The Italian Wine Guide: The Definitive Guide to Touring, Sourcing, and Tasting (Dolce Vita)
The wines of Italy are a delightful part of any visit to the Bel Paese, and The Italian Wine Guide is the ultimate guide to the world of these wines. This practical handbook offers current information on wineries, tours, and tastings throughout Italy, plus listings for over 1,900 wine stores. For those visiting winery towns, over 60 detailed maps and itineraries are featured, with suggestions on where to enjoy the best wines and dine on the finest local cuisine. A look at contemporary wine production in Italy is followed by detailed discussions of each region. The new edition contains listings for U.S. retailers selling Italian wines.
Rating: 
(out of 3 reviews)
List Price: $ 24.95
Price: $ 18.21
The Ecco Guide to the Best Wines of Italy: The Ultimate Resource for Finding, Buying, Drinking, and Enjoying Italy’s Best Wines
- ISBN13: 9780061583414
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
The definitive guide to Italy’s best wines by foremost expert Ian D’Agata, the director of the International Wine Academy of Roma The Ecco Guide to the Best Wines of Italy is a simple, user-friendly guide to the top Italian wines—packed with information on purchasing it in America, with tips for visiting wineries in Italy. In addition to a detailed glossary, vintage table, and index, D’Agata presents a series of “best of” lists: The 100 best red wines under 0 The 60 best white wines under 0 The 45 best wines at or less The 25 best cult wines The 25 best wine estates and producers The 10 best debut wines This is a unique book—a truly comprehensive guide to Italian wines. D’Agata, an important wine insider, lives in Rome and is on the road six months out of the year, visiting estates and cellars throughout Italy. This book represents the summation of 25 years of tastings, travels to wineries all over the world, and interviews with vintners.
Rating: 
(out of 4 reviews)
List Price: $ 13.95
Price: $ 3.36
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Tags: bel paese, best red wines, Definitive, Dolce, Guide, guide to italian wines, Italian, italian wine guide, remainder mark, Sourcing, Tasting, Touring, user friendly guide, Vita, white wines, Wine, wine academy, wineries in italy, wines of italy
Review by suetonius for The Italian Wine Guide: The Definitive Guide to Touring, Sourcing, and Tasting (Dolce Vita)
Rating:
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.
Review by Amalfi Coast Girl for The Italian Wine Guide: The Definitive Guide to Touring, Sourcing, and Tasting (Dolce Vita)
Rating:
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.
Review by Ursiform for The Italian Wine Guide: The Definitive Guide to Touring, Sourcing, and Tasting (Dolce Vita)
Rating:
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.
Review by F. Chapman for The Ecco Guide to the Best Wines of Italy: The Ultimate Resource for Finding, Buying, Drinking, and Enjoying Italy’s Best Wines
Rating:
Simple, easy to use guide for wines of italy. Great for anyone traveling to Italy- there are so many wines that having this guide will help. And Dr. d’
agata, as always, is a master!
Review by A. Merrill for The Ecco Guide to the Best Wines of Italy: The Ultimate Resource for Finding, Buying, Drinking, and Enjoying Italy’s Best Wines
Rating:
I have bought a few books about Italian wines and food. Although this book is very informative, the layout is a little dull and difficult to navigate.
Review by notacriticjusta fan for The Ecco Guide to the Best Wines of Italy: The Ultimate Resource for Finding, Buying, Drinking, and Enjoying Italy’s Best Wines
Rating:
If you have shelves full of random Italian wine reference books that you never look at, buy this book! This portable little volume is an actually relevant and insightful guide that goes well beyond the usual list of Italian wines with interesting comments and information about the classics as well as any number of discoveries that make the reader take note. While written in a highly personal tone, the author obviously knows and loves the subject and the narratives and descriptions go well beyond the trite. This is a book of lists with real depth that you will literally sit down to read from beginning to end and then refer to often, even if you are a more advanced Italian wine collector.
Review by Napadanby for The Ecco Guide to the Best Wines of Italy: The Ultimate Resource for Finding, Buying, Drinking, and Enjoying Italy’s Best Wines
Rating:
Haven’t read it yet, just now ordered. I sought it out after reading a nice review on Jancis Robinson’s “Purple Pages” (2008 wine books, Part 3).