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Commonsense
Book of Wine, by Leon
Adams (Houghton Mifflin Company): This well-meaning primer claims
it "untangles the mysteries of buying, storing, serving and enjoying
wine" (also barely explains or ignores some important topics).
Dionysus: A
Social History of the Wine Vine,
by Edward Hyams (The MacMillan Company): A fairly complete and
engrossing account, although it gets bogged down in spots with
meandering detail.
RECOMMENDED
Frank
Schoonmaker's Encyclopedia of Wine
(Hastings House): Similar to, but not as complete or ambitious
as the Oxford Companion; emphasizes topics related more
to marketing than to sensory evaluation, history, viticulture,
or enology.
| RECOMMENDED
The
Great Wine Grapes
by Bern C. Ramey (Great Wine Grapes, Inc.): Large,
artistic format, contains portraits of sixteen white varietals
and fourteen red, beautifully photographed by the author's
son Timothy B. Ramey, with viticultural profile text by
Dr. Lloyd Lider to accompany the author's text covering
the style, history, geographic extent and commercial outlook
of each grape. |
| The late Bern Ramey
was a member of the first graduating class of seven from
the UC Davis School of Viticulture and Enology, along
with Peter Mondavi and the late Joe Heitz. This book took
over twenty years to complete. It combines the artistic
beauty of photos and all-caligraphy typography with educational,
expert, and entertaining text. |
| NOTE: Many of Tim Ramey's
photographs are reproduced, with permission, on the pages
of PfW's Varietal Profiles section, but these do scant
justice to the dramatic beauty of the originals. Tim Ramey
Photography is located in Chicago, Illinois. |
 RECOMMENDED
How
to Test and Improve Your Wine Judging Ability,
by Irving H. Marcus (Wine Publications): Just as the title of
this paperback promises; unpretentious, direct and to-the-point
with suggested exercises.
RECOMMENDED
The Joys of
Wine, by Clifton Fadiman
and Sam Aaron (Harry N. Abrams, Inc.): Another large format, loaded
with a very entertaining mixture of facts and topically illustrative
fiction; essays, short stories, photos, drawings, maps, charts,
instruction, etc. Unfortunately, this one is out of print.
Monks and Wine,
by Desmond Seward (Crown Publishers, Inc): A study of the millenium
when virtually all the world's vineyards and wine were owned or
controlled by the church.
The Physiology
of Taste, by Jean Anthelme
Brillat-Savarin translated by M.F.K. Fisher (North Pointe Press):
French lawyer's 1825 thesis made up of "meditations," as opposed
to chapters, on wide-ranging elements and concerns in gastronomy;
considered a classic among gourmets and foodies; available as
hardback or paperback.
The Supply,
the Care and the Sale of Wine,
by André L. Simon (Duckworth & Co.): dated material
(1920s), but interesting from the perspective of a merchant and
in the historical context.
The Taste of
Wine, by Pamela
VanDyke Price (Random House): Attempting to be a complete wine
book covering all topics, the text belabors detail and often is
confusing, as is the organization of the chapters; very attractive
design, although much of the style and even the illustrations
and layout seem borrowed from Johnson's World Atlas of Wine.
Wine,
by Hugh Johnson (Simon and Schuster): Excellent general wine book,
less formal than his World Atlas, although I believe that
hardback publishing is not the format for recommending of specific
brands, which should be left to periodicals.
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RECOMMENDED
Wine:
An Introduction,
by Maynard A. Amerine and Vernon L. Singleton (University
of California Press): Very good general wine book, THE
text for basic introduction to wine appreciation; available
in both hardback and paperback editions. |
The Winemaker's
Encyclopedia, by Ben
Turner and Roy Roycroft (Faber and Faber): Thorough and informationally
invaluable little paperback that succeeds by limiting its scope
to topics concerning or surrounding wine production (unfortunately
out of print; although it is more of an instructional how-to manual,
try Turner's  The
Winemaker's Companion).
Wines: Their Sensory
Evaluation, by Maynard
A. Amerine and Edward B. Roessler (W.H. Freeman and Company):
Worth owning for the first hundred pages, a scholarly explanation
of factors in wine quality and procedures for judging it; the
last hundred-plus are statistical analysis and methodology proofs
(as poster boy for the mathematically-allergic, I reject this
section outright).
Wine Tasting,
by Michael Broadbent (Christie's Wine Publications): Another good,
basic wine appreciation text, although somewhat more high-toned,
less commonsense.
 |
RECOMMENDED
 The
World Atlas of Wine,
by Hugh Johnson (Simon and Schuster): Beautifully design
and organized, includes lots of photos, drawings, graphs
and charts, in addition to maps covering geography, topography
and rainfall, not to mention the author's impeccably well-written
text. |
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