I was asked this week to recommend some good wine books for beginners. More accurately, books aimed at helping people teach themselves how to better taste and evaluate wines.

As you might expect, there are lots of options on the market and it all rather depends what sort of approach you like the best.

I think one of the most lucid and helpful books that is out now is Michael Shuster’s Essential WInetasting (£16.99). I know of people who have taken part in his courses in London, which one friend described “as the most informative, fun class she had ever undertaken”. As ‘how to’ guides go, this is among the very best.

You are talked through the skill of tasting and there follows an explanation on the making of wine and a look at some of the best-known varieties.

You do not have to move through the book page by page. It is easy enough to dip in and out of; something you can do with pleasure in between taking part in the practical tasting exercises that are included at the end of the book.

I just love it and I think it is fair to say that even more experienced tasters will get something out of it.

Another favourite of mine is Jancis Robinson’s Wine Tasting Workbook (£14.99) which was first published back in 1983 and is as fresh and useful as it was then.

It is reassuringly mumsy but, as with all of her books, there is a light-hearted edge to the writing and you get useful tips on when and where to taste, the sort of glasses to use and how to “spit with confidence”.

A further advantage of this book is the inclusion of comparative exercises that encourage you to taste the likes of Chardonnay against Riesling.

Alongside these practical tests are useful guides as to what to look for and this really helps you work towards identifying individual grape varieties in blind tastings.

An altogether less serious guide is Simon Woods’ I don’t know much about wine… but I know what I like (£4.99). It is a snappy, light-hearted read that is as focused on increasing consumers’ buying confidence as it is in helping you become an effective taster.

Indeed, his wine tasting advice runs to three succinct pages but it does include all the important stuff, and if you are looking to impress at tonight’s dinner party, it is easily digestible on the train journey home from work.

If I had to choose the books of just one writer to take to a desert island I can say with absolute confidence that I’d choose those of Michael Broadbent every time. I love his concise, well-informed and witty prose.

Happily, he too has written a guide, entitled Michael Broadbent’s Wine Tasting (£16.95). It is a slim edition, packed full of brilliantly useful information; including how to record tasting notes and he also gives help with getting to grips with wine terms.

There are plenty of others around and some wine tasting kits too. My advice though, is to give these a wide berth and get in your own wines, a few decent tasting glasses and arm yourself with a good book.

It is much more fun and, I guarantee, you will learn a whole heap more.

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