüter zu filtern, die ich im nächsten Frankreichurlaub besuchen will, während ich Vivino wirklich regelmäßig kurze. Hat der kleine Johnson noch den Stellenwert wie früher?
Thank you for the recommendations
I`ve read only two books about wine; one I liked more: A Natural History of Wine by Ian Tattersall and Rob DeSalle, very captivating, a lot of interesting information.
After recently discovering your videos I've bought myself this beautiful brick of a book, Wine Grapes, a Bible indeed; and being from Romania I've checked instantly the Romanian ones, Fetească Neagră, of course (learning that is of Moldovan origins actually). Well, I have to make a minor correction, something like a fun fact. The authors translated the name Fetească as "young girl", which is not correct, at least for lack of precision. The word Fetească is a regionalism, an idiomatic word, comes from "fată" (unmarried young woman/girl/young girl/daughter/female servant/virgin), and by its actual form it can be only an adjective, yet used as a name it can be translated as "of the/a girl" (or of the unmarried young woman), "pertaining to the/a girl" (or pertaining to the unmarried woman). Of course, even without my suggestions, one can easily guess the ribald game of meanings this name stands for. In the absence of a proper etymology we can only divine that the naming of the wine had happened while or sometimes immediately after the absorption of the product.
Hey Kons, what do you think about the book made by Wine Folly?
It is not my favorite wine book but I like the approach
Sorry but where is the list of books mentioned in the clip?
Finished reading "Drunk" a few days ago and I have to say: I really like it! It gives you a totally different view on the consumption of alcohol and its influence on evolution and history. Moreover its also written in a style that does not make it boring to read it. If I had to rate this book (although I am usually no friend of ratings as you know) I would give this book a rating of four out of five stars.
Why not the full rating you might think? There are two reasons. The first one is that I (as someone who also likes spirits like whisky or rum) think that Mr. Slingerland overestimates the dangers of drinking liquors as most people do. Sure in drinking cultures where the main drink is a spirit he might be right but all in all I think that most of us would agree that having 12 shots of liquor with with 40% ABV is a lot but seen from another point of view its less pure alkohol than drinking a standard bottle of wine with 13% ABV.
The other and in my case much more important reason is that Slingerland tends to give to many examples to support his ideas. Although his examples are usually interesting, there were some points when I thought: "Okay we all got it and we believe what you say, can we please move on to the next aspect?".
However, all in all I think its a really good book which will change the readers view on alcohol for sure! So thank you very much for telling us about it!
Great to hear that you liked it. There are a lot of examples in the book which is great but yeah on a few occasions he goes into too much detail
Für Deutschsprachige (wobei es durchaus sein kann, dass es auch übersetzt wird): mir gefällt "Wein - die neue große Schule" von Jens Priewe - auch sehr empfehlenswert. Soweit ich weiß, wurde auch vor kurzem eine neue Auflage herausgebracht.
Gruß
Excellent video! I have nothing to add to it.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great video!
Good afternoon! Any new books you’d add to the list now? Thank you.
Can you reccomend a good wine book about Italian wine regions?
I really want to read a book called "Champagne in Russian culture", but the book isn't new (2007) and the tirage is 3000 units. Out of stock everywhere. Maybe one day I would find it, but still not sure.
Great video as always Konstantin!
Just wondering what your thoughts are on the Noble Rot book, Wine From Another Galaxy?
Also, is it worth buying both the book and quarterly magazines? Or is this just a double up of information?