For many of us, it's almost as much fun to read about wine as it is to drink it. Most everyone who catches the "wine bug" not only wants to learn more, but also to feel a "connectedness" with what we're consuming.

So while a bottle of wine makes a great holiday gift, a book that helps the recipient understand more and find great values might be even more fitting. Two books particularly fill the bill this year.

Right about the time "The Wine Trials" (Fearless Media Critic, 190 pages, $14.95) hit stores, word emerged that Robin Goldstein had concocted and pulled off an elaborate hoax: getting a restaurant that didn't exist placed on the Wine Spectator's Awards of Excellence list.

But he should be best remembered for this book. Goldstein oversaw exhaustive blind taste tests revealing that most consumers prefer cheaper wines to the Dom Perignons and Opus Ones of the world. It's fascinating stuff, from the account of the process to the 100-plus pages of profiles of top-rated inexpensive wines. Even if the economy hadn't turned so brutal, this incisive, insightful work might have been the most timely book of the year.

Another youngish wine wonk, Gary Vaynerchuk, has tons of devoted fans at his Wine Library TV website, and it's not a stretch to say he is changing the wine world more than any individual since Robert Parker. He certainly is reining in more new wine fans than anyone has in a good long while. On camera, Vaynerchuk's enthusiasm and New Joisey-ism can be downright infectious. But even for those who think he's a bit much on the ol' webcam, "Gary Vaynerchuk's 101 Wines Guaranteed to Inspire, Delight and Bring Thunder to Your World" (Rodale, 256 pages, $19.95) is an engaging, entertaining and edifying look at a great array of wines.

Both books would make great gifts for beginners, experts and everyone in between. Other worthy works have more specific targets:

For the novice: Laura Holmes Haddad's "Anything But Chardonnay: A Guide to the Other Grapes" (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 144 pages, $19.95) is a fine primer, with rundowns of grapes, pairing info and lots, lots more.

For the completist: "1,001 Wines You Must Taste Before You Die," edited by Neil Beckett (Universe, 960 pages, $36.95), was inevitable. But this massive tome goes way beyond the vapid approach of so many such works, with tasty tidbits and inside info on a masterfully chosen list. Great photos too.

For the locavore: Patricia Monaghan's "Wineries of Wisconsin and Minnesota" (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 196 pages, $24.95) offers in-depth looks at 52 wineries, the history of grapes and vineyards in Tundraland and a slew of sidebars for tourists and/or tasters.

For the history buff: Charles Cerami's "Dinner at Mr. Jefferson's: Three Men, Five Great Wines and the Evening That Changed America" (Wiley, 270 pages, $25.95) chronicles a little-known but important event in the nation's early days, a dinner involving Thomas Jefferson, his then-bitter rival Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and sublime wines from France and Italy. It's mostly a history book, but it does provide evidence that vino can help bridge the most heated of differences -- another of wine's great gifts.

Bill Ward • bill.ward@startribune.com.