WineRabbi Quick-Reference Guides
- Buying French Wine: A handy guide to purchasing French wine, which is typically labelled by district, village, or even vineyard (and not by grape varietal).
- Visiting Reviewed Wineries: A table with all of the key information needed for planning a visit to the wineries that we’ve written about.
Reference Guides
- Glossary of Wine (by Wine Spectator)
- Grape Varietals Guide (by WinePros.Org)
- Online Wine School (by Wine Spectator): A broad selection of courses, which each include quizes and a final exam, makes this a convenient and economical option for learning the fundamentals of wine.
- Wine Aroma Card (by Vinography.com): This resource makes a perfect companion to evaluating what’s in your glass.
- Wine Encyclopedia (by AmericanWinery.com)
- Wine Maps (by StratsPlace.com)
- Wine Region Guide to European Regions (by The Wine Doctor)
- Wine Region Guide to U.S. Regions: Type in the appellation, about which you’re looking for information, into the search box.
Wine Books
- Hip Tastes, by Courtney Cochran: A well organized and informative guide to the fundamentals of wine. An easy read.
- Judgment of Paris, by George M. Taber: The true story of the 1976 Paris wine competition that dramatically changed the wine industry. A movie based on the book is expected to be released next year.
- The World Atlas of Wine, by Hugh Johnson: Everything you ever wanted to know about every wine region, sub-region, and sub-sub-region in the world. It’s a large volume, so it’s not quite something you’d carry around as a pocket guide. Still, it’s comprehensive and indispensable if you’re interested to learn more about where that great bottle of French wine you drank last night came from. See the more substantial review written by IntoWine.com.
Wine Accessories
- Wine Cellars: Custom wine cellars and racks from Grotto Cellars.
Wine Community Sites
- Must Love Wine: A social network for wine lovers. Very neat idea.
- Snooth: Allows you to share your own tasting notes with other wine drinkers, and vice versa.
Wine Merchants (Online & Bay Area)
- Wine-Searcher.com, WineZap.com, and Snooth.com: Scour the web for retailers’ to obtain competing price quotes.
- WineRabbi’s Favorite SF Bay Area Wine Shops (by WineRabbi.com)
Wine Score Aggregator
- Nirvino: An aggregator of maintstream wine scores (e.g., from Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, and Robert Parker).
Wine TV Shows
- InWineCountry: A very useful resource if you’re looking for ideas of places to visit during your travel to wine country. And even if you’re not planning a trip to wine country anytime soon, watching this program is still a great way to “visit” without leaving the comforts of your own home.
- Wine Library TV: Gary Vaynerchuk, the sole star of this Internet ”TV show,” is a genius. During every episode, he tastes and evaluates a different bottle (or a few bottles) of wine and, then, articulately — and, most importantly, humorously — shares his thoughts about each. There’s a significant amount of educational value in every airing.
Winery Directory
- See a running list of wineries whose wines or location we’ve reviewed so far.