My very first cookbook project was A16 Food + Wine, a tribute to Southern Italian cooking and drinking. It introduced me to the world of Calabrian chiles, burrata, Neapolitan pizza, and wonderful wines I had never heard of before—like Fiano, for instance, or Aglianico. When Shelley Lindgren, wine director and owner of A16, and I teamed up to revisit Italy in this book, it was an excuse to revisit that world while also digging deeper into it.

Divided by cultures, mountains, and seas, Italy’s 20 regions have always maintained their own customs and identities. It was only fairly recently (the 19th century!) that Italy was unified, and even then it took time for everyone to start speaking the same language. Italian wine is a product of this profound diversity. This can make learning about Italian wine confusing, but it also means that there are plenty of discoveries to make.

Italian Wine breaks it all down, region by region, in alphabetical order. If you have a wine you want to learn more about, you can flip to the page that talks about the region, or read up on the grape itself and how it grows.

We wrote Italian Wine to an in-depth (and fun) guide into this endlessly fascinating wine country.

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Praise//

“A brilliant look into the past, present, and future of wine and food in Italy. The book portrays the deep culture of Italian tradition!”—Rajat Parr, owner-operator of Phelan Farm and author of Secrets of the Sommeliers and The Sommelier’s Atlas of Taste

“A pioneering sommelier and restaurant owner, Shelley Lindgren has, for decades, been at the forefront of Italy’s evolving wine culture and an early champion of producers that have now become canon. Together with Kate Leahy, she has managed to distill deep knowledge of and clear passion for Italy into an indispensable, and approachable, guide to the producers, places, and culture that make Italy’s wines among the world’s greatest.”—Talia Baiocchi, editor in chief, Punch

“With Italian Wine, Lindgren and Leahy have managed the impossible—to celebrate and explain Italy’s rich and storied viticultural history while introducing us to those shaping its wines today. This visually stunning and extremely user-friendly book brings each region alive, honoring geography, winemakers, and culinary traditions from the North to the South, guiding us on a journey and informing us all the while. This book will sit on my counter at the ready for those times I want to escape to Italy, brush up on knowledge, or simply find inspiration for dinner.”—Jordan Salcito, award-winning sommelier, author, and founder of Drink RAMONA Organic Italian Spritzes

“Shelley Lindgren is positively, absolutely at the apex of America’s impassioned lovers of Italian wine. She has put in the time (decades), the kilometers in Italy (thousands), and has served for years some of the greatest glasses of Italian wines with stupendously good food at her restaurant. As an admiring Italian winegrower once said to me, ‘She knows all, my dear.’ It’s no surprise that Italian Wine is a rarity: a book about the most complicated, yet exhilarating, wine country in the world that conveys all of its excitement—but blows away all the fuss and bother. Really, you can’t ask for more or better than that.”—Matt Kramer, author of True Taste: The Seven Essential Wine Words

“For decades, Shelley has been a leading voice in the Italian wine revolution and an early advocate for indigenous varietals of Southern Italy. Her love for Italian wine has been a prophecy realized. Italian Wine, which breaks the vast landscape into regions and varietals, is a must-read for Italian wine veterans and newbies alike. Shelley and Kate present Italy in a straightforward and easy-to-read fashion. Shelley’s vast knowledge of Italian wine and immense passion come through on every page.”—Joe Bastianich, wine maker and restaurateur