Millions of Americans knew his face. Almost nobody today knows his name. For decades, one man’s warm, easy grin was the face of one of the biggest wine and brandy brands in the country, splashed across advertisements from coast to coast, in full black robe and white collar, looking every…
Picture a Napa tasting room. Low light, hushed voices, someone murmuring about tannin structure. Now picture a 7’6″ former NBA All-Star ducking through the doorway to join them, and try not to smile. That’s the first reaction most people have walking into Yao Family Wines in St Helena. It looks,…
Okay, I need to tell you about something I found out this week, because I genuinely did not see it coming. Imagine winning an Emmy. Then a Grammy. Then an Oscar. Then a Tony. The full set. Something like fifteen people on the entire planet have ever managed that. Most…
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…
Of all the celebrities in this series, Drew Barrymore might be the most honest one. Sting spent years perfecting biodynamic farming before anyone was allowed near his Tuscan estate. Jay-Z turned his wine brand into a calculated, nine-figure business move. Andrea Bocelli was literally born into 200 years of winemaking…
There’s a specific look people arrive in Italy with. Not the “I’m on holiday” look. The “I must not mess this up” look. It shows up at restaurants first. Before the food. Before the wine. Before anyone has even opened a menu. They sit down and suddenly become extremely careful…
Most people hesitate before buying a $50 bottle of wine. Someone once spent $558,000. Not on a wine collection, not on a wine cellar. On a single bottle. The obvious question isn’t whether the wine was good. The real question is: who spends that much money on a bottle of…
This might be the most controversial thing I write on this blog. Not because Italians don’t love food. They absolutely do. This is a country that can turn a conversation about pasta into a family argument lasting three generations. But after spending time around Italian wine culture, I’ve become convinced…
We use cookies to improve your experience on our site. By using our site, you consent to cookies.
Manage your cookie preferences below:
Essential cookies enable basic functions and are necessary for the proper function of the website.
These cookies are needed for adding comments on this website.
Google reCAPTCHA helps protect websites from spam and abuse by verifying user interactions through challenges.
You can find more information about our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.