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."