Best wine book for newbies?

My niece is developing an interest in wine (her husband just bought her a cave) and has asked me for reading recommendations. What do y’all suggest?

How does someone buy a cave ???

The Wine Bible or Wine for Dummies (not sure if the latter still exists) are both good.

I’ll second Wine for Dummies - assuming they have issued an updated edition. I got a lot of mileage out of this book when I first started getting into wine 20 years ago.

I learned a lot from Kevin Zraly’s Windows on the World Wine Course book back in the late '80’s. I checked and he has current versions.

+1 . . . and where is this cave? Sounds pretty cool. I want one.

I know this will be controversial:

For a newbie, buying a subscription to Wine Spectator is a nice start. The new person will work through the many types of wines over time with easy to read articles and wine examples. The person can get some food accompaniment ideas, as well, and then grow out of it.

WS reduces things to reasonably sized servings and is upbeat.

Reading it beyond a few years dulls ones ability to think independently or experience the finer nuances of the hobby. The 100 point system is remedial, at best, in reducing wine to an arbitrary numerical system, but we all gotta start somewhere!

Wine for Dummies is good, as well!

Best wishes!

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Do you want a book that’s an interesting read, teaches about wine, or both?

I liked the wine bible for pure info for a beginner, I like wine and war for an interesting read, and I like the history of wine in 100 bottles for something in between

This is the best for a broad overview of so many regions. I would look at this weekly for many years. Gives a great outline before going too deep.

Jason

I think it is more important for a newbie to learn how to taste wine and think about wine than to read about regions and famous wineries. Thus, I will go in a different direction and suggest my favorite wine book, Adventures Along the Wine Route. I am sure she has lots of friends who like modern wines and are bigger is better wine lovers. I am sure that you are doing your best to counter that. This book will give her a framework as to how to think about wine.

Plus, this book is a great read. It would be hard to read some of the beginner wine books from cover to cover. Even most of us would be bored to tears by page 50.

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I was not familiar with the book so I looked it up. Franco-centric, hence my belief that it is not a good choice.

Wine for dummies has a 2015 edition. There will be a new edition in November, but the 2015 vintage should have aged just about right by now. I have not read the book cover to cover but I have thumbed through it a few times at Barnes and Noble. I think it is a good start.

For a generalist book, there’s a lot to be said for Hugh Johnson’s pocket wine book (annual). It’s not a sit down and read book, but a useful quick reference book and a decent option for someone where the world of wine seems huge.

In addition, if there’s a region / country that is fuelling the passion, then I’d go for a book to actually read.
something from the World of fine wine series is easy to pick up / put down. My thinking is that many find the sheer mass of regions, appellations, wineries and labels intimidating, so majoring on one, before branching out, can be a nice way to make it less initmidating.

In time, a book such as Michael Schuster’s essential wine tasting can help push the hobby further, but I’d hold of that for now.

Very sound advice indeed. Perhaps organising tasting evenings with them is the perfect gift.

Ask Elon Musk; he can get you there and back!

As you probably know, Ian, I too like this book a lot. I cut my wine teeth on it, and whenever I return to it, I am still impressed by how simply Schuster writes whilst maintain in accuracy. Where we differ is that I would not hold off giving it now. It is a slim volume, and the focus is on tasting, though there are also some sections on regions.

Personally I would disrecommend The Wine Bible. It may have been revolutionary and useful when it was first published, but I got myself a copy recently and IMO it is full of enthusiastic bluster and littered with half-truths. It is also quite a large book (I have the new edition) and I think the size would put off a newbie.

It’s probably in Europe… :stuck_out_tongue:

Hugh Johnson (and Jancis’) World Atlas of Wine

Second The Wine Bible. A very user friendly starting point.

Yes. This was my first back in '95, which a somm friend recommended. It covers the basics well and piques your interest to explore further.