According to a post published today by leading Italian wine blogger and publisher Filippo Larganà, Italian wine pioneer Michele Chiarlo has died at age 88.

Owner of the Michele Chiarlo estate in Asti province, he was one of the early Piedmont growers to ship Moscato d’Asti and Barbera d’Asti to the U.S. A generation of American wine professionals and wine lovers tasted these categories for the first time thanks to his family. He was also an acclaimed producer of Barolo.

See Filippo’s obituary here on his Sapori del Piemonte blog (one of Asti’s “papers of record”).

I had the opportunity to taste with Michele on a number of occasions. Most of those were formal settings. He was always affable, approachable, and always eager to engage with anyone who wanted to talk about the family’s wines.

My favorite anecdote about him comes via his son Stefano Chiarlo, who’s become a friend over the years.

We were presenting a flight of Moscato d’Asti in Dallas one day, just last year, when he remembered how his father sent a pallet of their Moscato d’Asti to one of the top Italian importers at the time. It was back before Italian wine had become a hot commodity in our country.

Said importer told him that he didn’t like Moscato d’Asti. He didn’t know what to do with it, he protested. Michele told the importer that he could have the wine as his gift. If he sold it, great. If not, he could do whatever he wanted with it.

The importer quickly sold the entire lot and was soon asking for more. It was the type of gamble only someone like Michele Chiarlo could have pulled off. And the rest is history. Today, Moscato d’Asti is one of Italy’s best-selling wines.

Our family’s condolences go out to his sons Stefano and Alberto Chiarlo and to the entire Chiarlo family.

Sit tibi terra levis Michael.