The Italian Wine Guide: The Definitive Guide to Touring, Sourcing, and Tasting

Planning for a possible trip to Italy, I was looking for a guide to wineries that might be interesting to visit. Out of slim pickings I ordered this book. Published by the Touring Club of Italy, the first thing I noticed was that it contains ads. They do make up a small fraction of the pages, and are grouped between sections, so they aren't too intrusive. The guide is broken up by region, and for each region there is a discussion of the wines of the region, the areas of the region, and some routes that might be followed to explore the wines. So far, so good. This information, while concise, is helpful. Less helpful is that information on specific wineries is in a separate section at the end of the book, and there are no maps of the wineries. So actually locating wineries to visit means cross referencing the regional section, the associated winery section at the back, and a map. The information is there, and it is possible to do this, but a format that incorporates winery information into the regional sections would have been more convenient. As I haven't found a better guide, I'll give it a generous four stars. But there is room for improvement in a future edition.

If you are serious about Italian wine and/or food this is great book to have in your library. The book does a nice job of explaining the wine varietals from particular regions of Italy. They also tell you which years are outstanding, very good, fairly good and unsatisfactory by wine. This book is very helpful for a trip to your favorite wine store. If you are interested in wine tours while in Italy the book gives descriptions of wineries and which one offer tours and whether you need to make reservations or not. I also appreciated the wine store names, addresses and phone numbers that are listed by region. My husband appreciated the similar listings of golf courses. Their listings of antique fairs were also useful. When I was booking our last vacation, I compared the hotel and restaurant suggestions with other guides and found that they were similar. It is always nice to have multiple sources for information. I think that this book has something for everyone. If you never plan to visit Italy this book is very useful with its general information about Italian varietals and which years to purchase.

Tbis book gives all the information needed to actually visit Italian wine regions and the wineries themselves. Wineries in Italy are generally not set up to receive tourists as in Napa. Prior arrangements usually need to be made just to visit, not to mention an actual tour and on-site tasting. The book is organized by region with specific address and contact information for some (but not all) wineries. You might not be able to find the exact winery that produced an obscure bottle that you found at Trader Joe's but you can find one near it and probably just like it. The book is a heavy softcover octavo with glossy pages and many pictures. There are also paid advertisements for wineries and vinotecas grouped with the editorial content. This is not a drawback but is helpful to know which places actually welcome visitors (some don't). The famous Sassicaia winery at Tenuta San Guido in Toscana for example, does not. I found that the binding is poor and pages have a tendency to fall out but I may have gotten a bad example. The book is somewhat heavy (about two pounds) but on balance I would say worth actually carrying with you on your trip to Italy. The Touring Club of Italy is an organization similar to AAA which publishes maps and guidebooks in addition to offering other travel services. They have a useful website (in English and Italian) at touringclubdotcom.