Halfway through this rich, artfully written memoir, I began booking a trip to Tuscany. Writer Sergio Esposito put his Italian hook in my soul and it hasn’t been removed from my drooling mouth yet. A Neapolitan wine importer and retailer from New York City, Esposito’s love letter to his native homeland gets to the heart of a wine and food culture little understood (although certainly appreciated) outside its gorgeous borders.
Esposito fluidly weaves together his endless trips through Italian wine country like a novel, as if he only made one trip. He writes of the intimate, family-like relationships he developed over 20 years with the most legendary names in Italian wine —Bartolo Mascarello, Franco Biondi Santi, Enrico Scavino, Gianfranco Soldera — with a surprising insight into what makes these great men great. (Read more about my love of Tuscany and its wines)
Throughout the memoir, he infuses charming, funny stories of the food and wine culture so crucial to the Italian outlook. He began eating fresh vegetables, pasta and cheeses and sipping watered-down sangiovese at an early age — encouraged by his family to savor the earth’s bounties. But it wasn’t all so easy.
This article appears in Jul 29 – Aug 4, 2009.
