Wine books can be pretty expensive these days, at least the serious wine books you and I read. It’s not always the case. Jamie Goode has found a way to make some of his books affordable, but those published by the big publishers can seriously dent our wine budgets. We buy them because we need (or in some cases, crave) them, to expand our knowledge.

Most of these books remain in our homes, used first for the purpose described above, and then, as we dip in further over time, to check facts or, in my case, research for writing. The number of books we actually take out on the road with us, on a wine trip, is probably more limited. Wink Lorch’s books on Jura and Savoie come to mind as useful books to travel with, but most don’t really lend themselves to travelling light. Even though I’d be unlikely to visit Japan again without Anthony Rose’s book on Sake and that country’s wines in the Infinite Ideas series (now with the same publisher as the book I’m about to review), it’s nevertheless a little heavy for that purpose, and it cost £30.

Now there’s a new series of little books published by the Académie du Vin Library in partnership with the Club Oenologique, under the banner of The Smart Traveller’s Wine Guide. They are a very affordable £12.99 (UK, just $17.95 for US readers). Guides to Rioja and Bordeaux are already available, with Napa, Tuscany, Rhône and Switzerland listed as “coming soon”. There are also, I understand, many more in the pipeline.

The first guide in the series I’ve read is Rioja by Fintan Kerr. I’ve met Fintan on several occasions, even shared a pint with him (as a friend of a friend), but that was all before Covid, when he was running tasting courses in his home city of Barcelona. He still does that, but since then he has become an established expert on Spanish wines in general, writing for various international wine journals, and for the celebrated source of Spanish Wine intel that is timatkin.com .

This small book, measuring about 17x12cm and running to around 180 pages is smartly put together, with a kind of Lonely Planet vibe, lots of photos of people, places, bottles and labels bringing colour to well-set out text, supplemented with a variety of maps.

In the Foreword, written by Victor Urrutia (Chief Executive of CVNE), he says “This book captures the essence of what makes Rioja a place that every wine lover should visit at least once. It should be in every wine lover’s suitcase”. Let’s see whether this is true, and to what extent it would have been an “indispensable” (as the back cover asserts) guide for me on my one and only visit to Rioja so far.

We open up the cover to a map of the whole region, simple and uncluttered, showing Rioja’s sub-regions, main towns and roads, opposite a list of eight major attractions with page references. Such attractions include the Barrio de la Estacíon in Haro, Calatrava’s winery architecture at Ysios and the monastic sites at San Millán de la Cogolla, all high on any tourist’s list of must-see places.

A colour-coded list of contents matches the colour blocks on the right hand (recto) pages of each chapter (though sensibly left off the photos to avoid spoiling the aesthetic). Although the team putting this together have doubtless looked at all the general travel guides out there, I’d say the design is excellent, geared very much for ease of use on the road, the attractive photography whetting the appetite for what you are heading off to see.

We begin with a short history of Rioja from Roman times up to today, as the region is undergoing a number of exciting changes. This is followed by a resume of the Rioja wine classifications, including a little on the regulatory body, the Consejo Regulador. Here, Fintan includes a section on old vines (and why they matter), followed by a personal but well-chosen list of Rioja’s finest wines, with a paragraph or two on each of the twelve he includes.

The chapter on Geography also contains some neat, small, maps of the sub-regions of Rioja (Rioja Alavesa, Alta, and Orientale (formely known as Rioja Baja)). On these are marked some of the major wineries, followed by a chapter on wine styles. Here, we are not restricted merely to the old Joven to Gran Reserva classification, but the author also looks to distinguish traditional and modern wines.

The revolution being undertaken in Rioja has been twofold. There was a period when “modern” meant rejecting the old pyramidal structure topped by Gran Reservas aged forever in mostly American oak, for wines often made in new French barriques, sometimes closer in style to the big wines coming out of Ribera del Duero than the Tempranillo blends we were used to, and sold to us in some of the heaviest bottles known to wine.

“Modern” today is likely to mean something much more subtle. First, there has been a new appreciation of Grenache in the region. It hasn’t supplanted Tempranillo, but as well as becoming more important in some blends, there are also very fine wines made solely from this variety gaining fame today.

Perhaps even more important has been the new focus on site and terroir. Traditionally, Rioja has been a wine made from grapes sourced across the wider region. The idea of the “Vino de Pago”, or delimited single vineyard wine, became established in law in 2003. Although there are only a relatively small number of single sites designated as Pago so far (25 at my last count, but I may be out of date), this has led to a more general appreciation of terroir and with it the establishment of producers making wine from just one sub-region and, more importantly, one village. Pago wines are expensive, but the idea of “Village Rioja” is quite thrilling for wine lovers like you and I, and the wines are infinitely more affordable.

