The best books on Tuscan Wine

Before we get to the books, can you introduce us to Tuscan wine?

When it comes to wine and Italy, Tuscany is at the forefront. It is a region in the heart of Italy that has maintained and sustained a certain set of values. While most other areas in Italy and throughout Europe were focused on style and type of wine, wine production in Tuscany was regulated in terms of provenance. This is where the first regulation of a specific area – Chianti – was formalised over 300 years ago. Cosimo I di Medici, Duke of Florence from 1537 to 1574 and then the first Medici Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1569, issued a groundbreaking law regarding Chianti that established the significance of a specific territory to wine production.

In the books that I suggest, we will discover that although in many respects Tuscany was a cradle of creativity – just consider the Renaissance in Florence for the arts – there was a period in which it was a little backward-thinking when it came to food and wine. This conservative tendency had the effect of preserving historical differences and ended up  safeguarding the nuanced and individual expression of each area of Tuscany. Initially, this ultra-traditional mentality appeared unattractive, but actually it preserved the heritage of the region.

Of course Tuscany emerged into the limelight once again over 50 years ago with another groundbreaking idea, the Super Tuscan. The advent of the Super Tuscan phenomenon at the end of the 1960s and beginning of the 1970s was both innovative and disruptive. Wines appeared on the market that aimed to replicate what were considered the best wines in the world, the wines of Bordeaux. For the first time, we see the introduction of certain types of oak used for smaller barrels (barriques) and the planting of Bordelaise grape varieties such as Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. Tuscan wines wanted to be accepted in foreign markets. Wines were made from Sangiovese – which is still the most widely planted variety in Italy and was once even more widely planted – together with the use of barriques, as in Bordeaux, or with Bordelaise grape varieties: the best of two worlds is combined in these wines. The naming of these wines was a complete rupture to tradition and actually marked the birth of brand names, starting with the category itself, Super Tuscan. The adjective ‘super’ gave a sense of the aspirations and intended grandeur of these wines; we see how the positioning of these wines was related to the actual naming of the wines.

It goes without saying that Tuscany is also the birthplace of the greatest Sangiovese wines in existence: Nobile di Montepulciano, Chianti Classico and Brunello di Montalcino are ambassadors for style, longevity and status and exemplify a very aristocratic version of winemaking.

Thank you, Gabriele, that’s a great introduction. Shall we go through each of the books? So the first one you’ve chosen is On Tuscany by multiple authors, subtitled From Brunello to Bolgheri, Wine Tales from the Heart of Italy. Are these mainly stories or history? Tell me about the book.

On Tuscany is part of a thematic series published by Academie du Vin that also includes other wines and wine areas. Other titles are On Champagne, On California, On Bordeaux, On Burgundy and so on. These books are all a compendium of essays about a specific wine area or wine; some essays are reproduced and some were commissioned specifically by the editor, Susan Keevil. The idea is that there are experts who write with deep knowledge about specific topics that are then organised by content. The result is that you have a lot of voices and writing styles, and some really captivating titles. Most essays are quite short so it is a very compact way to deliver multiple layers of information that really gets to the heart of the subject matter.

As I mentioned to you, I co-authored one of the articles in this book. When they briefed me about this book, they explained that the ethos of the book was topic-focussed, quite nerdy in some cases and that it would be crafted into a compilation. The article I wrote with Andrea Lonardi MW is called  “Wondering and Wandering in Montalcino” and it’s about the sub-zones of Montalcino for Brunello informed by our perspective as runners and mountain-bikers. We share our observations of the landscape and flora, to contextualise the soil and the resulting wines, illustrating the French concept of terroir. There is an article by Jancis Robinson and Walter Speller about Sangiovese, “Blood of Jove” in the section “Sangiovese and Friends”. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts – taken together, the essays are terrifically informative, not just about wines but also about the historical and cultural background of Tuscany, and the protagonists, both the innovators and the establishment.

Have you got a favorite essay in there?

The book was published in 2024 and there are several essays that are very recent, and others that are more historical in nature. One of my favorites is “800 Years of Fortitude” by Fiona Morrison MW. Fiona discusses the history of the Frescobaldi family, linking that to the Medici dynasty and more. It’s a very historical way to talk about wine and fascinating to read about wine at the same time as Michelangelo or Henry VIII. History and events are intertwined with wine as a constant and, in some ways, a witness.

Okay, let’s go on to the next book, which is Sassicaia: The Original Super Tuscan by Marco Fini.

I have this one with me because it’s a bit of a fetish book. All wine collectors should have this book, not just for the great photographs but because of how it recounts the birth of the original Supertuscans. These are wines that firmly established on an international level the concept of Tuscany as a region and the wines of Tuscany as a product. Sassicaia was probably the first brand wine. Marquis Incisa della Rocchetta, an incredible agronomist, had the opportunity to taste the greatest wines in the world thanks to his noble status, his family and heritage. He desired to replicate this greatness and spared neither expense nor energy, and basically lived his life around his creation. As well as being an excellent agronomist, he was also a great marketing man. He chose not to tell people what he was about to do, he just did it – not storytelling but story doing. This is an essential book to understand more about Tuscan wines. We see a very aristocratic expression with bigger properties, a pyramidal style of patronage and distinct personalities of the wines that is, in my opinion, a consequence of the personality of the people who made them.

And this was when, approximately?

Although the first vintage was 1958, the first commercial vintage of Sassicaia was a decade later. He spent several years adjusting and perfecting his methods in order to reach his objective and that’s something worth noting.

