Current topics, themes, musings and travel notes

Steve Matthiasson

California’s real Alt- wine scene

We expect California to think different. Same with its winemakers

California grocer Darrell Corti

Super Darrell

How the Sacramento grocer developed his global influence and following

Tegan Passalacqua (left) with Morgan Twain-Peterson in the 19th-century Nervo vineyard south of Geyserville

CA’s Old Vineyard Heroes

Promoting the wildly varied vines of pre-Prohibition days

Renato De Bartoli

Sicily’s “Unfinished Poem”

A return to Sicily’s Marsala and Az. Marco De Bartoli

Prince of a guy

A solitary life and compelling wines in NW Sicily

Tessari Sisters

Q: Do you know Suavia?

You should!

giuseppe vaira

Alt. Barolo anyone?

A winemaking journey through time and bubbles

A Verona salumeria window

What’s Love Got To Do With It?

Romeo, Juliet and Valpolicella

Running the Light Red

Grignolino is a food-friendly Piedmont red coming back into appreciation

Listen up!

South of Somewhere comes to audible

The Viking’s last chapter in Sicily

Peter Vinding-Diers should be richer and more famous.

Urban Holiday Wine Stress

Do you suffer from U.H.W.S.? Take heart.

Meaningful Prosecco?

A new generation from Northern Italy returns the popular fizz to its roots

Nobility, Crime and a Great Little Pizza Wine

On Campania’s endangered monster vines

Campania’s Fiano maestro Roberto di Meo

Going Deeper Into the South

From Taormina Gourmet to Campania’s Fiano maestro Roberto di Meo

Into the volcano

Around the surreal landscape of Naples

From Prosecco Wars to Pingus

My new column covers an old battle, and my latest feature on one of the world’s most fascinating winemakers.

My cousin Vittoria Aiello with Marisa Cuomo and husband Andrea Ferraioli

Getting nostalgic for the future

Being a conservative progressive isn’t a contradiction when it comes to food, wine and life in Italy

Etna keeps erupting

The volcano continues to catch young winemaking dreams

Ice it !

In Summer, forget the ridiculous concept of red wine at “room temperature”

Lucio Tasca d’Almerita

The Last Leopard

Lucio Tasca d’Almerita (1940-2022)

The Mustilli sisters Paola and Anna Chiara in Falanghina vineyards

It’s Hot.

Hell Yeah. What to do ?

Hiking on Saint Pierre and Miquelon France's last archipilego off North America

From the South of Italy to way way north in the Atlantic

Did I say Canada?

California Diaries 2022

New wave producers with Italian Grapes in the Golden state

A Napa Son under Umbrian Sun

Just before Covid Rollie Heitz moved to Umbria and is making wine. He hasn’t looked back.

South by South

More travels and new experiences from Campania to Puglia

Louis Lucas in Lucas and Lewellen old Carrari vineyard

Hey To Santa Barbara and Back to Italy

What I learned from diving into California's Italian-inspired vineyards

More California Meets Italy

A tale of two guys who have nothing in common, except for…

Franco Allegrini

Passing of a great winemaker and friend

Franco Allegrini was one of Northern Italy’s most influential winemakers

Southern Italian Grapes in the New World

Italian varieties in California simply make sense

Back to the Old World

And the Italian edition of South of Somewhere

Robert with Shelley Lindgren at A16 San Francisco

Wrapping it up in the West

This spring has not felt like work, truthfully.

West Coast Bound

It’s been a few years since I’ve been to California, and I am looking to return on Monday.

The Fiano view from Feudi di San Gregorio's winery in Sorbo Serpico

Welcome to Fiano February

Come along for the ride

Gigliola Giannetti and her daughters Viola and Sofia at Le Potazzine

A mother and her nest in the heights of Montalcino

The story of Gigliola Giannetti

“What d’ya think?”

When people talk wine, what are they really saying?

Riccardo Campinoti of Le Ragnaie

From ‘loser’ to leader in Montalcino

How Le Ragnaie boomed with an assist from climate change

Andrea Franchetti 1949-2021

A poetic life ends

Andrea Franchetti (1949-2021)

Listen Up!

The Italian Wine Podcast and more travels with Robert

Back to Biondi-Santi

The ghost of Dr. Franco presides over this mythic Montalcino estate as a new team takes over