Today marks the 73rd anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. World leaders commemorated this day in various places, including at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. Six million Jews, including many members of my family were among those murdered. Slavs, Roma, people who were Gay, those with disabilities, religious leaders and many others who tried to shelter Jews died as well. My Dad always remarks about the one million Jewish children who were murdered and what they might have become someday. Perhaps one of them would have found the cure for Cancer or been a new Beethoven, we will never know. Now that I’m a Mom, I can’t stand thinking about the parents who had their children ripped from their arms and murdered. I also can’t believe that goes on today in Myanmar with the Rohingya.  Human cruelty seems to have no end. I hope we have learned something…

Wine cooperatives in Italy are often considered to be synonymous with low quality wines. While this is true of some cooperatives, it is an inaccurate perception of the quality of the wines from some of the best known ones. Nonetheless, many people shy away from these cooperatives and it’s a real shame. There are two or three stand-out examples that come to mind that are the exceptions to the rule and many people luckily know of their existence: Cantina San Michele Appiano, Cantina Produttori di Termeno, and the Sardinian winery called Santadi are a few that come to mind.

Each of these cooperatives is strongly linked to the success of their particular region. San Michele Appiano, a cooperative in the Alto Adige region of Italy, just celebrated its 100 year birthday in 2007. It was created in June 1907 and now has 355 members with 350 hectares of vineyards.

The…