Tuscany and Its Wines

This book is a homage basically to the history, culture, landscapes, villages, people, cuisines, wines, vineyards and winemakers of the lovely Tuscan region of Italy. Taking these multi faceted subjects and winding his lovely prose with Andy Katz beautiful photography of the region , Hugh Johnson has created a splendid work. The first 22 pages cover the history of wine and grape in the Tuscan region. The detail as fine as the scent, shape, size and blending of various grape to produce wines of higher quality and overcome certain flaws with certain varieties of grape have are prominant in this chapter. Its like a short synopsis of the wine making art of the region couple with a brief history of prominant names associated with wine in Tuscany followed by some lovely verse on the landscape, soils, weather etc thrown in. Once past that opening chaper each Tuscan wine region is explored in a formula that takes the reader on a journey: First the landscape is poetically introduced, followed by descriptions of the leading wine making towns/villages of that region, where their history and architecture - with emphasis on the key restaurants, wineshops, lovely Villa's and churches etc unique to that area - feature prominantly in the prose before the history of the wine and vineyards for that area is covered. Regions covered include: The Arno Valley, South of Florence (Chianti Country), Siena, The Tuscan Coast (Maremma). The end chapters offer a selection of the quality Tuscan wines to be found in each region before the book rounds off with a description of the 16 grape varieties grown in the Tuscan region and the other places that grape is popularly grown in and around Italy. The book is more a celebration of a major wine growing region than a discussion of individual wines in detail. The photography is absolutely gorgeous whether it be a photo of a bunch of grapes hanging from the vine or a panning shot of vineyards trailing down hills or a shot of a villa on a hill or piazza at night. The attention to detail is brilliant. The authors words are penned in a way that is both informative, lucid and absorbing. All round a lovely book for the wine lover to own.

There's no doubting Hugh Johnson's position as one of the leading wine writers (and appreciators) of our time. This book is a little misleading however, for it is not the in-depth exploration of the Italian wine explosion one expects from Johnson's past works. This book focuses more on Andy Katz' exceptional photographs of one of the lovliest wine regions of the world. Johnson's prose is an homage to Tuscany more than a technical exploration of just what has caused the stunning advances is the region's wine production over the past 20 years. Johnson gives insights into many fine properties, but if you're expecting an expansion on Johnson's encyclopedia of wine's Tuscan entry you will likely be disappointed. Think of it more as a heartfelt appreciation of Tuscan wine and culture -- it's almost poetic in its mesh of prose and photography.