Wine Book Reviews

A book review of “Beyond Flavour”

by  |  19-06-2020

It’s incredible to think that the act of blind wine tasting has gone from a state of complete oblivion by the public at large to now being one the niftiest, wowiest party tricks one can... more »

A book review of “Women Winemakers: Personal Odysseys”

by  |  14-05-2020

We’re at a point in time, where anyone who pulls out the “Some women in wine!” listicle on International Women’s Day needs to be shamed. Actually I take that back, they need to be pilloried... more »

Reviews of wine books for every occasion

by  |  23-04-2020

A fine pub quiz fact is that William Shakespeare and Cervantes both died on April 23rd, albeit in different years. But this coincidence, as well as others, eventually set the stage for World Book Day... more »

A book review of “Sherry. Maligned, Misunderstood, Magnificent!”

by  |  07-04-2020

Watching a webinar on Sherry recently, the host made the most salient, yet cutting of opening comments, “Like most people in the wine trade, you probably all love Sherry but despite this, it’s a tough... more »

A book review of “The Concise Guide to Wine & Blind Tasting 3rd Ed.”

by  |  27-02-2020

Not terribly long ago, I reviewed the second edition of Neel Burton’s foundational tome on tasting wines blind. Towards the end of 2018, he brought out a revised third edition which probably makes anyone with... more »

A book review of “Corkscrew”

by  |  21-11-2019

The pursuit of writing fiction set in the world of wine is a noble albeit generally futile one. I’ve reviewed previous attempts and it’s often the case that the author is trying to just slap... more »

A book review of “The wines of northern Spain”

by  |  05-11-2019

Despite Spain’s rubbing shoulders with France and Italy in terms of total wine produced, the number of texts about the country has always paled in comparison to these other two behemoths. It’s so dire in... more »

A book review of “Darjeeling: A History of the World’s Greatest Tea”

by  |  06-07-2019

Unlike when you see a retro laundromat façade and then walk inside to discover a hipster coffee shop with $15 avocado toast, Jeff Koehler’s “Darjeeling: A History of the World’s Greatest Tea” is not an... more »

A book review of “Root Cause”

by  |  15-04-2019

For anyone involved in wine, it’s almost always the case that “pleasure reading” is some kind of dense tome from which a rare beast called, “fact” is derived. Fiction based upon wine is perhaps an... more »

A book review of “Wine Folly: Magnum edition”

by  |  21-01-2019

In the later part of 2018, a new printing of the Wine Folly series by Madeline Puckette and Justin Hammack came to market but instead of being the self-published affair that was the previous book,... more »