The Vinous 2023 Holiday Gift Guide

BY ANTONIO GALLONI | NOVEMBER 29, 2023

It’s that season again. With the holidays fast approaching, it's time to find that perfect gift for the wine lovers in your life. This year’s Vinous Holiday Gift Guide features a number of great ideas to make the holidays one to remember.

Wine writers seem to have been especially prolific of late. Two thousand twenty-three saw the release of several exceptional books that are well deserving of attention. Many of them are written by members of our team. I make no claims to be unbiased with regard to those books, but I have seen some of these essentially go from idea to finished concept and hope to provide some added insight. Writing a book is an incredibly hard task that requires sustained, focused effort over a prolonged period. My comments of these books are not meant to be critiques but rather intended to give readers an idea of what they can expect.

Jon Bonné – The New French Wine

Jon Bonné is one of our generation’s brightest and most articulate wine writers. Bonné spent eight years researching and writing The New French Wine, one of the most important books on French wine published in recent times. Attractively packed in a sleek blue box, The New French Wine is really two books. The first volume, entitled The Narrative, explores the current state of France with a deep dive into topics that include the role of appellations, the increased focus on sustainable farming practices in all its different versions and the evolution of winemaking styles over the last several decades. The second volume, The Producers, takes a look at key figures within each region. Some regions get the deluxe treatment. The Champagne chapter is outstanding. Bordeaux, on the other hand, is addressed very briefly. Some very important people and estates that laid the groundwork for today’s trends, especially with regard to farming, are left out or discussed only briefly in passing. These include Anne-Claude Leflaive, Lalou Bize-Leroy and Château Latour. This is a book in which the author’s personal preferences are strong and clear. That’s not a bad thing, but I do wish those choices were explained more clearly. Regardless, The New French Wine is a tour-de-force in writing and a career-defining achievement for Jon Bonné. ($77).

Rebecca Gibb MW – Vintage Crime: A Short History of Wine Fraud

Rebecca Gibb MW’s new book Vintage Crime: A Short History of Wine Fraud takes an in-depth look at some of the more important frauds in the world of wine. As such, it is a refreshing change from most other books on the market in that there is no discussion of vintages, wineries or sustainable farming, but rather a focus on some shady characters and the crimes they committed. Vintage Crime will appeal to the hardcore wine lover who wants to learn more about these dubious episodes in history, but its focus on crimes of notable daring also makes the book appealing to those who might have more of a passing interest in wine. Rebecca is donating a portion of her book royalties towards finding a cure for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, an especially severe version of MD that her son suffers from. ($30).

Ray Isle – The World in a Wine Glass

Ray Isle is the Executive Wine Editor at Food & Wine and one of the most down-to-earth, affable wine people I know. His book is written in the same disarming tone, a voice that is at once informal but also authoritative. In The World in a Wine Glass, Isle traces wine back to its origins and the land and pivots to an in-depth look at sustainability and other related topics. Most of the book is organized into regional profiles and then key producers within those regions. Isle makes a point of writing about wineries he has personally visited. There’s also a strong focus on value, which means many reference-point estates are not in this book. I don’t see that as an issue at all. If anything, it is very consistent with the overall, clearly stated mission. I find the Champagne section very light, especially considering the region is a hotbed of activity in the field of sustainability and has many wineries that meet Isle’s criteria for inclusion. The California chapter, on the other hand, is more engaging, especially as it includes both benchmarks and niche wineries that many readers will surely be happy to discover. Those are minor quibbles, though. This is a terrific book. Most importantly, given Isle’s platform at Food & Wine and distribution through a major publisher, The World in a Wine Glass has the real potential to elevate the level of discourse around wine in the United States. That would be a tremendous achievement. ($50).

Neal Martin – The Complete Bordeaux Vintage Guide