Decoding Italian Wine: a Beginner's Guide to Enjoying the Grapes, Regions, Practices and Culture of the Land of Wine

Book excerpt: Wine books typically fall into two categories: those that are 1,000 pages and cover every acre of grape growing across a particular country, and those that try to squeeze the same amount of information into a smaller number of pages. While there's a place for those books, we believe an introductory study of wine can be achieved without committing to an academic, encyclopedic read or bulling through a condensed group of dry facts. Written by the creators of CostcoWineBlog.com and VivaItalianMovies.com, "Decoding Italian Wine" is a fun, entertaining and easily digestible guide to enjoying Italian wine. Set against a backdrop of fast facts, regional breakdowns with maps, pop culture references and interesting historical tidbits, "Decoding Italian Wine" allows readers to absorb a plethora of Italian wine information without the effort required to study dense text filled with obscure grape varietals and arcane industry lingo. Our goal is for readers to feel comfortable visiting the Italian wine section at their local wine shop, engaging in dialogue about the wine, and picking out a bottle they'll enjoy. We want readers to open the wine list at an Italian restaurant, understand what they're looking at, and have fun picking a wine that will pair best with their meal. Along the way we'll show you how to read Italian wine labels, discuss how Italian wines are classified, suggest some amusing Italian phrases to work into your vocabulary, highlight rappers' passion for Moscato, and even share a little bit about the wine scenes in classic Italian films like "Bicycle Thieves" and "La Dolce Vita." Salute!