Journal
Stories and reflections on wine, the people who make it, the places we gather, and the ideas that connect them. A journal of curiosity, discovery and the pleasures of the table.
Ferrara di Monte Baldo Is Building Its Future on the Truffle and Its Woods
In Ferrara di Monte Baldo, a dog called Penny finds a truffle and the hunter fills the hole back in. The village once lived by taking iron from the mountain. Now it is learning to live from what the mountain gives back.
Enrico Crippa at Piazza Duomo: Purity, Precision and a Garden That Leads the Kitchen
Piazza Duomo belongs to a wine family, yet almost everything written about it concerns vegetables. Read through a glass of Ceretto Barbaresco, Enrico Crippa's cooking shows what it shares with great wine: precision, transparency and energy.
I always walk my guests past the crowds to Venice's oldest vineyard
Whenever friends visit Venice, I lead them away from the crowds on the waterfront, past the Arsenale, to a convent in Castello. Behind its walls, friars still grow vines.
Atelier del Vino: After years of teaching in other people's rooms, Grande Passione opens a door of its own in Verona
For years my tastings and classes have been held in other people's rooms. Atelier del Vino, in Verona, is the first that is my own, a place where I can welcome guests as I would at home. Its website, atelier.grandepassione.com, opens very soon.
The hills drawn twice: A sommelier's question leads through three maps of Barolo to names older than the wine
Italy's 181 Barolo MGA name places without ranking a single one, and a group of Japanese sommeliers asked me the obvious question: what is it for?
The answer lies in a map drawn in 1971, a hill fought over for seven years, and vineyard names older than the wine itself.
Sardinia, Italy's Best Kept Secret?
In this post, I publish my notes of a Webinar I presented to the members of the Wine Scholar Guild on Sardinia on 20 April 2022. You can join their membership here.
It was a fantastic opportunity for me to share my discoveries on a most fascinating territory. A place with a rich history and culture, another world altogether.
Lamole di Lamole, winemaking at the door of paradise
A fascinating historical tasting of Lamole di Lamole Vigneto di Campolungo stemming from a hidden corner of the Chianti Classico region.