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This story originally appeared in the Napa Valley Register.
For 700 years and 30 generations, the Frescobaldi family has been an iconic name in the wine industry. With an eye on celebrating the diversity of Tuscany’s terroir, the family owns six estates in Tuscany and produces what some consider to be some of Italy’s finest wines.
One of these wines is Luce della Vita from the hill town of Montalcino. A region famous for its Brunello di Montalcino, Luce della Vita was the first winery to blend sangiovese and merlot. The idea was to produce a wine that blended the Old World and New World together, with the traditional sangiovese offering structure and elegance and the non-traditional merlot adding roundness and smoothness. Luce Della Vite, “the light of life”, is a winery that is steeped in tradition while embracing the future.
Luce della Vita was created in 1995, initially as a collaboration between two great winemaking families, Marchese de Frescobaldi and Robert Mondavi. Today, the winery is under the sole proprietorship of Lamberto Frescobaldi. The Luce della Vita estate is located southwest of the medieval town of Montalcino. The first vineyards were purchased in 1996, with additional vineyards purchased in 2001 and 2016. Today, there are 88 hectares planted to merlot and sangiovese on southwest-facing vineyards with mixed-clay, sandy schistose and sandstone soils.
13 September, 2017
This story originally appeared in the Napa Valley Register.

They say opposites attract. There is a yin to every yang. There are two halves to make a whole. Perhaps that is what brings the two regions of Valpolicella and Lugano together. Two independent wine regions in their own rights, Lugana is the home of white wine, while Valpolicella is the home of red wine. Together, they offer a broader spectrum to wines.

Lugana

Lugana is a small wine appellation in the southern part of Lago di Garda, Italy’s largest lake, in Northern Italy. The region extends from the bottom of the lake and runs 12 kilometers east to west, overlapping both the provinces of Veneto and Lombardy. There are 1,800 hectares of vineyards cultivated, with 75 percent of these vines in Lombardy. However, 60 percent of the wine produced comes from the Veneto.

01 September, 2017
This story originally appeared in the Napa Valley Register (February 19, 2016). Last week, hundreds of Italian wineries, importers, buyers and journalists descended upon New York for the Italian Trade Commission’s Vino 2016. As two days of seminars and tastings took place, I was expressly interested in a seminar about grignolino. Grignolino, you ask? That is, once you can pronounce it...gri-gno-li-no. I had first learned about this lovely little grape when I was getting my Italian Wine Specialist Certification with the North American Sommelier Association. An indigenous grape from the Piedmont region in Northern Italy, grignolino became a DOC in 1974 and was historically an important grape. But, as people wanted bigger wines, this light-colored wine lost attention. So the idea of a seminar dedicated entirely to his grape was all the more intriguing. It is rare enough to find one grignolino, let alone to have 11 to taste in one seating. Grignolino Wine Bottles (2) Grignolino Wine Bottles (1) Apparently I was not alone. The seminar was led by Ian D’Agata, Vinitaly International Academy’s scientific director. As he began the seminar, he looked out at the room of only 20 people. There were empty seats in the room but that is not what he saw. The fact that 20 people were interested in this very under-rated wine was what D’Agata saw was a milestone for this little grape. We all laughed.
02 March, 2016
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