West Coast Bound
It’s been a few years since I’ve been to California, and I am looking to return on Monday.
In another galaxy far, far away I lived in CA. I moved to San Francisco’s Mission District right out of college in 1979 — a time I remember when the hippies were cutting their freak flags and becoming punks – dying what was left of their hair purple or blue.
Anyway, this time my mission is three-fold : talking about Southern Italy and my book South of Somewhere, trying to understand where the west coast of my native land is at, and visiting some of the young producers today working with offbeat Italian grapes.
Italy and it’s South have a lot to offer the wine world like crazy underdog grapes, amazing variety and maybe just some keys to vineyards in the face of climate change. That’s the basic message, but there’ll be a lot more and it will be changing from day to day.
I am excited about the events that are coming up starting week 1 in L.A., with a March 8 “fireside chat” over wine at the N-10 Restaurant with the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce West followed the next evening at Mozza (March 9) with “South of Somewhere” Southern wine dinner.
The following week, I’ll be in San Francisco (March 14-17) at Biondivino, at A-16 (March 15-16 in SF and Oakland) and one of my favorite bookstores in the world : Omnivore Books (March 17). That Friday (March 18) I’ll be in Sonoma with the Sonoma County Wine Library Association.
The following week (March 22-23) I’ll touch down in Seattle for a pair of wine dinners at Tavolata Stone Way, before returning to LA (March 26) for an afternoon at BarBrix.
Please check out the schedule with ticket info and reservations. And if you’re in the area, come on out—would love to see you there.
In other news, if you haven’t already done so, do check out my latest Robert Camuto Meets….column on Bisol’s (Too Cool?) extreme wine project of Europe’s highest altitude vineyard in Cortina d’Ampezzo. This may be one wine that’s just too high up there and out there. But the draw is the fashionable locale and the mountains that will be a host for the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Salute!