Joe Campanale

With a history that dates back many centuries, it might be reasonable to assume that everything that could—or should—be written about Italian winemaking had already happened. The reality, though, is that consumer tastes, environmental conditions, production methods, and regulatory mandates change so much from year to year that it is virtually impossible to write a single treatment that captures the essence of the topic for all time. So, a book such as Vino: The Essential Guide to Real Italian Wine that provides a fresh look at viniculture across the entire peninsula, along with stories of the men and women devoted producing wine the right way, is a welcome addition to the countless existing works. Co-author Joe Campanale, a celebrated New York-based sommelier and restauranteur, has spent his career developing an expertise in this area and that joy, passion, and knowledge comes through on every page of this impressive volume.

The book is divided into three distinct parts, beginning with a potentially controversial discussion of how the highly regulated DOC appellation system that has been used to classify Italian wines for more than a half century can be a highly misleading guide to the quality of what ends up in the glass. As an alternative, Campanale suggests the use of the Vino Vero Venn (VVV) diagram, which triangulates wine quality on three dimensions: the use of grapes native to a region, the quality of the terroir, and the talents of artisan winemakers. If nothing else, the VVV system reveals the author’s underlying bias that only those bottles produced with native grapes using natural methods can be considered as “real” wines, or vino vero. I found this to be an interesting way to look at wine production and one that has the benefit of focusing on the characteristics of the product itself instead of classifications dictated by government regulation. A second section of the book then provides a quick synopsis of new styles—such as orange wines—that have emerged using VVV-friendly production methods.

The third section, which is by far the longest and most detailed, offers a region-by-region breakdown of what wine is being made right now throughout Italy, a discussion that goes far beyond the Chianti, Barolo, and Prosecco we are already familiar with. For each of the twenty regions—from Valle D’Aosta in the north to Sicily in the south—the authors provide an exhaustive overview of the history and growing conditions in the area, which grapes are considered native, and profiles of many of the current and recent past producers who have defined the industry. Much of this information was highly informative and did a great job of highlighting the diversity that exists across the country, including why producing wine with grapes native to an area is so important. The only real negative thing I can say about this material is the excessive amount of space spent on the growers’ biographies; although these were uniformly thoughtful and well-written, the people profiled will mean little to anyone who is not intimately connected to the business.

Overall, Vino is a thoroughly researched and passionately rendered look at a topic that will certainly resonate with a lot of readers. The authors bring a new point of view to a very old topic and their ability to communicate both their expertise and their enthusiasm was quite striking. I suspect that this volume will be a welcome addition to the bookshelves of all of us who love everything about Italian wine.… (mer)

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I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, thank you!

I'm not that experienced with cookbooks actually. Usually I just try something or find recipes online. However, I'm a great fan of Italian food and this cookbook looked great so I just had to request it.

There were some great recipes in this book (I think, I haven't had the time yet to actually make them, but they looked great). Each recipe is accompanied by some text and the descriptions seem good (but, like I said, I haven't put them to the test yet).

One thing I didn't really like: As a beginning cook I like to see a photo of every recipe, so that in the end I can see if it looks at all like it was supposed to be. I don't need multiple photo's per recipe, they don't need to be too big, so I don't feel like I'm asking too much here. In this book there are quite some recipes that don't have a picture supporting the recipe. I do need to say however that the pictures that were in the book looked great and the food looked really good, too.… (mer)