Let’s turn to book number three on your list. This is Chianti Classico: The Atlas. What can you tell me about this one?

This is a book for wine geeks, and definitely not something that you’re going to slip into your luggage, because it weighs more than two kilos. So it’s like a newborn child; as much a bible for Chianti as an atlas. This book shares incredible depth of knowledge and is a must-read for those wishing to truly engage with Chianti Classico. It’s a testament to 15 years of work on the field by Alessandro Masnaghetti and Paolo De Cristofaro. It was instrumental in creating the delimitation of subzones that are called UGA (additional geographic units) within the Chianti Classico denomination. Alessandro Masnaghetti has been mapping wine areas for Bordeaux and other appellations, but here in Chianti Classico, he delved with extraordinary specificity in order to identify climate areas, soils and temperatures that are presented in the form of maps. There is a reason why he is known as ‘The Map Man’; there is no one like him in the field.

He has created more than 150 maps of unsurpassed detail that feature the vineyards of almost 400 estates. You can open the book, go to a specific subsection of an already specific additional geographic unit, and check the altitude, the aspect, all of the soils and what the actual wine resulting from that specific area could taste like and how the last few vintages have been behaving in the context of the appellation. It’s super informative, but of course, it is something that is designed for people who want to go deeper in their knowledge of Chianti Classico.

Masnaghetti is writing about something he did, not about something somebody else did. The book is a published research paper, a gargantuan effort made by one man. He created the maps, visited the properties and checked the geology to report about specific sub-areas of the subzones. It’s more than 400 pages, but it’s not a coffee table book, but rather a superb reference tool. If you want to really engage with a specific wine from a specific area, with this, you can. The reason I recommend this volume is that there are not many areas in the wine world that can withstand such detailed examination of their territory in such a rewarding way.

Next up we’ve got The Finest Wines of Tuscany and Central Italy: A Regional and Village Guide to the Best Wines and Their Producers.

The reason I selected this book is because of the author, Nicholas Belfrage, a Master of Wine who died in 2022. We were friends and he was one of the characters in the international wine panorama who did an enormous amount for Italian and Tuscan wines. I would be happy to do half of what he achieved during his career. He was a fine thinker and an inspiring man, an expert trader and a wine insider.

Bear in mind this is not a recent book and has not been updated since 2009, so it shouldn’t be taken as a reference for rules of appellations which may have changed in the meantime. It is the approach to the wines that I really love about Nick Belfrage’s writing and it is timeless. In the introduction, he explains that this book should be approached like a Tuscan meal. So you have the antipasto, the entrée, where he shares the background information of the wines and the areas, geography, viticulture and so on to whet the appetite. The second part is the primo. So it talks about production zones, producers and their wines, where he uses stars, like restaurants to indicate the best producers. And then the third part is the secondo, the main course; a comprehensive review of vintages and wine with food pairing. If anything, the historical viewpoint actually makes it fascinating to consult now since there are in-depth, illustrated profiles of more than 90 of the most interesting producers, large and small, with insightful notes on their finest wines.

It is not only a descriptive book, but it is something that shows us the mind of Nicholas Belfrage. Of course, he talks about, once again, the rise of the Supertuscan and at the time of writing he delves quite deeply into the then ongoing scandal of Montalcino, known as Brunellogate (2008). Although new producers have appeared and new techniques are in use, not to mention the effects of climate change, here we have a historical, cultural, and I would say environmental way of understanding the wines of Tuscany. It’s very engaging in its tone and you can really feel that Nicholas also knew a lot about the wines of the world and contextualises Tuscany in a global panorama.

 Lastly, you’re recommending The Magpie’s Guide to Montalcino, by Laura R. Gray. Tell me about this one.

Another disclaimer here, because this book was the reason that I started to work with Laura and we have since become friends. In 2023, she set up a meeting with me to ask me to write the introduction and I ended up offering her a job. The book is a dictionary with an index of entries by topic that share an anecdotal, historical and cultural knowledge of Montalcino.

So although it might seem to be about a very specific topic, Montalcino, it actually is a perfect entry into a deeper understanding of Italian wine, Italian lifestyle and life in a small town in Tuscany. Some entries are very specific to viticulture, but others are stories about beloved local characters or Tuscan sayings. The idea of the magpies is that this is a collection of shiny things. I really like the way it is a guide; it doesn’t have a beginning or an end. You can just open it and read about a general concept, like ‘drinking window’, ‘peronospera’, the legacy of nicknames in the town, or the Etruscan origins of the area. It is so well crafted that in just a few lines, she delivers a lot of information in this very light-handed, witty, yet informative way.

This is a book for everybody. The other titles in my selection are for people who have an existing interest and knowledge of wine. Laura’s book is something else. It’s not just about wine, although it is about Tuscany and Montalcino in particular. Also, when did you last laugh when reading a reference book?

So is there quite a lot of focus on Brunello?

There are quite a few entries about the production and regulation of Brunello, the DOCG certification of Brunello itself, the soils and so on. She includes the phenological phases of the growing season, and some personalities that have been instrumental to the rise in the reputation of Brunello. But at the same time, most of the entries can be useful for wine knowledge in general, regardless of whether we are talking about Brunello or Tuscan wine. It is a very inclusive book that can be used to get a better grip of the area. It is an innovative way to understand a region, written by a local. She’s been in Montalcino for more than thirty years but at the same time she has maintained her critical eye as a foreigner, so it’s a very illuminating book to browse and enjoy.