Top 10 wine books for Christmas

We all know that nothing beats a good book as a Christmas gift, and with the help of this list, the wine lover in your life will undoubtedly be over the moon, writes Lia Sanders.

Wine’s variety is never better showcased than in the range of books that deal with it – academically, passionately or humorously.

This year has seen us spoilt for choice, from a mouth-watering coffee table book about the best Italian regions to a pocket-sized guide talking about Tom and Jerry’s relation to wine.

Whether criminal investigations or dinosaur excavations intrigue you, there will be something to your taste.

So dive in and take a look at our top wine book recommendations for this Christmas…

Wines of South America: The Essential Guide

This comprehensive guide to the continent’s wines is the latest work from Master Sommelier Evan Goldstein. As well as focusing on well-known wine producing countries, like Argentina and Chile, the book finds time to explore lesser-known wines of countries such as Peru and Bolivia. Goldstein’s anecdotes and experiences inflect the whole book, giving a flavour of the whole continent as well as being a definitive account of South America’s wines.

Evan Goldstein
University of California Press, £27.95

The World’s Shortest Wine Book

At only 64 pages, this irreverent book is an ideal stocking filler. Woods not only knows his stuff but is able to talk about it clearly and humorously, tackling basic questions such as whether you can keep red wine in the fridge and how Tom and Jerry relate to wine. It is a clear introduction for those wanting to know more about wine but also will bring a wry smile to those in the know.

Simon Woods
Self-published, £5

Jura Wine

“Much anticipated” does not do justice to this book, which raised almost double its Kickstarter target. Lorch has been writing on Jura wines for 12 years, doing more than anyone else to promote them. She might be a world expert in this specialist subject but that does not mean the writing is dry, reading like a cross between a travel guide and a love letter to this region of France.

Wink Lorch
Wine Travel Media, £25

Wine & Food

The first book from established wine journalist Jane Parkinson bills itself as a guide to food and wine matching. First, though, it begins with an in-depth look at wine varieties, designed to intrigue the enthusiastic amateur by being chatty, informative and never intimidating. The food matching goes deeper than the major food groups, looking at specific cuisines and always making her logic clear.

Jane Parkinson
Ryland Peters & Small, £19.99

Shadows in the Vineyard: The True Story of the Plot to Poison the World’s Greatest Wine

It sounds like a plot from a Hollywood film – a criminal slowly poisons one of the world’s most expensive vineyards, demanding €1m to leave the survivors untouched. This extraordinary story about the threat to Domaine de la Romanée-Conti is a jumping off point for a discussion of the estate itself and the history of the Burgundy region in general, which proves just as thrilling as the criminal machinations.

Maximillian Potter
Twelve, £19.99

Best White Wine on Earth: The Riesling Story

The title is a bold claim, but it is one that Pigott, a Riesling devotee for over 30 years, goes a long way towards convincing his reader of its truth. Equally rewarding for cover-to-cover readers and those who like to dip in and out, it is packed with facts and opinions. Perhaps most notably, he argues that some of the best Rieslings are being grown in America rather than Germany.

Stuart Pigott
Stewart, Tabori & Chang, £15.99

Salt and Old Vines

It’s easy to forget about the long, back-breaking work that goes into making wine, but this book puts that experience right at the heart. Having worked several harvests in the Roussillon region in the south of France, Bray is expertly placed to write about the pains and pleasures of wine making, bringing its characters, flavours and landscapes to life while musing on blues guitarists and black pudding.

Richard WH Bray
Unbound, £9.99

French Wine: An Illustrated Miscellany

Beautiful photographs and quirky facts combine to make this book perfect to dip into to find out everything you never thought to ask about wine. The scattering of anecdotes and quotes gives an insight into the long history of French wine, talking about how toasts began to prevent poisoning and what Napoleon thought about champagne.

Bernard Pivot
Flammarion, £22.50

Barolo and Barbaresco: The King and Queen of Italian Wine

Despite the high esteem that these Italian wines are held in, the last English language book on them came out decades ago. O’Keefe’s book is more than an update, combining profiles of individual growers with an account of the region’s background. It is not a book for those who know nothing about wine making, but for those who do, O’Keefe’s blend of opinion and detail will prove invaluable.

Kerin O’Keefe
University of California Press, £27.95

Land and Wine: The French Terroir

Everyone acknowledges the importance of land in contributing to a wine’s distinctive flavours. Yet it is rare for wine to be analysed from the perspective of a geologist. Frankel takes the reader on a tour of France’s wine regions, ordered by geological era and occasionally getting distracted by fossil finds. Even if soils and stones are not your thing, this book explains the significance of terroir to wine.

Charles Frankel
University of Chicago Press, £19.50