In libro veritas: 6 books about wine that you can't miss

Reading a good book, regardless of the topic it deals with, is a good choice ever, also if talks about wine world.

Of course, wine is a universe based on the "drinking" practice, made up of open bottles and tasted glasses, but it’s a great error to ignore (or forget) the theoretical foundations that lie at its base, real milestones able to guide us on the way of wine knowledge and awareness.

Furthermore, reading a wine book is a transversal topic, recommended regardless of our level of knowledge.

For a neophyte it’s almost an obligatory path, a true necessity to start orienting oneself in this complex but at the same time wonderful jungle, a way to shore up and make the concepts on which to build his future enoic culture.

But even for a long-time enthusiast, reading is often a stimulus to set out on new wine adventures or more simply to expand one's knowledge, also because - as I will never stop saying - the saying “you never stop learning” applies.

But beyond this (usual and useless) opening, what are the best books ever written abou wine, the ones you should absolutely  read?

Good question, which is not at all easy to answer, given that the wine literature is really vast, and every year it is enriched with new titles.

For my part, I tried to give my personal answer to the question, telling you about the books that more than anyone in these years of passion for wine have been able to enrich me.

Given the results they have produced on me, I might suggest that you don't read them (😊), but I'm sure you will be able to make better use of them.

Happy reading, my friend!

 

Vino al Vino - Mario Soldati

It will also be an obvious title, it will be in many ways a heavy tome, apparently unrelated to our days, it will tell the wine in an "ancient" way, light years away from the forms of communication that are the most popular in recent years.

But it remains an essential book, to know and understand what Italian wine was (more or less) 50 years ago: a simple but perfect world, made up of often archaic traditions but perfectly in harmony with nature, place and starting point for the renaissance of our enology.

No country can build its present and plan its future if it does not know - or even worse if it has forgotten - its past.

I don't remember whose sentence this is, but I think it's perfect for the occasion, to testify - if needed - the greatness and cultural importance of this text.

 

 

The Taste of Wine: The Art and Science of Wine Appreciation - Emile Peynaud

If “Vino al Vino” is the Gospel of every wine-lover, this one is surely the Bible, the paper place in which to find the foundations on which to base one's own enoic culture .

A "global" book, translated into many languages ​​and written by one of the father of modern oenology, Emile Peynaud, the one who with his studies and research first revolutionized Bordeaux wines and then influenced - directly or not - the evolution of taste in every part of the globe.

An extremely technical text, therefore not really suitable for those who have recently approached this world - even worse if without knowledge in the oenological field - but very rich in information about any possible wine universe argument.

Rather than reading it as a novel, it should be used as an encyclopedia from which to draw when needed: you will see that you will find the answer you are looking for!

 

 

L’elogio dell’invecchiamento - Andrea Scanzi

Going from a giant of enology like Peynaud to an unconventional journalist like Scanzi is a triple somersault backwards.

It’s clearly a heresy, but the comparison has its own meaning, and the book by Andrea Scanzi - by the way, one of my favorite journalists – doesn’t look bad in front of such monuments.

A light-hearted but at the same time surgical book, that you can read it all in a single breath, becomed a reference in Italian wine.

It provides the writer's vision of the vinous universe, through the story of the great terroirs of our country and some of its most iconic interpreters, but at the same time it is full of funnyanecdotes, which make you smile but also reflect on the distortions that often accompany the world we all love.

In short, a true bestseller on wine, irreverent and transversal as only its author can be.

 

 

World Wine Atlas - Hugh Johnson & Jancis Robinson

The complete work about geography of wine, reprinted in a lot of languages and in countless updated versions.

If you are looking for a wine region, even the most hidden and insignificant, I am sure you will find it inside, otherwise - with good probability - you are wrong.

But, beyond the name, it’s not just a simple "agglomeration" of geographical maps and data - more or less significant - about wine.

It’s above all a text of great depth and importance, which deals every themes related to historiography and current oenological issues: from climatic changes in progress, to the evolution of taste and production techniques and agronomic management, but also the appearance of new realities in the world wine scene, both as producers and as consumers.

 

 

Il Respiro del Vino – Luigi Moio

Probably the last Italian wine-themed book to come out of the enthusiasts corner, becoming (almost) a bestseller.

Written by Luigi Moio, one of the most valid and respected Italian oenologists at international level, it focuses his attention to the origin and evolution of the aromas that we find when we approach our nose to a glass of wine, but in fact it ends up being a very interesting manual.

It’s not a book simply to understand, given the technical and academic approach of its author, but it provides an infinite number of ideas from which to start with the so-called "right questions", so to create our own wine culture, far from the one that critics, experts, self-styled influencers or fashions of the moment try to instill in us.

 

 

Borgogna, le vigne della Côte d'Or - Armando Castagno

If there is an "insider" to whom I would like to look like (not physically, of course ...) it is certainly Armando Castagno, journalist, writer and critic able like no other to combine technical and dissemination skills, and also a good dose of self-irony.

His latest editorial work is a true great book, became a short time a large publishing case, sought after by all fans and reprinted already several times.

A monumental work, imposing also in size and weight, which for the first time in Italy tells the Burgundy of wine, the “final destination” every wine-lover, the homeland of some of the largest - and also expensive - labels in the world, but at the time one of the most complex terroir to know, understand and decode.

A volume in which Castagno, takes the reader for a walk through the vineyards of the Côte d'Or - the best of the best that Burgundy is able to offer - examining every detail with precision but at the same time same with the lightness that distinguishes it.

Reading it in single breath - and above all remembering its contents once finished - is a titanic undertaking, but it is so didactic and interesting that recommending it is the least I can do.