Italianity: This book will 'enchant lovers of Italian wine', says our reviewer
This month’s book has been sitting on my desk for some time – undeservedly having to wait its turn to appear here.
Written by Andrea Lonardi MW and Jessica Dupuy, Italianity: The Culture of Italian Wine (£40 Greenleaf, April 2026) is unlike any wine book I’ve come across before – and it will enchant lovers of Italian wine.
The book sets out to explore what defines Italian wine – ‘the layered interplay of flavour, terroir, tradition and quiet innovation’, the distinctive character that runs through the wines.
Although Italy and its wines are hugely varied, there’s a uniting factor: ‘Italianity’, which Lonardi describes as ‘a shared language spoken in a thousand dialects’.
The main body of the book is divided into key styles or grapes, with each section broken into bite-sized essays and a sprinkling of recipes.
Alternating between the voices of the native Lonardi and foreign Dupuy, these range from spotlights on restaurants and key industry figures to cultural musings and snippets of travelogue.
The insider-outsider duo, combined with Lonardi’s in-depth knowledge of both Italian wine and the broader global context, makes for a work that’s expert but accessible and, crucially, deeply evocative.
The penultimate section looks to the future of Italianity, offering something of a rallying cry for the industry on how to protect and preserve what sets Italy’s wines apart.
This is followed by personal essays on the meaning of Italianity from wine writers and sommeliers in the US, Canada and Italy.
The book is – as you might expect of an Italian offering – stylish: a beautiful hardback with gorgeous photography that brings Italy’s wine regions to life, and soft, earthy tones throughout.
There are some frustrating typesetting errors, but they’re minor imperfections. Each spread has text written in English on the left and Italian on the right, making it ideal for aspiring Italian-speakers.
This isn’t a guide to Italian wine, to the regions, grapes and producers, offering instead a flavour of what Italian wine is about. ‘A flavour’ doesn’t really do it justice, given its depth – but it is, like the concept of Italianity itself, hard to pin down.
As nebulous as it might seem, the book captures Italianity beautifully. It will leave you lusting not just for a glass, but for a trip to dive head first into all the things that make Italy (and its wine) so irresistible.
Treasure in the aisles
Supermarket shelves are home to some brilliant wines at brilliant prices – and some rubbish wines, too.
While I’d always encourage wine lovers to frequent independent shops when they can, a new book by Helen McGinn, The Supermarket Wine Guide (£14.99 Ebury Press, May 2026), ensures you don’t fall foul of seductive discounts during your weekly shop, highlighting the best bottles from the UK’s biggest supermarkets.
