joel mack

In his excellent book entitled “Venice is a Fish”, Venetian poet Tiziano Scarpa urges visitors to La Serenissima to throw away their street maps and find the real Venice by wandering the city’s calli and campielli. It is the ultimate …

I recently caught up with award-winning Tuscan winemaker Ginevra Venerosi at a local New York trattoria to taste and talk about the wines of her estate Tenuta di Ghizzano. There is something immediately, attractively transparent about Countess Ginevra Venerosi. I …

Whatever membrane exists between this life and the universal mystery is palpably thin in Sardinia’s Gallura: ancient nuraghi, megalithic monuments left by the island’s enigmatic Nuragic civilization, are vibrant in their stillness; collar bells ring out as shepherd dogs herd …

Scene: Customer enters wine shop, proceeds to browse section of Italian wines. Pauses in front of bottles on shelf, labels read “Blanc de Morgex et de La Salle”. Store Clerk: Can I help you? Customer: Well, no, not exactly, but …

A leisurely reconnaissance-inspired stroll in the Italian section of your local wine shop will tell you what many already know: top denominations in Italian wine continue to develop their respective brands worldwide. And that is good thing in a certain …

I like that many consumers still remember that period during the ‘70’s when Lambrusco earned a reputation as a sweet, fizzy drink styled for the American market. I like it when wine writers struggle to talk about Lambrusco without ever …

Nearly six years ago I wrote that a new breed of tech savvy Italian wine producers were on the rise. They recognized that a spectacular era in technology was enabling artisan wine producers to communicate directly and immediately to consumers …