A paean to authentic wines and a New York Times Best Wine Book of the Year from the James Beard Award-winning author of Reading Between the Wines. What makes a wine worth drinking? As celebrated wine writer Terry Theise explains in this gem of a book, answering that seemingly simple question requires us to look beyond what’s in our glass to consider much bigger questions about beauty, harmony, soulfulness, and the values we hold dear. Most of all, Theise shows, what makes a wine worth drinking is its authenticity. When we choose small-scale, family-produced wine over the industrially produced stuff, or when we opt for subtle, companionable wines over noisy, vulgar ones, we not only experience their origins with the greatest possible clarity and detail—we also gain a new perspective on ourselves and the world we inhabit. In this way, artisanal wine is not only the key to good drinking; it is also the key to a good life. An unforgettable literary journey into the heart and soul of wine, What Makes a Wine Worth Drinking is a gift to be cherished from a writer “whose id is directly connected to his mouth” (Eric Asimov, The New York Times). Winner of the Louis Roederer International Wine Writers’ Awards Chairman’s Award A “Best Wine Gift” by WineSpeed “Grown-up wine writing, full of emotion . . . and, in these dangerously cynical times, exactly what we wine enthusiasts—we human beings—need.”—The World of Fine Wine “Theise’s fans, as well as those just meeting him for the first time, will revel as he leads us on an existential tour of wine.”—Dave McIntyre, The Washington Post

This glorious book not only brilliantly showcases one man's love affair with all the beauties that can flow from the bottle, it definitively makes the case for the wines that are the most superbly suited to be served with food.