Bookworm, Issue 20

The Book: Italian Wine by Shelley Lindgren and Kate Leahy

I spent half of October in Italy with my mom and my sister, and I’m currently obsessed with the country’s wine. Our trip was not wine-focused, but we did share a lot of wonderful and unusual bottles. So, while I don’t generally review and pair wine books on this blog, I’m doing so this month because between planning my trip and traveling, I haven’t had much time to read (other than Rick Steves’ guide books and this Italian Wine book).

If you’re dreaming of an Italian getaway or planning to travel to Venice, Como, the Cinque Terre, Florence, Assisi, or Rome, I’d love to share what I learned, including site seeing tips and restaurant recommendations. You’re welcome to contact me anytime.

In the meantime, let’s talk about Italian Wine: The History, Regions, and Grapes of an Iconic Wine Country.

Restauranteur and sommelier Shelley Lindgren and writer Kate Leahy delve into the country’s fascinating, and sometimes confusing, wine landscape in this smartly-organized book. With 20 distinct regions, 590 officially-recognized grape varieties (some estimates top 1,800), diverse geology, and multitudes of microclimates influenced by mountains and the sea, Italian wine is complex.

But here, the authors distill a daunting amount of information into digestible chapters to help us understand the wine in our glasses through the stories behind it. The book is organized alphabetically by region, with each chapter summarizing history, land and wines, and native grape varieties. Interspersed among all this information are beautiful, full-page, color photographs.

The book stands apart from other wine-related texts on the strength of its short stories about the Italian people whom the authors meet, capturing their warmth and dedication. From winemaker Bruno De Conciliis, who takes a train to Naples in order to drive the authors’ rental car to his vineyard and “prevent disaster,” to famed Umbrian winemaker Giampiero Bea, who mentors a group of Cistercian nuns in nearby Lazio to help them refine their winemaking, generosity of spirit leaps from these pages. If you are like me, you will read about these people, and you will want to travel to their vineyards and share their wines with them.

At each chapter’s conclusion, there are useful lists of regional foods and recommended wine producers to help you create memorable food and wine experiences on your own. In the chapter about Abruzzo I encountered winemaker Cristiana Tiberio and her 150-pound sheepdog Quarmari. Happily, I found her Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo at my neighborhood wine shop. Tiberio uses the region’s flagship grape, Montepulciano; but in this case, she makes a rosato with the free-run juice, instead of a red wine. It is a stunning wine, both for its deep pink color and for its long savory and floral finish. And it proves that rosé can be enjoyed year round, not just in summertime.

While it’s possible to read this book from cover to cover, I took a more casual approach, letting curiosity guide me. I use the book as a reference manual, reading about unfamiliar native Italian grapes or growing areas as I encounter them in daily life. And, prior to my recent visit to Italy, I studied Veneto, Lombardy, Liguria, Umbria and Lazio to help me more fully enjoy the local culinary traditions. (It’s how I recognized, at a restaurant in Rome, that we should pair our meal with an alpine Nebbiolo from the historic ARPEPE estate in Lombardy’s Valtellina Superiore DOCG, which was part of an exceptional dining experience.)

For me, the more I understand about a wine’s story – its producer, place and style – the more I appreciate what’s in my glass. Italian Wine helps us connect facts about climate, geography, geology, grape variety, and winemaking technique to real Italian people and their history and traditions. Allowing us to travel to new places, even if, while we read, we’re doing it from the comfort of our homes.

The Wine: Monastero Suore Cistercensi, ‘Benedic’ Vino Rosso, Italy, 2021 $37.99

This wine is pale garnet. It has medium intensity on the nose with developing aromas of balsamic vinegar, black tea, forest floor, both fresh and dried red cherry, ripe strawberry, dried cranberry, tobacco, anise and cilantro stem. The harmonious blend of earthy and fruity aromas in this wine make it particularly intriguing.

On the palate, it’s dry with medium (+) acidity, medium body, and medium alcohol at 12.5% ABV. Gentle, medium (-) tannins create just enough structural grip. The wine has medium (+) intensity of flavors that mirror the nose and a long finish. The interplay between light and refreshing elements and deep, savory notes make this wine easy to appreciate. While not powerful, it is elegant and pure.

The wine is a 50/50 blend of Sangiovese and Ciliegiolo, and DNA analysis shows the grapes are close relatives. Here, Sangiovese provides depth while the Ciliegiolo adds brightness. This vino rosso is best served with a slight chill. Drink it on its own or pair it with typical Roman pasta dishes.

Why the pairing works:

Truthfully, I think you can pair this book with any Italian wine, but I encourage you to choose something new to you made with native Italian grapes. Traditionally, “Italian wine is local wine, with each region making it in their own way,” according to the book’s authors. This tradition, along with a more recent focus on grape biodiversity, has produced a vast array of Italian wines for us to enjoy.

I chose to highlight this elegant vino rosso from Monastero Suore Cistercensi for two reasons. First, I like the story behind it: the producers are nuns who farm organically about 90 minutes north of Rome, in the Lazio region. Their wines are hand-crafted using traditional, time-tested farming and winemaking methods. From simple, monastic living they create wines of beauty and purity. (But don’t confuse simplicity with ease because everything about winemaking is hard – including making a profit.)

In the early 2000s, the nuns made the acquaintance of famed Umbrian winemaker Giampiero Bea, who helped them refine their technique and market their wines, which are now popularly known as “the nun wine.” (You can see some photographs of the sisters in their vineyards on the importer’s website.)

Secondly, I think this wine reflects a shift in the Italian wine landscape. While rare and carefully-made wines have always existed, winemaking in some regions, like Lazio, suffered from a focus on quantity, not quality. New generations of winemakers, who value experimentation, sustainability and native grapes, are remaking the region’s reputation. In Lazio, where three-quarters of the wine production is white, this red wine exemplifies innovation. And this allows wine enthusiasts like ourselves to continue learning, exploring and experiencing new flavors.