"A glass of the house red,” we mutter before we can stop ourselves, disappointed with our lack of knowledge.
How on earth does one become a wine snob? How are we supposed to tell our Malbecs from Grenaches? Words and phrases like “skin contact”, “acidity” and “tannins” come to mind without any real knowledge of their meaning in a bid to flex the little expertise we can muster and prove we're an oenophile once and for all.
Even with years of pint-pulling under one’s belt, the sprawling wine menu with its minuscule font seems to unravel below us like some kind of ancient scroll. We may know that a delicious glass of red would be wonderful with the meal we had in mind – but without a clue of where to start, it's time to hit the books.
We spoke to wine writer and broadcaster Hannah Crosbie, founder of Dalston Wine Club. She explains that “Unless you’re privy to parents opening a nice bottle, or you work in a restaurant where you can do wine tastings, opportunities to taste really aren’t there or are too expensive.”
She urges us to “Dig a little bit deeper into why you like the ones that you like. Once you are armed with that information, then you can walk into any bottle shop, any restaurant, and you can come back with one that you’ll enjoy”. Whether it be the “steely minerality” of a Provence rosé or the “juicy, fruitiness” of a Californian Chardonnay, it’s about finding your own ways to describe your highly personal tastes and then letting an in-house expert get you to your destination.
Though the writings of Oz Clarke and The Noble Rot have helped Crosbie to explore and develop her own tastes, there comes a certain point where you “just have to drink the stuff,” as the wine connoisseur puts it herself. What’s more, you don’t have to spend a fortune to try brilliant wine. One of Crosbie’s favourite supermarket options is a German Riesling from Waitrose, which is currently on offer for just £7.49.
Regarding wine pairings, Crosbie encourages us to break traditional rules. “This generation tends to be a bit more adventurous with their food pairings. They want to drink rosé in the winter, or chilled reds in the summer. They might want to pair red wine with fish, and white wine with red meat.”
This is because younger generations are pairing their wines on a situational basis, according to Crosbie. “I get a lot of people asking for wine advice in my DMs. But it’s never 'Oh, I’m having salmon tonight and I’m not sure what to drink'. It’s 'I’m meeting my girlfriend’s parents for the first time tonight, what should I bring?' Or, 'My friend is hosting a barbeque and I don’t know what to bring'.”
“I think that this new generation of communicators is finding their own language,” states Crosbie - and that is all part of the fun. Learning about wine need not be so serious. Trial, error and build your knowledge by pairing literature and bottle - responsibly, of course.
Alongside simply drinking the stuff, we’ve curated a selection of the best books about wine to help you find your own voice when it comes to drinking, talking about, and ordering wine.
Snobbery is imminent, dear friends.
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Corker by Hannah Crosbie
Nicknamed ‘the Nigella of wine’, Crosbie’s debut book is a highly informal guide to the often inaccessible world of oenophiles. The title itself reflects the author's tongue-in-cheek manner of dealing with the fermented grape elixir – depending on how you choose to read it, double-entendre might refer to an absolute ‘corker’ of a wine, or that one friend who has a history of ruining a bottle due to a significant lack of dexterity. We tend to represent the latter camp.
Crosbie has crafted this how-to with both novices and wine lovers in mind. From choosing the best bottle for highly specific occasions to a dedicated glossary filled to the brim with much-confused vinous terms, she’s got your back.
Buy now £15.63, Amazon
Wine by the Glass by Oz Clarke
Clarke’s writing feels like a warm, loving embrace for wine novices. Split into easy-to-navigate sections, Wine by the Glass covers all the basics – from a quick guide to the geography of wine and how to read a label to becoming a veritable wine geek and learning to differentiate tasting notes. Handholding without being patronising, Clarke is simply on a mission to help readers re-discover the flavours and styles that the author already enjoys.
