Beyond Barolo and Brunello: Italy's Most Distinctive Wines

Though the arrangement of information is a bit awkward, this is a must-have for any serious Italian wine aficionado. Region by region, the author lists his favorite producers and describes one or more of their wines, focusing on the wines and/or varietals for which each region is known (or unknown to many outside of Italy). The title is a bit misleading as both Barolo and Brunello are well represented but the inclusion of many additional wine types is what makes the book so useful.

A very poorly organized book that congratulates itself on not alphabetizing producers! The groupings are by region with, I think, white wines thrown in first. For example in the section on Piedmont the author goes seamlessly from describing a wine made from "Erbaluce" (a white grape) by one producer to a review of a Barbera produced by someone else. No hint is given as to production amounts, price or availability in the US. So the reader may be reading a review of a hundred-case effort the writer discovered in a village in Italy from which no bottle has ever escaped local consumption. Nothing is told the reader about production methods or viticulture, but there's plenty of the "blackberry, clove tar and tobacco" rubbish. As close to useless as a wine book can get. Which is a pity because clearly a great amount of research went into this book. If only an editor had been employed in the creation of this self-published book.

The exploration of wine needs many guides; some to act as reference, some to stimulate your appetite and others to bring you back to the basics. Tom's book stimulates the senses with his no nonsense tasting notes and expansive views of the artisans of Italian wine. If someone doesn't like this book, they have yet to learn the basics and that Italian wine is not glitter and shine and press - it is the taste of the white truffle, the smell of the dirt and the small producer around the corner that pours his heart into everything he does. The book's dedication says it all: to I contadini, the farmers who are the heart and soul of Italian wine.Go meet some of them, do your own exploring - and take this book with you.

If you are looking for a geographical romp thru Italy's key regions, replete with acreage, DOC rules, percentages of each variety planted and multicolored to-scale maps then this is not your book. BUT if you are seeking a well written, 'merchant-approached' and personal selection of terrific wines with balanced prose to frame them, well...this is your book. In a time when so much Italian wine discourse is focused on the 'big guns' of Barolo, Barbaresco, Brunello and varied super-Tuscans, this work seeks to celebrate the roads less traveled and indeed where some of the better values can be found in contemporary Italian wines. A fresh point of view...Well done Tom!!

This was a very informative book and very helpful in expanding ones knowledge and viewpoints on the topic. It was a delightful and easy read. I would highly recommend to anyone wishing to explore the distinctive wines of Italy.

Interesting and useful content but comically unreadable. No-one proofread the ebook - apart from misspelling autochthonous on the first page, part of Bartolo Mascarello appears inside Gaja San Lorenzo, Valentini has half of his neighbour's review, same with vietti... It's a mess. And the table of contents isn't where the kindle link takes you, but that doesn't matter because the links in the contents go to random locations, and don't bother with the index - it gives paper page numbers and (advisedly) doesn't bother with links. Did you knock this up after supper, Tom?