The Next Rooster - Michael Godel
Product details
| Management number | 253420842 | Release Date | 2026/10/24 | List Price | CA$26.00 | Model Number | 253420842 | ||
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The Next Rooster is a portrait of continuity in motion. Through 44 essays, it brings together the stories of families whose lives, vineyards, and futures are rooted in the hills of Chianti Classico, one of Italy’s most historic and dynamic wine regions. United by the symbol of the Gallo Nero—the Black Rooster—these daughters, sons, nieces, and nephews represent the next generation stepping into roles shaped by inheritance, responsibility, and change.
The book begins with the generation that transformed Chianti Classico during the 1970s and 1980s, when producing wine in the region demanded conviction, sacrifice, and a willingness to embrace uncertainty. Their efforts helped establish the prosperity and international reputation the territory enjoys today. Yet this is not a book about looking backward. It is about what comes next.
Chianti Classico has always been defined by diversity—of soils, elevations, philosophies, and people. That multiplicity remains its greatest strength. As the region enters a new era marked by technological connectivity, environmental challenges, and evolving global markets, a new generation is emerging with its own ideas, ambitions, and understanding of place.
Rather than presenting a chronology of wine history, The Next Rooster tells a human story, exploring succession, adaptation, and the enduring connection between family and land. Rich with Tuscan culture, food, wine, and history, these essays reveal how continuity is preserved not by standing still, but by moving forward. Chianti Classico has always had something new to say. This book listens to the voices now preparing to say it.
About the author
For the past 13 years Michael Godel has been tasting and assessing wine as a critic and partner at WineAlign. Godel has spent the better part of his writing career travelling and crafting more than 36,000 lengthy tasting notes, most of them positive, all of them thorough. He processes his thoughts, musings, stream of consciousness and experiences on wine, travel, music and pop culture on his website godello.ca. The nickname “Godello” just happens to be a Spanish grape.
Michael hung up his whites after a 25-year culinary run in restaurants and catering when in December of 2013 he sold his company All Our Favourite Foods. He teamed up with Chef David Neinstein to open Toronto's Barque Smokehouse where he has served as Wine Director for 15 years.
Wine travels have spanned the globe but Italy has commanded much of Godel’s attention, with more than 50 excursions in the last 10 years, more than half of them to Tuscany. In February 2018 the Consorzio Vino Chianti Classico made Godel one of their first five recipients of an Ad Honorem title, Ambasciatore. He educates on behalf of the Tuscan territory’s Gallo Nero and their noble Sangiovese. Michael has also served as an educator for the Consorzio del Vino Brunello di Montalcino, Consorzio Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Consorzio Barbera d'Asti e Vini del Monferrato, Consorzio dell'Asti DOCG, Istituto Marchigiano di Tutela Vini, ICE-ITA Toronto, Rioja Wines, Wines of South Africa, Vins de Bourgogne, Wines of Portugal and Vinho Verde.
Since 2013 Godel has been a judge for the annual WineAlign National Wine Awards of Canada, always proud to taste, assess and award medals alongside colleague David Lawrason. In 2026 he took the baton to serve as National Wine Advisor to Canada’s Great Kitchen Party.
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