'TIS THE SEASON to be jolly and, if the book business has its way, learn a lot more about wine over the holidays. Novice wine drinkers can choose from a glut of new wine primers to read, mark and digest this winter. If I were starting over, the two I'd buy would be Andrew Jefford's beautifully written Wine Course (Ryland, Peters & Small, £19.99/offer £17.99) and Master of Wine Beverley Blanning's encyclopedic Choosing The Right Wine (Teach Yourself, £9.99/£9.49). Blanning bulldozes her way through the ins and outs of tasting, grape varieties, wine regions, and serving and storing wine with a no-nonsense, no-waffle style. Given its wine reception-class audience, a lighter hand (and fewer exclamation marks) would not have gone amiss, but this is a good- value Christmas stocking filler.

Andrew Jefford's erudite and elegant pen - “Our love for wine is in part a love for the Earth itself” - meanders through the same novice territory via 20 Wine Course projects. Jefford ponders such cerebral concerns as moderation, meditation, maps and expense, before getting down to “the practical journey into wine understanding”. The latter is a taste trip through all the major wine regions of the world, with an important distinction made between the fine wines (age-worthy, thought-provoking) and fun wines (easy-quaffing, everyday bottles) from each place. Ignore the silly, self-conscious opening shots of Jefford sipping and slurping alongside a glamorous blonde and brunette, and savour instead the luscious, mouthwatering photographs of regions, vineyards and cellars. A beguiling, plum-packed festive read.

Organic and biodynamic wine freaks will want Santa to put the rambling and garrulous Chateau Monty (Portico, £16.99/£15.29) under their rooted, recycled tree. Written by the self-styled “enfant terrible of the wine world” Monty Waldin, the book accompanied the recent Channel 4 series. A bit like the 2007 Monty's French Red, Vin de Pays des Côtes Catalanes wine it yielded, you can expect a dull start leading to a mildly spicy and moderately pleasing heart that is, however, alas, not worth the money asked.

Far better in these recessionary times to save your pounds for one of the great masters of the imbibing arts, Kingsley Amis. The long out-of-print trio of Kingsley Amis drinking titles have been poured into one Everyday Drinking volume (Bloomsbury, £9.99/ £9.49) that gets my vote as the best booze book this Christmas. Cocktails, quizzes, everyday wines, “The mean sod's and slag's guides” with essays on “How not to get drunk” and, of course, “The hangover” (complete with cures) will have wide festive appeal - and all that for under a tenner.

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