i should also add that another great book for a budding wine lover is Cork Dork. its definitely not a Wine Bible or a wine region overview, but it was really a fun read and a pretty decent intro to the world behind wine.
i read it when i was getting into wine and it solidified my love for the wine world.
Also, reading between the wines by Terry Theise.
Great Wine Made Simple was awesome for me.
The danger is always over-simplification. Face it, wine is complicated. There is so such shit to learn–and then unlearn. I learned a lot from Wine for Dummies, The Wine Bible, and Zraly’s Course. I learned more from Parkers early books on Bordeaux and Rhone. Once you have a basic grasp…then it’s time to invest in some maps and Wine Atlases. Old World wines are always more geography than viticulture. Pick your intro book, surf the world of wine blogs, but more than anything…pop some corks at every opportunity. Pick the wine-addled brains of those around you and learn early on to trust your palate instead of some critic.
My advice would be to take a course. You learn wine by tasting, not reading. Books come later.
I think Wine Spectator is a good recommendation, and I agree with the crowd, the Wine Bible is also a good overall primer.
I don’t totally agree with that. Wine is as complicated as you want to make it, but the basics are pretty straightforward, and it is those basics that a beginner needs to pick up. I’d say they are: how red and white wines are make in outline form, how to taste, what a grape variety is (with a few examples) and what a European-style appellation is (with a few examples). After that, people can decide for themselves how much they want to learn. Many people will be happy with that level of knowledge.
Where I do agree with you is that there is a danger of claiming that you can learn everything about wine very easily. Oh, and I particualry hate the teaching/writing style that starts by saying how difficult wine is, but “because I am so clever I can make it easy”.
I also think it is important not to confuse fact with opinion, especially with beginners. Often it is opinion that makes wine complicated. Apart from wines regulations, the known facts tend to be few and simple until you get down to a level of technical detail that most people are not interested in.
About as overly Franco-centric as you can get without titling the book “Everything you wanted to know about French wine because the rest of the world makes crap.” I hate to disappoint the Francophiles, but the largest wine producer is Italy. Second place is either Spain or France, depending on the weather and climate issues year to year. The US produces between 65% and 75% as much wine as France. Just remember that it was not an American who referred to some French wine as “Vin de Merde.” If someone wants to “get into” wine, directing them to books with an extremely obvious and well-known bias is not helpful.
+3 or 4 or whatever we’re up to.
Not too big or too small. Not too geeky or too basic. Just right for a newbie.
I think Wine Folly is a very good book - particularly as a tasting companion.
+1 for Wine Folly! Great visuals.
Even for a newbie I think the World Atlas of Wine can be a great book, especially for someone that is looking to to really understand the geography of different areas. I think a great thing for someone new to wine is to pick a geographic area from the book each week and go buy a few different bottles from that region to drink as you read about the region in the book. Clearly nothing replaces actually visiting a region yourself, but tasting wine while reading about the area and seeing on the maps exactly where the different grapes come from and be a great education.
Your anti-European bias is really showing. Adventures Along the Wine Route is much more about how to approach wine than it is about regions and specific wines to buy. In fact, a goodly number of the producers discussed are dead or retired.
Also, frankly if you want to learn about wines, IMHO, whether you ultimately gravitate to European wines or American wines or wines from Chile, Australia or South Africa, it is really helpful to learn European wines first. Most of the new world grapes come from Europe - in fact, most of them come from France. It is very important for a newby to get to know that Chardonnay and Pinot Noir come from one type of region (cooler climate Burgundy) while Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc come from Bordeaux (warmer region). This makes Napa, for example, easier to understand where Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are grown in the cooler Carneros area and Cabernet, for example, grows up valley where it is warmer.
And, you are being extraordinarily naive is thinking that a neice of Maureen’s is not going to get exposure to European wines. Really?
As I said above, I don’t believe that the best way to start learning about wine is to learn this winery is from here and that winery is from there. The best way to learn about wines is to learn how to taste wines. To me, the best beginning books on this are Kermit Lynch’s book and Terry Theise’s book. The only California book I know of like this (by Bonne) is just not IMHO a beginner’s book. And, I don’t know a book from Italy that is what I am discussing. Certainly, Italy makes a lot of wine and a lot of great wine. But, would you really suggest a beginner start by trying to learn all the different regions of Italy. And, if you do, what book on Italian wine would you suggest that a beginner start with.
In fact, rather than trashing everyone else, why not try something constructive for a change and tell us the proper book from your non-biased perspective for a beginner to learn about wine. How about try something new, make a postive contribution to this discussion and not just sh*t on everyone who likes different wines from you.
-3 
Even some of the graphics are lousy. They might look pretty, but try using the wine-food matching ones to see which different wines match a particular type of food, or vice-versa.
Wine Bible as mentioned. Very organized read.
I first learned from the Wine Bible. It is excellent and about as user friendly as an encyclopedia can be. I have bought this for people before but since I read Windows on the World, I have switched to it as a gift for people getting into wine. I don’t think it is better but definitely shorter and less imposing. I do like the idea of Adventures Along the Wine Route because it focuses on the stories behind the wine which will make it far more interesting and also more likely to stick. Buy both, saying read Adventures and use Windows or Wine Bible as reference?
I think both Zraly’s, and Wine Bible are good books and I benefited from both. Zraly’s (if I remember correctly) did have a few strange opinions (Italian whites were not found worth covering) and simplifications (e.g. German white categorizations). But wine is a complex subject and any such book will take a few short cuts. On the whole, I think Zraly’s is more readable and will be less overwhelming for someone beginning to get into wine (I have not checked out the recent release of Wine Bible; I am speaking to the earlier version).
I really like Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Book. It packs a lot in a slim volume and Johnson too is very readable.
I have not read the wine for dummies, but I am huge fan of the dummies series. They tend to be pretty good introductions for most subjects.
If your niece has a Times subscription, I would actually suggest Asimov’s Wine School columns. They are well written, very current, and covers an enormously amount of ground from 2015 to now. Of course, Asimov has a point of view, but who doesn’t?
I have been browsing through http://www.52grapes.com/ off and on. It may be something interesting to follow along (in case Times doesn’t work)
I thought someone would say this. And I agree, insofar as there are descriptors and associations in the book that I disagree with. ![[friends.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/7/79d87d51e828817acdbc8423debf5251f0c70628.gif "friends"){kind=small}
But this is why it makes an excellent tasting companion - because it offers a perspective that you will sometimes agree with and sometimes not. A dialogue, rather than a lesson.
Thanks for all of the suggestions. Hard for me to be on the board these days because that damn fake amazon spam pop up hits my ipad all the time when i am on this board.
I am sure she is drinking as much as possible but she’s an employed mother of a four year old and a six month old. I did send her to asimov’s wine school. I will check out many of the suggested books so thanks.
Take a look at “The art and science of wine” Hugh Johnson and James Halliday. It covers a lot fo ground on how wine is made and the the choices made along the way. For me a really solid effort that I really enjoyed reading earliy on.
brodie
No problems with something like that except that I have not read either Windows or the Wine Bible and cannot recommend a book I have not read. How much info is there in these books that one could not get in google searches - certainly no an option when I got into wine, but clearly an option now. I own Hugh Johnson’s Wine Atlas, several generations old, and over the 10-20 years I have owned it I have looked up things in it but have never really read it.