The next chapter is on grape varieties, and as well as the well-known and lesser red varieties, here we can get to know the white varieties, once neglected but no longer. Some of the most spectacular strides in the whole region are being made with white wines. It’s a whole genre which is just beginning to catch fire for dedicated lovers of Spanish wine outside of Spain. Short sections on reading wine labels and vintages then precedes the second half of the book, on visiting Rioja.

The part one might call “on the road” is what sets this small guide apart from other works in a textbook format. Those don’t tend to tell you practical details such as the weather, when Rioja will be busy or quiet, what festivals are on and other things you might decide to do with those you have dragged along and who may not be so wine-obsessed (pretty useful if it’s a family holiday). The information on the towns and villages is short and sweet, but, for example, I defy anyone to look at the photo of San Vicente de la Sonsierra on its hilltop at sunset and not decide to visit (and hey, there are some pretty fabulous bodegas nearby).

There are several “wine routes” proposed (with small maps), of different lengths, plus a directory of the best bodegas to visit. Such visits can be geared to those seeking a full-service tour, like those you get with the bigger Champagne Houses in France, down to visits for a smaller tasting at an artisan producer’s cellar. These all range from famous names known to many who are not especially Rioja aficionados (Murrieta, Riscal, CVNE etc), to artisan producers whose visits sound particularly enticing (like Abeica or Ramírez de Ganuza).

As with any genuine guide to a wine region as a whole, as opposed to just its wines, there are recommendations of places to stay, including Rioja’s renowned luxury Wine Hotels (a bit of a thing here, often either attached to, or run by, one of the Rioja bodegas).

Food is far from forgotten, and you can choose from the best “fine dining”, bodega restaurants, the best tapas in Logrono (for which the town is rightly famous), and where to eat and drink in Haro (Rioja’s other main town). And don’t forget the wine shops, genuinely useful for those who prefer to bring home a variety of producers’ wines.

Finally, before the Glossary, Further Reading and Index, we get another section on individual wines, this time wines to look out for, whether on a restaurant wine list, in a wine shop, or at a tasting. Under various sub-headings which include white wines, joven wines and second wines, these differ from the established greats described earlier. Here we have some featured bottles and further lists of wines which are just a little less famous, perhaps more affordable, and certainly wines which should thrill those discovering them for the first time.

You’ve probably realised that I have answered the question I posed at the top of this review in the affirmative. At under £13 why would you not buy these little books if going on a wine trip to one of the regions covered, even if it’s just to have something light to peruse in the evening after dinner? Certainly, on the evidence of Fintan Kerr’s Rioja Guide, I’d go much further and say that for somewhere I don’t know very well, this guide has opened my eyes to possibilities I was unaware of, so I think it is, as the back cover says, “indispensable”.

What of the other guides in the series? Currently there is also a Guide for Bordeaux, written by Georgie Hindle, and if ever there were a region/city well-served with wine books and travel guides but nothing that combines the two, then Bordeaux is it. It’s another region I’ve not been to for a long time, 2015 in fact, when I was lucky to stay right over that marvellous curved staircase at Château Pichon-Baron. I was meant to be back in Bordeaux this year, but plans may have changed. Nevertheless, I’ll almost certainly read it, having enjoyed “Rioja”.

Four more books in this series are scheduled for 2025 publication according to the publisher. June sees guides on Napa by Maria Hunt and on Tuscany by Paul Caputo. Then, in October, Switzerland gets some well-deserved coverage from Simon Hardy and Marc Checkley. I will be more than interested, as someone who has reasonably deep knowledge of Swiss wine, to see how the authors handle a whole country, one with six major and well-dispersed wine regions (more if you don’t lump all the German-speaking regions together under the Deutschschweiz banner, as many non-Swiss writers do).

Matt Walls extends his Rhône expertise (also due in October) beyond just the wines. Is there anyone writing on the Rhône today who can match Matt’s knowledge, especially of up-and-coming villages, winemaker and co-operatives?

Both of those two guides will be absolute buys for me, and I can hardly wait that long, especially as I hope to be back in Switzerland next year and I only know of one book in English on that country’s wines (by the late Sue Style in 2019).

In the meantime, whether you plan a trip to Rioja, or just want to get back into a region that, like me, you may have let slip off the radar in favour of more glamorous new regions (Gredos and Bierzo lovers, I’m referring to ourselves here), then this little guide comes highly recommended. Its all-encompassing nature has really inspired me to go visit, and I’m sitting here quite jealous of the person I know who is on a trip there right now, as I type. Nice one, Fintan, and also congratulations to whichever individual commissioned this series.

Rioja by Fintan Kerr is one of the first pair of books in The Smart Traveller’s Wine Guide series, part of the Académie du Vin Library, published as a paperback/soft cover in 2024, running to 182 pages. It can be purchased direct from the publisher, or through a range of major chains and independent book stores. To go directly to the Académie du Vin you can follow the link below: