Inside the book

The book is a state-minded manual of Italian enology, joining Pasteurian fermentation theory, practical apparatus, grape selection, and quantitative vineyard data to a project of agricultural modernization. It opens with Cantoni's epigraph on Italy as a land of wine, setting a public rather than specialist aim. It classifies wines as vini da pasto (table wines) and vini di lusso o da dessert (luxury or dessert wines), then divides table wines into secchi, navigabili, fini e durevoli (dry, suitable for shipping, fine and long-keeping) for export, andanti, igienici (ordinary, wholesome) for domestic use, and lower piano (grade) wines. The main sequence moves through Classe Prima, Classe Seconda, and Terzo Gruppo (First Class, Second Class, and Third Group), with instructions on harvest timing, ammostatura (must-making), removal of stems, fermentation after Pasteur, sealed vats, follatura (punching down the cap), racking, barrel care, fining with egg white, sulphurisation, and the new chapter on white table wines. The section on artificial heating traces enological pasteurisation from Appert, Gervais, Vergnette-Lamotte, and Ridolfi to Pasteur, distinguishing gentle heating from forced heating and comparing medal-winning apparatus. Over forty in-text woodcuts show laboratory glassware, a fermenting vat in section, Perret's grilles for submerging grape marc, the chain-suspended bruciamiccie (sulphur-wick burner), and the Vianello-Carpene sulphurisation furnace. The Sienese tables name proprietors, localities, soils, varieties, and must ratios, including Bettino Ricasoli at Brolio and Chianti, with Malvasia, Canaiuolo, Alicante, and Procanico compared across estates.