First, let me wish all our readers and their families a happy, healthy, safe and productive 2016.

Here are a couple of questions that I get very regularly: (a) why did I choose to write about wine and (b) what do I find to write about every week for the whole year? The fun answer for the first question is simply this: no one was interested in me writing on the topic of ‘How businesses benefit from Information Technology’. To answer the second question poses a bit of a challenge depending on the audience; if a one-word answer were possible it would be “abundance”. There has never been another time when so many wines from so many different regions, new and old, were available in increasing numbers on the market. Also, for many, wine is not just a drink, wine is sophisticated, it is romantic, steeped in hundreds, no, thousands of years of history from the most beautiful geographical regions globally, made from hundreds of different grapes planted in a wide variety of soils in different climatic conditions — once you get the bug, you never stop learning about wine.

In order to keep up, I am always buying new wine books to quench my thirst for wine discovery and learning. Let me share my top wine book picks for 2015 — they include a ‘bible’, an encyclopaedia and a ‘picture’ book.

The Wine Bible (2nd Edition) by Karen MacNeil

Published in 2001, it took the author 10 years to write the first book and around 4-5 years to complete this second edition that was released in Oct 2015. With all facts checked by the author herself, at just under 1,000 pages, this new edition is not just an update, it is almost a rewrite because so much has changed in 10 years. Some regions have become more prominent, other regions like China have started to play new roles. What I love about this book is that you can start from anywhere. I read the entire section called ‘Mastering Wine’ first, then I chapter-hopped as needed. My dog-eared (first edition) signed copy is safely tucked away as I go through this new and improved second edition. Hopefully Karen can visit us again in Jamaica so I can get this edition signed, also.

The Oxford Companion to Wine (4th Edition) by Jancis Robinson and Julia Harding (Assistant Editor)

Published in 1994 to worldwide acclaim, the first edition of Jancis Robinson’s seminal volume immediately attained legendary status, winning every major wine book award. For me, this is not for casual reading. The new edition of this reference book has 300 new entries out of a total of 4,104 — the third edition released in 2006 had 3,930 entries; also this book, at 6.2lbs, is not small. Robinson explains in her preface that this revision has been the most ‘thorough’ with ‘every single entry… subjected to intense scrutiny’. Released in October 2015, this is my new go-to wine guide for deep research and fact-checking!!

Wine Folly: The Essential Guide to Wine by Madeline Puckette and Justin Hammack

While the

Oxford Companion is ink-heavy,Wine Folly features white space and lots of visual presentation of information. This is a book for casual wine fans who want to learn a little bit more about what they’re drinking in a simple fun way. I have been following theWine Folly website for a while now, long before their book, because they developed a way to make complex wine topics easily understood with amazing graphic representation of flavours, wine styles and grape varietals. The face of theWine Folly is Madeline Puckette, who is a sommelier and also a visual designer. Her infographics and writing style have garnered an enthusiastic following from wine beginner to wine expert and so I ensured that I was on the pre-paid list. I got my copy of the book as it was released in September 2015. I would like to use this book in my next wine presentation to see the impact of using these very special visual images to explain the wine regions and grape varietals.

Looking forward to raise the bar again in 2016!