30 years behind a Portland wine counter

Be the one at the table who knows the wine.

Pick a better bottle for less, serve it so the same wine tastes better, and never again open a “special” bottle that's past its best. Three plain-spoken books by Mark Solberg.

Get all three books · $27 Look inside ↓

✓ Instant PDF download. 30-day money-back guarantee.

Hosting this holiday season? The Table covers Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year, each at three budgets, plus exactly how much to buy.

See The Table ↓

43bottles under $20 I'd buy

10wine myths, checked

40+names you'll say right

6printable cards

You've been here

The moments nobody warns you about

Most people I sold wine to weren't short on taste. They were short on a few plain facts, and it showed at exactly the wrong moment.

01
The waiter hands you the wine list, the table goes quiet, and you point at the second-cheapest bottle because it feels safe.
02
You bring a bottle to dinner and watch the host turn it around to read the label. You have no idea what it says about you.
03
Someone starts talking about “legs” and “old vines”, and you nod along.
04
You want to order the Moët and aren't sure whether the t is silent, so you order something else.
05
You're hosting a holiday dinner and have no idea how many bottles twelve people need, so you buy too many, or worse, too few.

Here's the thing: most people at that table don't know either.

“Reserve” on an American bottle has no legal definition. None.
In blind tastings, people without wine training rated the expensive wines slightly lower than the cheap ones.
The same wine that wins gold at one competition usually wins nothing at the next.

That's three. There are 356 pages like that. Read them and you'll be the one explaining it.

From the author

What thirty years behind the counter taught me

Once a year I put six bottles in brown paper bags for my regulars. Every year somebody's favourite turned out to be the cheapest one on the table, and every year they asked me to check the bag again.

One regular bought the same $28 bottle every Friday for years. I talked him into the same winery's $16 wine, with a money-back promise. He never asked for the refund. He did come back to tell me I'd cost myself $12 a week.

I ran a small wine shop in Portland, Oregon for almost thirty years, after a restaurant floor and a few years with a distributor. I'm not a sommelier, and I've been wrong plenty. But I've watched thousands of people choose a bottle, and I know exactly where they go wrong. These books are what I told them across the counter.

— Mark Solberg

The books

Three books, three jobs

Buy well, serve well, keep well. Read them in order, or open the one you need tonight.

Book 1 · 110 pages · PDF

The Shelf

Buy the wine, not the label.

The one line on the back of every American bottle that tells you who really made the wine. Most people have never read it.
What “Reserve” on your usual bottle is actually promising you.
Why one bottle in six in US stores has an animal on the label, and what that animal tells you about the wine.
What the heavy bottle and the gold sticker are really doing to the price you're willing to pay.
The price where paying more stops buying you better wine.
Who's behind the Kirkland, Trader Joe's and Aldi wine, and how to look it up yourself.
43 bottles under $20 I'd send a friend to buy, each with the store and the month its price was checked.

See all 7 chapters

Reading the Front Label
Label Tricks
What Price Actually Buys
Store Brands and Who Really Makes Them
Bottles Under $20 I'd Send a Friend to Buy
Talking to a Wine Shop
Buying Wine as a Gift

Book 2 · 137 pages · PDF

The Table

Serve it like you've done it for years.

The one thing I'd change about how most people serve wine at home. It's free, and the same bottle can go from flat and boozy to bright and balanced.
The corkscrew worth owning, and the cheap kind that shreds corks.
What to do with your glass when someone pours for you, so you never have to wonder again.
How to turn down a refill without the host feeling snubbed.
How many bottles to buy for a dinner, so you don't run out and don't overspend.
How to order from a restaurant list without dreading the bill, and why the cheapest bottle on a good list is nothing to be embarrassed about.
Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year, each at three budgets.

See all 10 chapters

Temperature
Opening the Bottle
Glasses
Pouring and Holding
Decanting
Being a Guest
Being a Host
Restaurants
Pairing Without Rules You'll Forget
Holidays

Book 3 · 109 pages · PDF

The Keeper

Stop losing good bottles to bad habits.

Why the top of the fridge is one of the worst places in the house to keep wine.
How long that open bottle in your fridge really keeps. Longer than most people think.
The bottle you're saving for a special day may already be past its best. How to tell, and when to open it.
The smell that means a bottle is faulty, and how to take it back without an argument.
Ten things you've probably been told about wine that aren't true.
About forty wine names you'll never stumble over again, six printable cards and a tasting journal.

See all 9 chapters

Storing Wine Without a Cellar
How Long an Open Bottle Lasts
What Ages and What Doesn't
When a Bottle Has Gone Wrong
Myths I Heard for Thirty Years
One Drink, the Honest Measure
Say It Without Worrying
Quick-Reference Cards
My Tasting Journal

Get all three books · $27

Look inside

See the pages before you buy

These are real pages from the books. Large, clear type, set for reading on a tablet, a phone, or printed out. Tap any page to read it.

