Please don’t forget: everyone is welcome to join me Monday, March 23, at 1:30 p.m. at the Franciacorta Consortium Stand at Vinitaly (PalaExpo B/C16) for a “Franciacorta Crawl.”

Just wanted to share a couple of photos from Team Do Bianchi’s day yesterday at Vini Veri, the natural wine fair held each year in Cerea (Verona province).

That’s Antonio di Gruttola (above), winemaker at Cantine Giardino (Avellino province, Campania), one of our favorite wines to pour at Sotto in Los Angeles (where I co-author the wine list with colleague and friend Christine Veys).

That’s Christine (below, left) with importer Giovanni Pagano, a friend to Sotto and a natural wine lover whose devotion and palate I admire greatly.

Team Do Bianchi — Christine, Christopher Barnes, Giovanni Arcari, Nathan Smith, and I — had a truly delightful day at the fair.

I was reminded that as important as it is to taste as much as possible at the wine fairs, half of the equation is just being there.

We’re about to head out for our first day of Vinitaly in Verona. Wish us luck and wish us speed… and if you want to say a prayer for a parking place, we’ll take what we can get!