Ti's the season
and we're in the midst of the holidays. If you're still in shopping
mode and have a winelover on your list, here are some Italian wine
book selections that are the perfect gifts to consider. Of course you
can read all these great books, but there is nothing like combining
it with wine to fully comprehend it. That's the best way to
learn....drink, drink, drink!
My trusty Italian
wine resource has always been Joseph Bastianich and David Lynch's
Vino Italiano The Regional Wines of Italy. It's an easy to read book
where each chapter features a different wine region within Italy.
Each chapter talks about their personal experiences traveling through
that region including a recipe of local cuisine, recommended wines
from that region found in the US, reds, whites, sparkling and dessert
wines if they exist, maps and some suggested destination spots.
Plenty of fun to explore in each chapter to give you that sense of
place.
The next book,
Grandi Vini an opinionated tour of Italy's 89 finest wines is another
one I have come to enjoy. This is another book written by Joseph
Bastianich and is a lot different than the others I'm sharing today.
As the name suggests, it shares 89 wines from Central Italy, The
Islands, Northeast Italy, Northwest Italy and Southern Italy and the
mezzogiorno. It gives background on some of the top wines and their
respective producers from each region with some other added tidbits
on those regions, grapes and terroir. When learning about any wine
from an area, having a perspective on the top players and their
history and traditions in winemaking helps one have a deeper
understanding of that particular area and this book does just that.
Lastly, a fellow wine
lover I've met virtually over the years, Bob Lipinski, shared with me
a couple of the many books he has written with Gary Grunner: ItalianWine Notes and Italian Wine & Cheese Made Simple 2ndEdition. One of the things I learned from when I got certified in
Italian wine is that there is a BOATLOAD of information on Italian wine and for the
average person it can be very overwhelming if you're just trying to
understand Italian wine in simpler terms. I got certified in Italian wine to increase my knowledge and specialize in it, but this
isn't everyone's goal and heck, I need to find books like the ones
that Bob wrote when it comes to understanding wines in the rest of the world in order to make it easy to understand.
Italian Wine Notes is a short book that simplifies Italian wine
including the different types of Italian wines, grapes, DOCG's, wine
laws, wine terminology and Italy's regions and the wines produced
within those regions.
As the name
suggests, the Italian Wine & Cheese book Bob wrote is primarily
based on wines from all regions within Italy and the cheeses produced
within all the regions of Italy from A to Z. There are plenty of
suggestions of which Italian cheeses to pair with which Italian wine
along with some fruit pairings too. So find your local specialty
cheese and wine shop and start playing around with the pairings.
There are others I
look forward to seeking out and reading and I'll share those
when I get around to reading them.
What have you discovered for Italian wine books that you've personally enjoyed?
What have you discovered for Italian wine books that you've personally enjoyed?
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