Wine maps offer ways to understand not only the geography of wine, but also its styles and cultures.
Studying maps, an integral part of wine education, is more than just knowing the location of wine-producing countries: It’s learning about sometimes (often) obscure sub regions, influential climatic geographic features such as water and terrain, and even trade routes.
Master sommelier Duncan Wilson, who studied geography in college, once told me it was his love of maps and related cultural associations that propelled him into a formal study of wine (and look where that got him: Wilson was a major character in the 2012 SOMM movie, headed Eleven Madison Park’s prestigious wine program and is the co-founder of Verve wine shops and the new One White Street project in Manhattan).
“Maps are key to understanding wine,” says Quentin Sadler, cartographer and head of e-learning for the Wine Scholar Guild, a Washington, D.C.-based study program that offers specialized regional wine certifications. “They can show you so much … how the landscape works, what sort of conditions you have and, therefore, what styles of wine to expect.”
“They bring alive the differences: you can see the proximity of the sea, the nearness of the mountains. They put you in that location, you can see how wine regions interact, for instance how the western wines from France's South-West are closer in style to Bordeaux while the eastern appellations are more similar to the Languedoc. That all makes sense once you study the map.”
Generally speaking, the more such detail the better. But, says Steve De Long, designer of pro maps and other wine-education tools (the wine grape varietal table is a must for any oenophile), while details are important, “accuracy is much more so. It's shocking how many times I've seen regions in the wrong place! This is specialized knowledge, but the resources—wine laws, satellite maps of vineyards, etc.—do exist to make them accurate.”
Just as in wine, maps come in all manner of styles. As its name implies, those produced by Wine Scholar Guild are geared toward students seeking specialized knowledge, De Long’s maps can cross over from education into wall art, and others have created coloring books and puzzles to tease the mind into place memory.
Ready to study? Here are a few ways to navigate those wine roads.
Champagne, Peter Liem (2017 10 Speed Press). Keenly focused on the Champagne region, Liem’s elegant boxed set includes a separate set of seven reproduced maps from Louis Larmat, originally published in 1944. $75.
De Long. Created by an architect and his designer wife, the maps and map sets cover 24 regions in a variety of formats–individual maps, sets for bookshelf, wall posters and digital. The highly detailed maps are clearly labeled with text, color coded and include important geographic details. All are sourced so users can be confident of the information. De Long worked with Master of Wine Charles Curtis on a series devoted to Champagne (example below), the first such update since the Larmat maps.
Joanie Metivier. The Canadian sommelier and writer developed a duo of study books—one a regional coloring book and the other a more advanced version of 50 blank maps with the theory questions typical of exams. Wine Map ebook, $9.99 (pdf); $35.99 hardcopy; Wine Regions Coloring Book (pdf) $7.99
Water and Wines. Created by a Swedish sommelier, this series of illustrated puzzles and posters was born out of pandemic lockdown. Current puzzles include Italy, France, Spain and South Africa with plans for three more wine themes and a Whiskey puzzle. Ships from the EU, price does not include shipping, taxes or custom fees. $49
Water and Wines, created by a Swedish sommelier, offers illustrated wine maps and puzzles with grape varieties.
Wine Folly. A graphic designer with a sommelier accreditation, Wine Folly offers a set of maps for download or hard-copy sale. Themed by country and appellation, and including the grape varieties, and the 12 x 16 print versions are spill- and tear-proof. The information, however, is unsourced, and historically the author has been less careful about factchecking. So, buyer beware. Maps are variously priced.
Wine Vine Imports hosts a comprehensive shop of specialty maps including detailed California and other AVAs and several lovely vintage reproductions. Variously priced from $37.95 to $60 and most maps are available in canvas for additional cost.
The World Atlas of Wine, Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson (2019, Mitchell Beazley). The latest update of the venerable atlas leaves almost no stone unturned, covering all the regions with detailed maps and auxiliary information on wine making. Heavily concentrated on Old World regions, but now including more comprehensive information on formerly slighted further flung regions. Highly readable, despite the weight of the book. $35.99 on amazon.com
Online sources: Many regional wine bureaus include maps on their web sites, but for general knowledge, here are a few sites to check out:
Wine Scholar Guild. Easy to read and pleasing to the eye, these highly detailed maps (Catalunya to the left) show sub zones and geographic features. Downloads from the web site.
Vineyards.com. They may not be visually inspiring, but this is a good virtual clearinghouse of maps across the globe, with some notable wineries pinpointed. The site contains other filters to pull up maps according to interest, but not all of these were working at time of testing.
Winemaps.com is a global source that pinpoints places to drink. Not as much an educational tool, but handy to see where you can get that well-deserved glass once you’ve completed your studies.
