Here’s a story that sounds made up but genuinely isn’t. Sometime in the 13th century, Florence and Siena were locked in one of their endless territorial disputes, this time over the Chianti hills sitting between them. Rather than fight it out indefinitely, the two cities agreed to settle it with…
You are standing in a wine shop, staring at a wall of Italian bottles. Beautiful names. Beautiful labels. And then suddenly, confusion. One bottle says DOCG. Another says DOC. Another says IGT. You pick one up and think: “Am I supposed to know what these letters mean?” If Italian wine…
You’ve been looking forward to this holiday for months. You finally settle into your seat, buckle up, and hear the words every traveller loves: “Can I get you something to drink?” You don’t hesitate. “A glass of red wine, please.” The first sip arrives. And… It’s a bit disappointing. The…
There are two kinds of people in a restaurant. The first picks up the wine cork, gives it a confident sniff, nods once, and acts like they’ve just solved a mystery. The second secretly wonders if they’re supposed to do the same. If you’re in the second group, welcome. You’re…
I’ve now written about four completely different ways to spend a wine vacation in the Veneto, and every single time, without fail, someone messages me asking the exact same thing. Okay, Kelly, but which one do I actually book? Fair. Genuinely fair. I’ve spent this entire series describing a castle,…
Some people update their LinkedIn headline to “open to work.” Somebody at Cepa 21 apparently had a different exit strategy in mind. In the early hours of February 18, 2024, someone walked into this respected Ribera del Duero winery in Castrillo de Duero, Spain, wearing a hooded sweatshirt, and in…
There’s a castle at the southern tip of Lake Garda that you can only reach on foot, across a drawbridge, over water on every side. Cars stop outside the gate. You walk in like everyone has for the last seven hundred years. The Scaligero Castle in Sirmione has stood since…
Sometimes the best pairing with a glass of wine is a good laugh. Here are five jokes for anyone who’s ever “accidentally” left a wine shop with more bottles than they planned. #1 I bought a wine rack to organize my collection. Now I have an organized excuse to buy…
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