Best food and wine pairing books according to redditors
We found 12 Reddit comments discussing the best food and wine pairing books. We ranked the 9 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 12 Reddit comments discussing the best food and wine pairing books. We ranked the 9 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
Slice pics at https://m.imgur.com/a/5QrGxnQ
The recipe is from this book, check it out! https://www.amazon.com/Covenant-Kitchen-Food-Jewish-Table/dp/0805243259/ref=nodl_
Drink This - Wine Made Simple - Great book for beginners
The Wine Bible
The Essential Scratch and Sniff Guide to Becoming a Wine Expert - Seems like it's a joke, and it sooort of is, but there's some good information there, and the scratch and sniff thing is actually quite useful.
The World Atlas of Wine - Pretty much the ultimate wine book. If you don't want to spend that much on it, consider buying a used copy of the older edition. You can get it for just a few bucks. Obviously it won't be as up to date, but it's still extremely useful.
Pairing Food and Wine for Dummies - John Szabo is legit
Great Wine Made Simple
Up until recently I worked at a book store, these were the books I recommended most frequently to people. If you want ones about specific regions, there are some good ones out there too. These are all more general.
Perfect Pairings
These will keep you busy (and, I hope, enlightened) for a while:
The Science of Wine: Extremely useful for explaining such phenomena as corked wines, volatile acidity, "red wine gives me headaches," etc.
The Wines of Burgundy.
Bordeaux
Vino Italiano
World Encyclopedia of Champagne and Sparkling Wine
James Halliday's Wine Atlas of Australia
John Platter's South African Wine Guide
Wines of South America Monty Waldin is a bit eccentric for my tastes, but he knows what he's talking about.
The Wines of Spain This is due for revision (last one was 2006), but still excellent.
I have yet to find a satisfactory all-around book on German wines. Any suggestions would be appreciated!
Skip the bartending course, that's a scam. All the receipes you need you can just google, and the "practical experience" of a classroom setting is meaningless. Save your cash and buy these books:
If you're serious about bartending:
http://www.amazon.com/Bartenders-Black-Book-Updated-Edition/dp/1934259179
If you're serious about serving (fine dining):
http://www.amazon.com/New-Food-Lovers-Companion/dp/1438001630/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408551678&sr=1-1&keywords=food+lovers+companion+2014
If you're serious about making big money serving:
http://www.amazon.com/Wine-Dummies-McCarthy/dp/1118288726/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408551722&sr=1-1&keywords=wine+for+dummies+2014
I've been looking for something similar. I have read Tasting Beer and am currently reading Tasting Whiskey. I love the format of both of them.
Most wine books I've found are much easier to read by section as a reference than to read straight through. If you've looked at the Oxford Companion to Beer, a lot of them are kind of like that (and not just the Oxford Companion to Wine).
In order of most narrative to most reference I recommend:
Wine for Dummies (not kidding, nor to be confused with An Idiot's Guide to Wine)
Kevin Zraly's Windows on the World Complete Wine Course (reminds me of Bernstein's Complete Beer Course)
The Wine Bible
The World Atlas of Wine
The Oxford Companion to Wine
I once tried to read A Beer Drinker's Guide to Knowing and Enjoying Fine Wine. I couldn't read much of it because its tone seemed a little too... forced conversational.
Surround yourself with people that are as enthusiastic about it as you. It will make it so much easier to study and retain information if you have people around you that you can talk to about it. As far as books go, I use 3.
Exploring Wine for extensive base knowledge of laws and history.
The World Atlas of Wine for maps of every wine producing area in the world.
Wine Lovers Companion for glossary terms and definitions.
If you can afford to, a subscription to Guild Somm will be so incredibly helpful. Wine law is updated as it comes out, news and podcasts about latest trends in the industry, lots of like minded folks to discuss stuff with. It's a fantastic tool.
Lastly, don't get intimidated. It's a big BIG BIG world of wine, larger than most people assume, but it's beautiful once you're immersed in it.
This is also the theory behind pairing drinks with food. The right wine or beer will elevate a dish and the food will enhance the drink. The wrong pairing will leave your tongue cringing, even if each item from the pair is good on its own.
Kris Brower's Ingredient Pairings is a reference work that's helpful for this. The book is just lists of what goes with what else. It's available for Kindle for $1.
Downloaded but Amazon charged me for it, not sure why :(
Edit: the problem is that there is another version of the book which costs $14.95. The free one is this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GD3U8HW/ (kindle edition)