The Shelf, chapter 1: Reading the Front Label — The Shelf · Reading the Front Label

The Shelf: a page of the under-$20 bottle list with prices and where they were checked — The Shelf · The under-$20 list

The Table: serving temperature table — The Table · Serving temperatures

The Table, chapter 6: Being a Guest — The Table · Being a Guest

The Keeper: Say It Without Worrying, the pronunciation guide — The Keeper · Say It Without Worrying

The Keeper: printable card with pour and bottle math — The Keeper · Printable cards

The math

About 50 cents a bottle.

Buy a bottle a week and $27 works out to about 50 cents a bottle for a year. Here's what a year of choosing by the label costs instead.

A $25 “Reserve” with a gold sticker, picked over the $15 bottle next to it	$10 for a word and a sticker
A $40 bottle for a dinner, bought to taste better than the $15 one	$25 your guests probably couldn't taste
A red served warm from the counter, and a grape you decide you don't like	every bottle of it you never buy
A bottle saved for an occasion and opened years past its best	the bottle and the occasion
All three books, once	$27

The small-print check. Three lines on every American bottle tell you more than the picture, the sticker and the word “Reserve” put together. Most people have never read them. The Shelf starts there.

Your order

Mark's Wine Shelf, the complete set

The Shelf110 pages · PDF
The Table137 pages · PDF
The Keeper109 pages · PDF, with the pronunciation guide, printable cards and tasting journal

$27that's $9 a book · one payment · Fall 2026 edition

Get all three books · $27 →

✓ Instant PDF download. 30-day money-back guarantee.

Nothing ships. The books arrive as a download link right after you pay.
Opens on any phone, tablet or computer. Nothing to install.
The link is in your email too, so you can download them again any time.
One payment. Never a subscription.
About 50 cents a bottle, if you buy one a week for a year.

My guarantee

Read them for 30 days. If you don't want them, you get your money back.

Write to [email protected] within 30 days and every dollar comes back. I ran a shop on repeat customers; I'd rather lose a sale than have you keep a book you don't need.

Is this for you?

Who I wrote these for

This is for you if

You buy wine at the grocery store, Costco or a wine shop, and want to stop guessing.
You'd like to feel at ease when someone hands you the wine list.
You host now and then and want it to look effortless.
You're looking for a gift for someone who loves wine.

Probably not for you if

You're studying for a sommelier exam. These are practical books, not a course.
You want tasting-note poetry. I'll tell you what to buy, not how to describe it.

Questions

Questions people ask

What exactly do I get?

Three PDF books: The Shelf (110 pages), The Table (137 pages) and The Keeper (109 pages), 356 pages in all. The Keeper also includes a pronunciation guide, six printable quick-reference cards and a tasting journal.

Can I read them on my phone or tablet?

Yes. They're ordinary PDFs that open on any phone, tablet or computer. The type is large and the pages are book-sized, so they read comfortably on a tablet and are fine on a phone.

I've never bought an ebook. How does it work?

After you pay, you get a download link on the screen and in your email. Tap it and the books open like any document. Nothing is mailed and there's nothing to install. If anything goes wrong, write to [email protected] and we'll walk you through it.

What if I lose the files?

The link stays in your email, so you can download them again. If you can't find the email, the Find my books page sends it again.

Can I print them?

Yes. The cards and the tasting journal in The Keeper are designed to be printed and kept in a kitchen drawer or inside a cupboard door.

I'm new to wine. Is this too much?

No. Nothing assumes you know the jargon, and the pronunciation guide covers the names people are nervous to say. Start with The Shelf if you buy, or The Table if you're hosting soon.

I've been drinking wine for decades. Is there anything new here?

Probably more than you'd like to admit. Most people who've bought wine for years have never read the one line on the back of the bottle that says who made it, and still believe a few of the ten myths in The Keeper. Open the pages under “Look inside” and judge for yourself.

Can I give the set as a gift?

Yes. After you pay, forward the email with the download link to whoever it's for. The printable cards and tasting journal in The Keeper make a nice thing to print and tuck into a card.

Are the prices current?

This is the Fall 2026 edition. Every bottle in the under-$20 list says which store and which month its price was checked. Prices change and vary by state, so treat them as a guide, not a promise.

Do you sell wine?

No. These books are information only. Nobody paid to be included, and I don't earn anything from the bottles I mention.

Is this about drinking more?

No. It's about enjoying the bottle you were going to open anyway. The Keeper even has a chapter on what one drink actually measures.

How does the money-back guarantee work?

Write to [email protected] within 30 days of buying and you get every dollar back. Once an order is refunded, its download link stops working.

Next time someone hands you the wine list, you'll know exactly what to say.

Thirty years of what I told customers across the counter, in three books. About 50 cents a bottle for a year of better choices, and if they're not for you, every dollar back.

Get all three books · $27 →

✓ Instant PDF download. 30-day money-back guarantee.