Italian Wine For Dummies

If you are a wine-snob wanna-be, this is the perfect book to start your journey with. Written in an easy to understand language, a non-pretentious approach to a quite challenging topic. Becoming a wine connoisseur can be a very ambitious thing to do, but this book definitely puts things in perspective as far as Italian wines go. I really enjoy reading it before opening up a bottle of a wine that I'm trying for the first time. Also a nice reference if you plan on starting a fun little wine club with your friends. If you're interested in knowing more about wine in general, I would also like to recommend the Wine for Dummies which is an extremely good value for the information that is presented.

A wonderful text covering Italian wine in an easy to read format. You may browse through the noted sections and glance over the meat if you want a cursory education on Italian wine. There are very few in depth texts on Italian wine, mainly due to the convoluted DOC system and the overabundance of native grape varieties and grape psuedonyms. The authors give a valiant effort that is worthy of a read. Pros: great knowledge, easy to follow Cons: difficult Italian systems, poor maps

This book helps you select wisely amoung the countless wineries and labels of the delicious wine you will taste in Italy. The book makes it easy to understand which wine taste great in the separate regions, without having to know any of the stuck-up jargon wine experts blab to sound impressive. More importantly the book does not recommend the expensive wine to be best for your palate. You will find the bottles that taste like $50, but are less than $20.

This is a most appropriate way to begin the study of Italian wine - the theoretical part, that is. The book is concise yet clear and understandable, despite a substantial amount of new terminology. I use it also as a reference for choosing new Italian wines, when in a wine store. Must say though, that in these circumstances (in a store with people around me) the word DUMMIES, in big friendly letters on the book cover, is a disatvantage.

Italian wine was for many years seldom more than pretty good--and then something wonderful happened: the global economy. All of a sudden winemakers everywhere were competing for customers everywhere, and for most of them that meant they had to improve quality, and fast. Italian winemakers responded and successfully to the challenge. They now produce some of the most esteems top-of-the-line wines in the world as well as an increasing nmber of wines that are real bargains (that is, you get than you pay for). But too many wine writers have failed to keep up with this ar-reaching change, have failed to expand their horizons beyond France.Not writers. Authors of "dummies" wine books since "Wine for Dummies" in 1995, they have closely followed Italy's quality revolution, and so can point you to a world of pleasure you might otherwise miss.After saying that much I'm in danger of repeating what I wrote in my review of the authors'"FRENCH Wine for Dummies," published simultaneously, so you should scamper right over to my review of that book for more details. Then you'll have the complete rundown on both.One thing I should add: these books aren't really for dummies. I keep them at hand and I know several other pros who do too.-----------Bill Marsano is a contributing editor of Hemispheres, United Airlines' in-flight magazine, for which he frequently writes on wine and spirits. One of his Hemisphere articles won a James Beard medal in 1999.