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Recommended Wine Tasting Books 
Pursue your Journey and Improve your Wine Tasting Skills

Reading well documented wine tasting books help will you reinforce some learnings, deepen a topic of your interest, and connect sensory perceptions to winemaking practices or wine regions particularities. This is true wherever you are in your wine education journey.

This article categorizes wine tasting books according to your proficiency on the topic. 

  • For beginners
  • For motivated wine students and professionals
  • For all wine lovers

All these books sit on my bookshelf in my home office. I have read them and used them for teaching wine professionals and students in enology. They may not be the most recent, however they are solid references on the subject of wine and wine tasting.

Wine Tasting Books for Beginners

These 3 references are the instructor favorite books. Jancis Robinson and Hugh Johnson have inspired many students and became role models for aspiring wine journalists and sommeliers. I refer often to the Wine Atlas when I am not familiar with a grape variety or a wine region.


Wine Tasting Books for Motivated Students and Professionals

Ron Jackson's book is a must read for all wine students. It provides the scientific background behind wine tasting.

The section dedicated to Sensory Perceptions and Wine Assessment provides the fundamentals and practical applications of sensory methods to wine evaluation.

 Wine Science is a well written textbook that I referred to often when teaching sensory evaluation of wine.

Sensory Evaluation Techniques is the textbook I recommend for students willing to learn the basics of Sensory Evaluation. I was fortunate to meet the authors when they published the first edition of this classic and still have my autographed copy in my office.

Sensory Evaluation of Food is the book I rely on when teaching sensory evaluation at a more advanced level.

The two authors have delivered a tasting resource covering the whole field of sensory science, from the fundamentals of sensory perceptions to the statistical analysis of sensory data.

Managing Wine Quality is a technical book in which Ann C. Noble and I co-wrote a chapter on the sensory analysis of wine. I recommend it if you are student enologist or a wine professional interested to get information from renowned academics.

For the scientists at heart!

Wine Tasting Books for All Wine Lovers

I was just starting my journey as a sensory scientist and I read Perfume (translated in French) in a couple of days. This is a reference on how descriptive words can evoke so vividly odors and aromas. As the reader, you are transported in the streets to Paris and I often had the illusion to smell what the author was describing.

Natalie MacClean is a Canadian acclaimed wine writer who has a great sense of humor. I was laughing out loud reading her adventures touring wineries.

This book is by a French journalist, Bernard Pivot, who loves the French language and French wines. His "Dictionary in love with wine" is a true delight to read.

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