Through twenty-four native Italian grape varieties – from Baratuciat al Susumaniello, dalla Coda di Volpe alla Vespaiola – the volume reconstructs a landscape that never separates the vine from the natural and cultural world that surrounds it. It is an alphabetical journey that, instead of following geographical or disciplinary boundaries, crosses imaginary and symbolic territories, restoring the complexity of the relationships between man, environment and language. The choice of encyclopaedic order thus becomes a statement of method: here, wine is not only a product, but a story, a memory, a relationship.

The result is a sensory and conceptual atlas, in which the word “autochthonous” returns to its fullest meaning – “born of the same land” – and expands to encompass the link between grape variety and community, between vineyard and landscape, between names and stories handed down through the generations. The observation of bunches of grapes that resemble tails, paws, plumage or insects is not folklore: it is the way in which peasant cultures have kept alive, for centuries, a pact with nature.