Books for wine lovers celebrate the grape

"Unquenchable: A Tipsy Quest for the World's Best Bargain Wines" (Perigee, $24)

Natalie MacLean — author of "Red, White and Drunk All Over" — has emerged as one of the most gifted, entertaining and downright funny wine writers to put pen to paper (figuratively speaking, of course). Here, MacLean goes globe-trotting to the wine world's most prestigious ZIP codes and introduces us to the personalities behind the wines.

A chapter on Port — in which she is served a vintage-dated tawny from 1893 at a dinner party and at one point briefly hides the decanter from the other dinner guests — is among the many highlights of this engaging book from an accredited sommelier and winner of four James Beard Foundation awards, including the M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award.

"Summer in a Glass: The Coming of Age of Winemaking in the Finger Lakes" (Sterling Epicure, $19.95)

Evan Dawson is a graduate of Ohio University and a news anchor at a Rochester, N.Y., television station. He also happens to be a very fine wine writer, a skill he likely polished while serving as managing editor for the wine blog New York Cork Report (www.lenndevours.com).

I picked up this book unenthusiastically with the idea of skimming it, but Dawson and the people behind the wines of the Finger Lakes just wouldn't let me. The personal stories here are compelling, and they'll make you want to quickly plan a trip to upstate New York to check out New York State's own wine country.

"A Toast to Bargain Wines: How Innovators, Iconoclasts, and Winemaking Revolutionaries Are Changing the Way the World Drinks" (Scribner, $15)

George M. Taber, author of "Judgment in Paris," delivers an interesting treatment of the inexpensive everyday drinking wines that don't get quite the same level of attention as the ultra-premium (and super-expensive) wines do.

This book is at its best when it probes the people and stories behind the wines, such as Fred Franzia of Bronco Wine Co. (and "Two-Buck Chuck"/Trader Joe's fame) and John Casella, whose yellow tail label of Australian wine swept the globe. Taber also travels to China to report on what he believes will be the next giant of the wine industry, predicting that it will become a major producer of bargain wines within a decade.

He also identifies his "top ten" favorite bargain brands from various regions of the world and also by grape varietal. This paperback contains some fun reading and fine information for — no surprise — an affordable price.

"1,000 Great Everyday Wines From the World's Best Wineries" (DK Publishing, $25)

The editor-in-chief of this collection is Jim Gordon, the former managing editor of Wine Spectator and current editor of Wines & Vines magazine. Gordon gathered together a team of writers that includes Alder Yarrow, San Francisco-based author of one of the country's earliest and most influential wine blogs, Vingography.

A team of writers examine in detail the regions they know best and weigh in with their picks for great, affordable wines in every style. Plenty of label images appear next to the text to make looking for recommended wines in your local wine shop easier.

"Kevin Zraly's Complete Wine Course" (Sterling Epicure, $27.95)

Kevin Zraly's credentials are impeccable: He is the founder and teacher of the Windows on the World Wine School in New York City, and earned both a Lifetime Achievement and a Wine and Spirits Professional of the Year award from the James Beard Foundation.

His book is impeccable, too. This is an updated version of a classic that already has sold more than 3 million copies, and while there may not be enough new here to warrant purchasing it if you already have a previous edition of his wine-course books, Zraly does update entries on several wine-producing countries, creates a new "Best of the Best" chapter and includes 20-plus smartphone tags that link to videos of Zraly talking about wine.

The book's publisher claims that this book "is clearly the wine guide against which all others are judged" — and in this case, the quality matches the hype.