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Wine and books go together like wine and cheese! Looking for the perfect gifts for your literary friends and loved ones? Check out these page-turners from the educational to the philosophical to the humorous and beautiful.
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A Celebrity Sommelier Explains
Wine Simple: A Totally Approachable Guide from a World-Class Sommelier
By Aldo Sohm and Christine Muhlke
For more than a decade, Aldo Sohm has served as wine director to chef Eric Ripert’s three-Michelin-starred Le Bernardin in NYC and heads up his own wine bar, Aldo Sohm Bar, where wine connoisseurs and industry professionals alike crowd head for for exclusive and hard-to-find wines. Bon Appétite contributing editor and author in her own right, Christine Muhlke co-writes.
As the title suggests, this book breaks down wine tasting with infographics and illustrations, cheat sheets on great vintages and signature wines and their corresponding regions, and tips on how to build a personalized “flavor library” as you taste your way along. Unpretentious and packed with great information.
The Serious and Curious Scholar
Wine Folly: Magnum Edition: The Master Guide
By Madeline Puckette and Justin Hammack
A beautiful and easy-to-digest guide to all things wine, from wine regions of the world, to flavor profiles, to food and wine pairing advice. Some of the cleanest and clearest wine maps out there.
The Funny Friend Who Knows Everything Else and Ought to Know More About Wine
Big Macs & Burgundy: Wine Pairings for the Real World
By Vanessa Price and Adam Laukhuf
Hot off the 2020 presses, this memoir and guide to food and wine pairing may sound silly, but the science behind it is real. The whole idea of wine and pairing is make both taste better, and that doesn’t always mean a $100-dollar dish or bottle. It’s as simple as fat, minerality, and acid. Wine expert and Grub Street columnist Vanessa Price weaves tales of her move from Kentucky to the big, bad wine world of New York City. Smart, funny, and down-to earth, don’t let the scandalous title dissuade you.
Wine. All the Time: The Casual Guide to Confident Drinking
By Marissa A. Ross
Real talk with an intelligent and engaging tone. I’d like to be in her class! Marissa A. Ross is a humorist and wine editor at Bon Appétit. She is a regular contributor to a number of lifestyle and culture publications including Elle, Man Repeller, and GQ. This book was inspired by her blog of the same name.
The Wine Romantic
Liquid Memory: Why Wine Matters
By Jonathon Nossiter
A house favorite since before we made this list! Author, filmmaker, and trained sommelier Jonathan Nossiter is the son of foreign correspondents and spent his childhood throughout Europe. His fourth feature film, Mondovino, recounts the impact of globalization the wine media on the wine industry at large, and particularly how it affects smaller, family properties. The book is a multidisciplinary love letter to wine culture.
The Scientist
Neuroenology: How the Brain Creates the Taste of Wine
By Gordon M. Shepherd
After the success of his book, Neurogastronomy: How the Brain Creates Flavor and Why It Matters, Shephard expands on his study of how the human brain perceives flavor and pleasure, this time it’s all about wine. The book combines elements of neuroscience, biomechanics, human physiology, and traditional enology (winemaking theory).
The Unapologetic Wine Connoisseur
What Makes a Wine Worth Drinking: In Praise of the Sublime
By Terry Theise
Award-winning wine writer Terry Thiese takes on the question of what makes wine so special, and where the value lies in authentic, small-production wines and the beauty, harmony, and complexity that, upon reflection, adds those same components to our own lives. Give this book to your friend who always pays more for wine than for dinner.
Food, Wine, and Travel Enthusiasts
The Wine Table: Recipes and Pairings from Winemakers’ Kitchens
By Vicky Reh
As coffee table books, this one is as useful as it delicious to gaze upon. In this sumptuous book, trained chef and certified sommelier Vicky Reh combines her two passions, cooking and wine on a tour of some of her favorite wine regions and inside their kitchens.
Reh begins with the essentials of a stocked, chef’s kitchen. In the second part of the book she journeys through France and Italy and cooks alongside winemakers. Find recipes for Dover Sole in Sancerre with Laurence Crochet and Pesto Trapanese in Sicily with Arianna Occhipinti, among others.
