Unlike Burton Anderson's book, which uses Italy's wine producing regions as an organizing principle, Hazan's survey of Italian wines groups wines by type. Hazan's method of organization is useful for readers more used to American-style groupings of wine, but I tend to prefer a regional focus when learning about wine. Anderson's book gave me more of a sense of what made each region distinctive; Hazan's book blurs those distinctions. Because of his focus on wine styles, some of Hazan's descriptions are very short, and some sections of the book read like a laundry list. Nevertheless, from Hazan's book I got a good sense of the major grape types and wine styles in Italy. Hazan is a better writer than Anderson, and Hazan is not afraid to tell the reader if a wine is substandard. As with Anderson's book, Hazan's book is outdated (published in 1982), but many of its points are still valid. ( )