Just off the plane from Vinitaly in Verona, I’m trying to wrap my head around all there is to do as a follow up to the trip but taking a moment to reflect on my conversations last night leaving the fair. I met an Austrian importer who comes from the same town as the former Governor of California on an overcrowded bus to the Verona station. Rather than discussing Arnold we began to talk about how Lugana wines are received in Japan where he lives.

On the train home, I was speaking with Italian friends about the different of New York wine areas – Hudson Valley, Finer Lakes and Long Island while also speaking about Tango. During the fair I met friends from all over Italy and the US. I got requests for Linkedin connections from someone I met on a press trip from Latvia while on the train to the airport and Facebook friend requests from Polish contacts who I met in Portugal a couple of years ago. All this to say, sometimes I lament that I am not working at the UN as many of my friends and classmates from graduate school are or at the FAO, but if I really think about it, the wine world is a uniquely global one where I get to find common ground over a great glass of wine and talk about history, traditions, chemistry, biology, climate change, religion, and Art on a daily basis. I feel pretty lucky. Oh and I get to go to Italy twice in one month. Life is good.