Buy now £14.99, Waterstones
The Noble Rot Book: Wine from Another Galaxy by Dan Keeling and Mark Andrew
What began as a humble gastronomical magazine in 2013 has since burst into a small constellation of restaurants dotted around the heart of central London – in Bloomsbury, Soho and Mayfair. Founded by uber-cool music man Dan Keeling and Master of Wine, Mark Andrew – the creative powerhouse of a duo came together in 2020 to write what has since become a canonical text for wine lovers across the globe. Despite the far-out nature of this guide’s title, Keeling and Andrew bring seemingly mystical wines back down to earth with irreverent wit, invaluable insight and humour.
Buy now £15.68, Amazon
To Fall in Love, Drink This by Alice Feiring
If you prefer your gastronomical texts in memoir form, look no further than Alice Feiring’s beautifully charismatic and wonderfully unique To Fall in Love, Drink This. The seasoned wine writer identifies major milestones throughout her life through the lens of wine and its controversial power to simultaneously heighten and subdue emotions. Split into a series of short essays, Feiring recounts oftentimes unbearable emotional trauma, finishing off her cathartic outpouring of emotion with its relevant wine pairing. Brilliantly astute and morbidly hilarious, this is a must-have for those who tend to conflate emotional experiences with what we consume.
Buy now £15.33, Amazon
Wine Simple: A Very Approachable Guide from an Otherwise Serious Sommelier by Aldo Sohm
Sometimes, experts in their fields are so inextricably clever that they find it impossible to translate their overwhelming knowledge to interested novices. This is not the case for world-renowned sommelier Aldo Sohm. Together with Christine Muhlke, Sohm has created an impeccably simple guide to wine featuring aesthetically pleasing and easy-to-follow infographics which detail the fundamentals of wine, alongside some expert tips. For instance, Sohm reveals that the idea that the heavier the bottle, the better the wine is a myth created by the marketing departments of the cabernet world. Scandalous.
Buy now £21.35, Amazon
Hugh Johnson Pocket Wine 2024
The yearly pocket guide on every wine snob’s Christmas list, you’ll certainly find this text propped up against the tills at your local Waterstones as soon as the sun rises on September 1. A genuine bible for wine lovers across the country, Johnson’s Pocket Wine is currently in its 47th year of publication. Whether you’re a commercial or personal buyer, this 336-page up-to-the-minute piece of literature covers what’s à la mode in the world of wine. With this in your back pocket, you’ll be the best bottle buyer amongst friends and family in no time.
Buy now £14.99, Waterstones
La Buvette: Recipes and Wine Notes from a Tiny Paris Shop by Camille Fourmont and Kate Leahy
On the corner of Rue Saint-Maur in Paris sits a seemingly innocuous, yet incredibly buzzy wine bar that exudes unbeatable Parisian style and taste from the moment you enter its doors. From the tables, chairs and glassware to the tiny wine shop’s regulars, everything about La Buvette is almost unbearably cool. In this book, the owners Camille Fourmont and Kate Leahy take us through the pillars of je ne sais quoi French entertaining, including top tips when it comes to selecting wine and sourcing the perfect dinnerware.
Buy now £18.15, Amazon
You Had Me at Pet-Nat: A Natural Wine-Soaked Memoir by Rachel Signer
Let’s be real, we’ve all curated our very own Pinterest board detailing exactly who we’d like to be. Forget New Year’s resolutions, it is photo collages of Jane Birkin in the 70s that truly inspire us to reinvent ourselves year-on-year. Rachel Signer certainly felt the same at one stage, and in this memoir which details her life as a freelance journalist and waitress in NYC, the author surprises herself by discovering a different catalyst for reinvention: pétillant-naturel, a type of wine made without additives or chemicals.
Buy now £17.72, Amazon
Which Wine When: What to drink with the food you love
For those simply looking to impress dinner party attendees with an immaculate knowledge of traditional wine pairings, look no further than Bert Blaize and Claire Strickett’s confidence-boosting guide. From small bites and takeaways to extravagant five-course meals, it’s on these pages that you’ll find your perfect match every time.
Buy now £10.95, Amazon
