Every few weeks a WSET student asks me which book to read next. They arrive with a well-highlighted textbook, conscientious and a little anxious, convinced that one more reference will make the difference on exam day.
My answer is usually to go back to the book they already have. For Levels 1 to 3, the WSET textbook, read alongside the specification, covers everything the examination asks for. Time spent understanding it, tasting carefully and practising answers will serve you far better than a growing pile of sources.
There is one book I recommend anyway: The World Atlas of Wine, by Hugh Johnson, Jancis Robinson and Julia Harding. The eighth edition came out in September, and it is now available at the Atelier del Vino.
A textbook tells you that a region exists and what it makes. The Atlas shows you where it sits: the river it follows, the hills that shelter it, the neighbours on either side. Valpolicella stops being a line in a list and becomes a set of valleys running down towards the Adige, a short drive from where many of you are reading this.
This edition is the most thorough revision in years. The climate data has been updated throughout, and 15 of its 240 maps are new, including Valtellina, the Chianti Classico UGAs and Santorini.
Keep it out of your revision timetable. Open it when a wine in class puzzles you, and look at where it came from.
The English-language hardcover is available from our shop for collection by appointment at the Atelier. After payment, we will contact you to arrange a day and time. For those who want is delivered in Italy in abroad, best to order on Amazon.
