Italian Wine For Dummies

From Cosa Bolle in Pentola:
Moving in yet another direction, A few years ago I was invited to a winemaker's for dinner, and met Mary Ewing Mulligan and Ed McCarthy, authors of the Wine for Dummies series. They're extremely pleasant and it was a very nice meal; I subsequently bought and enjoyed both Wine for Dummies and their wine buyer's companion volume, which has tasting notes that are all the more interesting because they both give their score for each wine, and the scores often differ -- people tend to forget that all wine scores are the result of personal evaluations, so seeing that Mary has certain likes, and Ed others, brings home the point that tasters are people too, not abstract entities achieving scientific precision off in a lab. This alone would be sufficient reason for picking up the book.

Now they have come out with French Wine for Dummies and Italian Wine for Dummies, and while I enjoyed the former, I am impressed by the latter. The Italian wine world is extraordinarily complex, with a steady stream of new DOCs and DOCGs, frequent changes in the regulations that cover existing appellations, and a host of currents, trends, and styles; on top of it all are the Italian producers, most of whom are individualists bent on going their own distinctive ways either within the appellations they belong to or outside of them.

Mary and Ed have captured it all very well and present it in a delightfully informal style that will keep you turning the pages; if you already know Italian wines you'll probably be tempted to skip over the well-known wines, for example Barolo/Barbaresco or Chianti, in favor of some of the more obscure varietals or DOCs, but doing so would be a mistake because you're certain to discover something you didn't know. For example, that Gaja's reputation didn't begin with Angelo, but rather his grandmother, "who was one of the first winemakers to focus on quality rather than quantity for Barbaresco. As a result of her efforts, Gaja's Barbarescos always had the best reputation among the wines of the region (p. 50)." Or that (shifting regions) Vie di Romans, one of the top producers in Isonzo (Friuli) used to be called Stelio Gallo, after owner Gianfranco Gallo's last name, before the Californian rooster (Gallo) brothers sued him for trademark infringement.

The book is divided into regions, with brief discussions of the major appellations, each followed by rundowns of the better producers; though Mary and Ed do make their stylistic preferences clear, they don't let said preferences color their judgments of the producers (see p. 47 for Barolo, for example); this sort of journalistic objectivity is quite refreshing in a world where all too many journalists do take sides and smear wines that don't follow the stylistic precepts they favor. And then there are the lesser appellations, again discussed in detail -- should you come across a bottle of Assisi DOC after reading the book, for example, you will know that it is Umbrian and that if it's Assisi DOC Bianco it's made with Grechetto, "Umbria's finest white variety."

You'll also find interesting asides and occasional restaurant hints, while the last sections, questions-and-answers about Italian wines and Wine Myths Exposed, will help clear up misconceptions. And finally, there are a pronunciation guide (Aglianico, for example, is ahl YAHN ee co) and a handy vintage chart for the period from 1980 to 1999.

In short, an excellent book that provides both a fine overview of the Italian world and abundant, in-depth, unbiased detail.

Practical stuff:
Italian Wine For Dummies, by Mary Ewing-Mulligan and Ed McCarthy
Published in 2001 by Hungry Minds, Inc.
New York NY 10022
http://www.dummies.com
ISBN 0764553550
About 270 pages, with many maps.

Looks Good! I'd like to see the Order Form.