Scuola di Vino
After working for many years in NYC restaurants, Giovanni Pagano followed a calling to support his favorite winemakers and made them available in whatever quantities he could get on the West Coast. Now most of his time is spent in Modena, a home base where he can continually hunt for unheralded producers in all corners of Italy, no matter how obscure. His discoveries have yet to let us down. Here's a few words from Gio:
"Scuola di Vino's focus is on the most iconic, avant-garde, and radical wines of Italy.
We look carefully for emotional wines made by honest farmers who don't like to cut corners. We spend most of the year in Italy immersed in a slow-paced lifestyle of family, great food, travel, Italian Nonnas, and kids running around. We spend more time with our producers than with our customers because we want to be close to the evolution of each wine and want to keep learning and dig deep in what Italy has to offer.
It's a constant search and connection to become better at what we do. All of our wines are organically grown, wild fermented, and in most cases un-sulphured."
Read more about Scuola di Vino here.

with Antonio di Gruttola of Cantina Giardino. photo courtesy of Travis Montague