Must Haves for your Wine Bookshelf: The World Atlas of Wine (9th Edition), Your Tasting Brain, and Heart of Glass

What brings more joy than swirling and sipping a glass of choice wine? How about savoring it whilst flipping through a superb book about (what else?) wine?

Clear space on your bookshelf for these three outstanding recent book releases. The 9th edition of The World Atlas of Wine is an indispensable handbook for wine lovers, with 240 insanely detailed maps. The Heart of Glass: Riedel and the Art of Taste showcases how this glass producer created the modern wine glass and permanently altered the lifestyle of wine enthusiasts. Randy Mosher's Your Tasting Brain: A Sensory Approach to Wine, Beer, and Other Pleasures provides scientific background on taste and a roadmap to launch you on your tasting journey.

Your Tasting Brain: A Sensory Approach to Wine, Beer, and Other Pleasures

By Randy Mosher

The University of Chicago Press, US$35

Randy Mosher is a food writer and creative consultant who teaches at the Siebel Institute of Technology brewing school. He is also the guru of taste.

Mosher details how our bodies translate smell, taste, and mouthfeel into flavor. He visits in depth how the 50 to 100 taste buds translate sensations into sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and umami. He even goes one step beyond, introducing us to kokumi. Kokumi isn't a basic taste; it enriches foods with a silky, palate-filling mouthfeel. It can double the intensity of other flavors.

Your Tasting Brain explores the
scientific and practical sides of tasting

Smell is likewise complicated, with more than 400 olfactory receptors. He introduces us to concepts such as Zarzo's odor cube, a model that locates different aroma types within its 3D frame. Another concept is the Bouba-Kiki effect. The idea is that "round sounds" like the nonsense word bouba have affinities for rounded shapes and plush textures, while sharp, bright-sounding words, like "kiki," correspond to spiky shapes, high pitches, and sharp sounds or objects. This also carries through to flavor components like sweetness, sourness, and astringency.

A oenophile can really nerd out. The book has a second section, which is dedicated to practical tasting. Fascinating details are included for tasting wine, mead, beer, spirits, coffee, tea, and more. I also especially enjoyed two nuggets. He discusses petrichor, the scent that arrives in advance of a long-delayed rain. He also shares the "world's stinkiest chemical." It is called thioacetone and is described as "Hell's dumpster." In the 1960s, scientists were studying one drop in a small dish, and its nauseating odor was detected up to a quarter mile away within seconds.

This is a book rich in scientific information about how our brain and senses work together to create what we call taste. It is also full of practical and fun information.

The World Atlas of Wine, 9th Edition

By Hugh Johnson, Jancis Robinson and Julia Harding

Octopus Publishing Group, US$75

The first edition of The World Atlas of Wine appeared in 1971 and has been dubbed an essential and authoritative wine reference. The book is written by wine icons Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson, working with esteemed maps editor Julia Harding.

Grape vines in Argentina,
photo by Dave Nershi

The book is 432 pages in length, including an expanded introductory section. Included in the introductory chapter is a section on climate change. One startling graphic shows Chardonnay distribution in Europe in 2000 and projected for 2100. Most of the Iberian Peninsula, Italy, and southern France will be unable to grow Chardonnay in 2100, while the grape could flourish in the southern half of the British Isles, Denmark, southeast Norway, and parts of western Russia.

The writing gives a concise overview of each country and wine region. It makes for fascinating reading, but the maps are the true stars. It is remarkable to be able to see, for example, a wine map of Georgia with the regions of Tsinandali and Mukuzani indicated -- I've tasted the wine, and this puts it in context.

Attention to detail with these maps is superb. Reviewing the map of Argentina, I was able to see the location of two beloved wineries that we visited in Cafayate: El Esteco and Piatelli. With the many changes in US AVAs, it's outstanding to be able to pinpoint Candy Mountain and Royal Slope in Washington.

In short, this is a book in which to immerse yourself. It helps you relive favorite trips and bottles, and inspires you to learn more about distant locales yet to be visited (Bulgaria, anyone?). Grab this latest edition and unwrap the world of wine.

 Maximilian Josef Riedel, Photo courtesy 
RIEDEL, Heart of Glass, teNeues 2026

Heart of Glass: Riedel and the Art of Taste

By Maximilian Josef Riedel and Bianca Öller

teNeus, US$90

For 270 years and 11 generations, the Riedel family has balanced the heat of the glass furnace with a cool, visionary eye for design. The turning point for the modern wine glass came when ninth-generation leader Claus Josef Riedel discovered that the glass's shape, size, and rim diameter directly impact the way wine is perceived by the senses.

The 224-page book is coffee-table-sized and is filled with historical insight into the Riedel glass empire. The gorgeous photos have a starring role, capturing 18th- and 19th-century art glass, production work from the brand's earliest beginnings to stunning shots of contemporary glassware and collections.

Today, Maximilian Joseph Riedel travels 250 days a year, inspiring wine lovers through Riedel Glass Experiences, which demonstrate how varietal-specific wine glasses can enhance the tasting experience. 

Heart of Glass takes you behind the scenes to the challenges of yesterday and the production of the world's most recognizable wine glasses and decanters. Contributions of each generation of the Riedel family are highlighted. In case you are wondering, Riedel even makes glasses for Coca-Cola and coffee. 

This is a stylish and fascinating book best enjoyed with a Riedel glass filled with premium wine.