Hugh Johnson's Tuscany and Its Wine - Hardcover

Johnson, Hugh

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0811827224 ISBN 13: 9780811827225

Publisher: Chronicle Books, 2000

Synopsis

Join world-renowned wine writer Hugh Johnson in this beautiful homage to Tuscany. Experience its history, landscapes, towns, villages, people, cuisine, and above all, its wines and vineyards as he journeys through the sunbaked hillsides and moonlit valleys. Tuscany and Its Wines evokes the Tuscan magic from dawn to dusk. Traveling from town to town, through wheat fields and farmland, Johnson not only explores the Tuscan geography and wineries, but shares the culture and sitesfrom a beautiful cathedral in Siena to a good place for a drink in Monte Amiata. Johnson's illuminating descriptions, wisdom, and knowledge coupled with more than 100 breathtaking photographs capture the very essence of Tuscany and bring the author's passion for the region's distinctive grape varietals to life. Tuscany and Its Wines is for everyone enthralled by Tuscany's sacred marriage of light and landscape, food and wine, beauty and history.

About this title

Review

It's a land in which "vineyard management" used to mean allowing the grapevines to wrap themselves up to the full height of elm and poplar trees. With Tuscany and Its Wines, prolific British wine author Hugh Johnson and peripatetic photographer Andy Katz bring this land of Chianti to a coffee table near you. More than three decades after the publication of his first book, Johnson manages here, in 144 pages bursting with dozens of gorgeous full-color photos (a few of which, alas, are uncaptioned), to take the reader on a breathless--and breathy--tour of one of the most celebrated regions in Italy, with narrative reminiscent of a particularly chatty uncle who's just picked you up at the train depot. And, as with many an avuncular itinerary, breathless narration can often leave you panting. Anyone unfamiliar with Tuscany may find themselves, after the endless parade of Certosa di Galluzos, Colli Fiorentinis, Ugo Contini Bonacossis, or Tenuta di Capezzanas, reaching--if not for a big carafe of Vino Nobile--for the drawn maps at the start of each chapter to determine whether these names are villages, Italian nobility, or local wines. But breathy quickly turns breezy as Johnson's evocative prose (the tannins of one Sangiovese are "invigorating, like a rough towel"; a particular hillside vineyard is a "green corduroy of vines") takes you jauntily to the town of Impruneta, producer of authentic terra cotta; Sant'Andrea, where Machiavelli wrote his treatise on power, The Prince; the villa at Vignamaggio, birthplace of Monna Lisa Gherardini, a.k.a. the Mona Lisa; and the city of Pistoia, whence the Germans coined the term "pistol" for the "nasty dagger carried under every Pistoiese's cloak." Italians, too, have a word--villegiatura--to denote the wish of escape from the city to a hillside villa. Tuscany and Its Wines may not replace a summer in Siena, but it's a dandy travel brochure. --Tony Mason

About the Author

Hugh Johnson is the world's preeminent writer on wine and has authored numerous books on the subject. His first book, Wine, has international sales totaling over seven million copies, and his classic World Atlas of Wine is now in its fourth edition. Johnso

Andy Katz has spent the last 20 years taking photographs in more than 80 countries. His work is exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide. He lives in Boulder, Colorado.

About this edition

• Publisher: Chronicle Books
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0811827224
• ISBN 13: 9780811827225
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 144