I get asked a lot about wine books. The assumption is that you can just pick up any book on the shelf and transform yourself into an expert on wine in a few short minutes.

The reality?

Most books about wine are boring and read like an encyclopedia. If you want to pick up an 800 page tome about French wine laws, rootstalks, malolactic fermentation and key wine negociats, then go right ahead. But when’s the last time you picked up an encyclopedia for fun?

The truth is there’s no shortage of wine books written for hardcore wine people, but most of us just want simple, practical advice that we can use everyday. We want to confidently pick a bottle of wine to enjoy with dinner. We want it to be an awesome pairing that our guests will love. We want to sound like we know what we’re talking about when our guests ask about the wine and the complements start to flow. And we want to be able to do this without studying long hours like we’re trying to pass the LSAT.

When you finally come across a book that helps make the everyday person sound like a wine connoisseur, it’s definitely worth a pick up. In my experience, there’s one book that does this above all others.

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