Inside the book

The volume opens with an elegant Liberty-style typographical frontispiece. Caruso addresses the pressing crisis of overproduction, arguing that quantity alone cannot overcome international competition. Instead, he focuses on the essential path forward: improving quality, deliberately avoiding minor technicalities unsuited to such a serious moment.
The text begins with climate, examining how hillside versus plain locations, as well as temperature, influence yield and alcoholic strength. Caruso then turns to soil, emphasizing the importance of volcanic terrain such as Etna and Vesuvius. He highlights the grape “Sangioreto,” the foundation of Chianti Classico and Pomino (Rufina), to show how terroir produces strikingly different results.
Further sections address propagation and vineyard design. Caruso asserts that the Guyot pruning system, though described by Guyot, was already long established throughout Italy under the name “a capovolto.”
The result is a precise yet comprehensive late 19th-century vision of viticulture, a work that still resonates today and would intrigue contemporary natural wine producers.