✒ The Most Notable Wine Books of The Year 2024

Reviewed by Brian St Pierre

Unaffected by adverse weather, or a lot of noise about hard seltzer and other odd beverages, or tariffs, taxes, and social-media influencers showing off, wine books had a very good vintage in 2024, with a lot of useful information well-presented informally, a welcome sort of literate climate change right across the wine spectrum. “Best” can be terribly subjective, but these certainly stood out as notable, as well as commendably accessible.

Towering, monumental:

THE AUSTRALIAN ARK, by Andrew Caillard MWIt’s subtitled “The story of Australian wine,” and at three volumes of 1,710 pages, weighing in at 5.7 kg, that initial claim is staked honestly, and the follow-through (it’s extremely well-written, researched, and illustrated) can’t be challenged either. However well we may have thought we knew many of the remarkable stories of the colourful visionaries who challenged the awesome landscapes of that “strange, inhospitable, hinterland,” and whose disasters, glories, and incredible results still abound, there are more discoveries here, never before so artfully gathered and arrayed.

This is simply monumental, taking us from Captain James Cook’s first voyage to Australia in 1770 and the settlement at Botany Bay (“as dangerous during the 18th century as sending a man to the moon in the 1960s,” Caillard states) to the present, which he calls “heat and dust-ups,” graced by legendary figures like Len Evans as well as the newest generation of winemakers pushing boundaries, Kylie Minogue, sustainability, and still, perhaps inevitably, more growing pains, in every sense.

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Offbeat, upbeat, and wonderful:

WHO’S AFRAID OF ROMANEE-CONTI?: a Shortcut to Drinking Great Wines, by Dan Keeling From one of the founders ofa genially disruptive magazine and mini-chain of sophisticated bistros called Noble Rot, this collection of essays, useful tips and asides, jokes and pokes at conventional wisdom, and oddly angled photos may seem to traditionalists like a throw-it-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks hodgepodge, but it’s really just a cool approach to relaxing into the multitude of available wine opportunities, away from the old-fashioned “passive respect for hierarchy” that has made many of us feel as if we’re sitting in a hard chair listening to a rote recital instead of enjoying one of life’s greatest pleasures. For one thing, it opens the door to numerous pleasant discoveries, some of which are also bargains; for another, why shouldn’t an article on Swiss wine rest comfortably near one on vin jaune just before jostling another on the mysterious joys of Viognier, if all are up for an easy-going good time? It’s like a box of superb chocolates – dip in anywhere and be rewarded.

WINE CONFIDENT: There’s No Wrong Way to Enjoy Wine, by Kelli White And here’s that word again!The fact that “enjoy” is right there in the title is a good tipoff to its intent, as a former sommelier and fluent writer re-introduces us to wine from that angle. You might think, looking at its many sidebars, exuberant exhortations, concise “pro tips” and wealth of question-and-answer cheerleading, that you’re on a forced march to fun, but the author’s genial self-confidence and well-judged self-effacing approach thoroughly reinforce the promise of the title. It’s fundamental rather than basic, and if you’ve ever had a genial chat with a sommelier that led to a delicious step or two up, you’ll appreciate this array of pleasant reminders.

A SEASON FOR THAT: Lost and Found in the Other Southern France, by Steve Hoffman The premise is made clear from the start – as Mark Twain put it a long time ago, “The gentle reader will never, never know what a consummate ass he can become, until he goes abroad." Hoffman, a quietly inhibited tax accountant from the staid American Midwest who’s fairly fluent in French after a postgraduate stint in Paris that left him hopelessly in love with France, drags his wife and young kids off to a village in the Languedoc, on a haphazard voyage of discovery, ranging through gastronomic, emotional, and embarrassingly personal turns. In the end, he’s saved by wine, unsentimentally, literally from the ground up, pruning vines, picking grapes and getting involved in making it, sharing aches, pains, cuts and bruises--and new pleasures – with his neighbours, and us, finally becoming enlightened, often very funny company (and, eventually, an award-winning food and wine writer). It would take a heart of stone to read this book and not fall in love with wine all over again.

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Terroir indeed – senses of places:

ON TUSCANY: From Brunello to Bolgheri, Wine Tales from the Heart of Italy Another first-rate anthology from the Academie du Vin Library, featuring Hugh Johnson, David Gleave MW, Andrew Jefford, Burton Anderson, Jane Anson, D.H. Lawrence, Nick Belfrage MW and many others who’ve yielded to the numerous seductions of that fabled place, and are happy to tell us why we should join them.

VINES IN A COLD CLIMATE, by Henry Jeffreys This one came out at the end of 2023, and now it’s here in paperback, an amiable, well-told tale of how a gaggle of winemakers and a few unlikely helpers, almost united by a slightly hazy sense of destiny and private definitions of topography, created something that can now be called, without irony or sarcasm, an English wine industry.

WINES OF THE LOIRE VALLEY, by Beverly Blanning MW The Loire is France’s longest river, and the valley offers an abundance of vineyards and wine, picturesque castles, glorious views and good cheer (I once got lost there, and it was a pleasant experience). Now, here’s a good guide as well. A sturdy paperback (in the Infinite Ideas series, now owned by Academie du Vin Library), it’s an excellent companion, and the timing couldn’t be better, as the region is having a renaissance, with widespread organic certification and a stronger sense of “faithful expression of their terroirs” by a new generation bringing “youthful energy and alternative perspectives” to what had become a rather staid region. Blanning captures it all quite well convincingly persuading us to take another look, and a lot of pleasant tastes.

THE WINES OF PIEMONTE, by David Way Another similar sturdy paperback from the same stable, this is something of an update and roundup of the scene in that noble art of the world; the author is an educator and writer for the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, and his approach is methodical, thorough and down-to-earth. As elsewhere, a new generation is picking up the pace of change, and of course have some of the best natural resources in the world to work with, and it’s exhilarating to see what’s being done – and to look forward to the results.

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Deep dive of the year:

ONE THOUSAND VINES: A New Way to Understand Wine, by Pascaline Lepeltier The author was voted “best French sommelier” a few years ago, one of a string of awards she’s collected; she also won an award for “best French worker.” Here’s evidence of both those, although the original French subtitle – “thinking about tomorrow’s wine” – may be better proof of her intent. In many ways, this is an awesome undertaking, passionately downloading an avalanche of knowledge of wine, from the roots up (literally) to the glass that sits before us, connecting dots among history, soil, science, and joy we may not have even known existed, inviting, even demanding: “Given the distressing and stultifying environmental and political crises that are raging,” she concludes, “living wine offers joyful ways to resist a system that wishes to see us dispirited, delimited, and deprived of meaning… by educating our palate, the needed revolution will be possible.” I don’t know about you, but I’m happy to join her on the barricades. And grateful to her for this roar of reminder. Allons, enfants!

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