Reviews for Italian Wines 2008

The average rating for Italian Wines 2008 based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-06-07 00:00:00 Jan Smith This was a mildly entertaining account of how the Hungarian/Canadian author, who is a writer by profession, found and bought a crumbling ancient friary building in Tuscany, rebuilt it into a family home, and planted a vineyard with four different kinds of wine grapes. Pleasantly descriptive & humorous & evocative of living in Tuscany, yet it kind of lacked a soulful touch. I was conflicted about this book. On the one hand, I was interested in the details, such as the hunt for the perfect property through the hills and dales of rustic Tuscany, the find of the ruins of an Etruscan city in his 70 acre hilly woods, the pros and cons of the various grapes for the various growing conditions of his patchwork quilt of a 15-ish acre vineyard in the property, his whacky misadventures with construction equipment (though he's clearly very handy), the insane bureaucratic process of getting approval to have a vineyard and getting farm tax abatements, etc. Doesn't that sound like good armchair traveling? On the other hand, I was annoyed by some things. His wife, a central character in the book, was depicted oddly shallowly which is too bad because she seemed like an interesting person, an artist and former competitive plane glider. And the author seemed to be conflicted himself about what to reveal with regards to the finances of doing what he did - he says he might not have enough money to buy & totally rebuild the friary, mentions specifics about the price of certain acreage from an unethical businessman neighbor who offers wildly varying prices, but draws a total veil over how he actually manages to afford to spend 18 months with loads of contractors rebuilding the place, then buy thousands of grape vines, vineyard machinery, custom made vats for the wine, spend 2 years in Rome while his wife goes to wine school & kid is in private school, etc etc. The book's a romp through the shallow bits of the house/vineyard purchase & creation process rather than a memoir with the kind of in-depth explorations I'd have preferred.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-10-01 00:00:00 Mark Parkyn A guy's version of *Under the Tuscan Sun* -- It made me hungry and thirsty, and I loved the insights into planting a vineyard and rebuilding a centuries-old house. Witty and intelligently written. (Then the author bio says he left Tuscany to sail the South Pacific -- If I'd worked that hard on my home, you'd have to tear me away with a pliers!)