The best wine education books for a beginner wine drinker

Since starting to drink wine, I’ve digested many books, magazines, and blogs on the subject. If you’re new to wine now, you may be wondering what the best wine books for a beginner drinker are. I mean, it’s pretty disappointing to spend $20 on a wine book that’s corked.

Great Wine Made Simple by Andrea Immer

Hands down, my favorite book when I was just beginning was Great Wine Made Simple by Andrea Immer. As one of only 160 Master Sommeliers in the world, Immer is more than qualified to write an educational book on wine. It’s the most accessible book I’ve come across, and it helped me to start to understand wine and compartmentalize the constant barrage of different flavors and aromas.

One of the true strengths of the book is that Immer emphasizes what she calls the “Big Six”, which are the world’s most famous grape varietals: Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Merlot, Pinot Noir, and Cabernet Sauvignon. With fun and quick tastings centered on wines made with these varietals, beginners can get a sense of 80% of what’s on the market in a very short amount of time.

Also, in an early chapter, Immer teaches beginners how to read a wine label and what information you can glean from one. This skill may sound less than exciting, but it’s helped me enjoy many bottles that I’ve chosen just from reading the back of the bottle.

The Wine Bible by Karen MacNeil

The other book I’d recommend for a new wine drinker is The Wine Bible by Karen MacNeil. A prolific wine writer, MacNeil has written an exhaustive reference guide to wine. The Wine Bible is very well organized, which makes looking up random information fast and easy. After about 100 pages of wine basics, the remainder of the book’s 900 pages is devoted to talking about wine from the world’s great wine regions.

Wine 101 — Our online wine education resource

A good place to go online to learn about the basics of drinking wine is (oddly enough!) here on our website. Wine 101 focuses on teaching beginners to think of wine according to different wine styles. With four styles each for red and white wine, you can start to group different wine tastes, which makes choosing new wines to try much easier. Check it out.

Check out these related posts:

1. First entry in a Beginner’s Wine Journal
2. Introducing our new wine aroma chart
3. Confessions of a former California Cabernet drinker
4. The first tasting — Smooth vs. Bold wines
5. Map of wine regions in Spain and Portugal from De Long