Chianti Classico: The Atlas

"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."