Five Great Wine Books Written by Women to Help With Your Studies
While the wine world often gets a rep as an “Old Boys Club,” there are tons of fantastic women wine writers out there with books that deserve to be on any wine student’s bookshelf. With March 8th being International Women’s Day, we wanted to highlight five great books by women authors that we think are particularly valuable for wine students who are preparing for advanced exams.
Now we could have certainly made this a list of 30+ favorites from our own collections that are filled with books from Jancis Robinson, Karen MacNeil, Jane Anson, Liz Thach, Serena Sutcliffe, Rosemary George, Sarah Jane Evans, Kerin O'Keefe, Rebecca Gibb, Caroline Gilby, Suzanne Mustacich, Wink Lorch, Janet Z. Wang, Elizabeth Schneider, Madeline Puckette, Jennifer Simonetti-Bryan, Deborah M. Gray, Marian W. Baldy, Katherine Cole, Kelli White, Isabelle Legeron, Essi Avellan, Britt Karlsson, Elin McCoy, Petie Kladstrup, Mary Ewing-Mulligan and I’m sure at least a dozen more women authors that we’ve missed.
However, we wanted to highlight 5 particular books from women wine writers that are likely not yet in the library of many students but are ones that we feel can make a real difference in your wine studies.
Note: The title links go to the Amazon page for each of the books we’re recommending with Elevage Wine Coaching making a small commission from any sale on those pages. However, while we do see value in purchasing used books from Amazon, at sometimes considerable cost savings, we also encourage folks to buy directly from the publisher/author when they can so you’ll also find links to the publisher and author’s websites for each.
1.) The Dirty Guide to Wine by Alice Feiring and Pascaline Lepeltier
Countryman Press/W.W. Norton & Co. (2017)
Alice Feiring has several excellent books with probably her best known being The Battle for Wine and Love: or How I Saved the World from Parkerization (2009). Many of her books, along with her writings on The Feiring Line focus on Natural Wine. The Dirty Guide to Wine, which she co-authored with Master Sommelier Pascaline Lepeltier is also written from a natural wine perspective but is an awesome introduction to vineyard soils around the world.
Covering an expansive list of major soil types from Igneous (basalt, tuff, granite), Sedimentary (limestone, silex, shale, clay, gravel, diatomaceous rock) and Metamorphic (slate, schist, gneiss, amphibolite), Feiring and Lepeltier highlight the major wine regions that are known for each soil type and the tasting profile they associate with them. The concluding pages of each chapter also feature handy “Cheat Sheets” for students expanding on some of the climate details and grape varieties associated with each of the regions. And I absolutely adore the last chapter on Alsace with its “mosaic of terroirs” that includes a super useful cheat sheet on the very diverse soils across all 51 Grand Cru sites.
2.) Rosé: Understanding the pink wine revolution by Elizabeth Gabay MW
Classic Wine Library (2018)
We have 2 books from the Classic Wine Library series on this list and many of the women authors I mentioned above are also published here. The folks at Infinite Ideas have done a wonderful job of finding experts across the world of wine to author their books. And when it comes to rosé wine, no one is more brilliant and authoritative on the category than Elizabeth Gabay.
Chapter 2 on the many different viticulture and winemaking options when it comes to rosé production is a must-read that will have wine students highlighting and annotating like crazy. But throughout the book, I think you’ll be startled at the vast breadth and diversity of rosés across the globe from the Balkans to South America; Italy and Germany to Virginia and Long Island; Australia and New Zealand to Portugal, Spain and the huge amount of French rosés made outside of Provence. Believe me, after reading this book, you’ll never Think Pink! the same way again.
3.) The Wines of Germany by Anne Krebiehl MW
Classic Wine Library (2019)
AHHHHH! Germany! Few spots on the wine map trigger more terror and apprehension among wine students. There are many different regions and sub-regions (Like you have the Mosel but also the Middle Mosel, the terraced Mosel of Burg Cochem, Upper Mosel, Saarland, Ruwertal, etc,), all the different label terms and wine laws as well different names for grape varieties (Spätburgunder, Grauburgunder, Rivaner, Silvaner, Schwarzriesling, Lemberger, Trollinger) and so many crossings!
Then what in the world is going on with sparkling Sekt? Tank method or traditional method? German grapes or grapes shipped in bulk from Italy and elsewhere? It’s enough to make your head explode and give you die Angst!
If any of that sounds like you, then you are going to SO appreciate this book. Krebiehl cuts through the web of a lot of the German complexities and gives fascinating background context to how these many different laws, wine styles and grape varieties emerged. Two key chapters for wine students are Chapter 3 on Riesling (with some intriguing insights about the science behind the petrol TDN note) and Chapter 4 on Spätburgunder/Pinot noir. While Riesling may not be surprising, a lot of wine students (especially those outside Europe) are not as familiar with the different styles and regionality of the country that is the third-largest producer of Pinot noir in the world (yes, really!). This book will make sure you’re not caught off guard if one pops up on your tasting exam or you get a theory question about the regions known for the grape.
4.) The South America Wine Guide: The definitive guide to wine in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia & Peru by Amanda Barnes
Self-published. (2021) Can purchase direct from SouthAmericaWineGuide.com
Amanda Barnes has been one of my favorite content creators for a while. The South American Wine Guide site I linked above is a must-bookmark as is her blog Around the World in 80 Harvests and YouTube channel. I’ve learned so much from her winemaker interviews and harvest videos that I was uber excited when I heard this book was coming out.
Compared to intimidating Germany, the wines of South America risk being oversimplified by wine students. You got Malbec & Torrontes in Argentina, Carmenere and lots of good value wine from Chile, Tannat in Uruguay, the Andes, the Amazon, pisco and there you go! While that’s certainly fine for regular consumers and introductory level wine students—if you really want to start knowing enough to get dangerous then you need to dive deeper and this is a fantastic guide for that journey.
One of the biggest eye-openers for me with this book was the immense diversity of Malbec styles from across Argentina. Even under the catchall umbrella of “Mendoza” (home to nearly 3/4 of all Argentina’s production), there’s a huge range of styles for this pretty terroir-sensitive grape from lower altitude San Rafael in Southern Mendoza to Luján de Cuyo with its subzones of Agrelo and Las Compuertas leading up to the towering heights of Gualtallary in the Tupungato subregion of the Uco Valley.
And that’s just barely scratching the surface of all the tremendous insights you’ll learn about Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru and Uruguay. I guarantee that this will be a reference that you’ll come back to repeatedly.
5.) Sherry: A Modern Guide to the Wine World's Best-Kept Secret, with Cocktails and Recipes by Talia Baiocchi
Ten Speed Press/Crown Publishing (2014)
There are quite a few good books on Sherry out there but a lot of them are admittedly quite dry. They’ll cover all the details about production methods and the different styles of Sherry as well as the immense history behind this legendary wine—which is great. But one thing that they often don’t do is tackle some frequent questions that appear on wine exams—how do you market Sherry and make the category relevant to new consumers?
While Talia Baiocchi, the founder and editor-in-chief of PUNCH, certainly goes into the same details about production methods, styles and history, what sets her book apart is that she does try to answer these questions. Chapter 4 on the Modern Sherry Renaissance is chock-full of great examples and insights that are great for wine students to keep in their back pocket while the last couple chapters featuring many different Sherry cocktail recipes and food pairings are guaranteed to leave you both hungry and thirsty. It’s certainly a fresh look for a very important fortified wine.
