This year’s trade fair season has just begun. Thousands of Italian wine professionals have been attending ProWein in Germany over the weekend. Vinitaly, our industry’s main event, and the satellite progressive fairs are coming up in a few weeks.

In any other year, it would be a time for planning, strategizing, networking, and the goliardic camaraderie that accompany the season.

Instead, our industry — across the board — is holding its collective breath as we await the tariffs announced on social media by our despotic president.

According to the most recent data, Italian wine sales in the U.S. have grown by more than 150 percent over the last two decades. In 2023 and 2024, despite industry-wide challenges, Italian wines sales continued to grow in the U.S., the world’s largest consumer of fine wine. Last year, nearly $2 billion of Italian wine were sold here.

Think of the small- or medium-sized businesses like scores of Italian wine importers I know operating in the U.S.

If you are an importer that has a “container on the water,” as the parlance goes, you will potentially owe a 200 percent tax on the entire bill of lading. You can’t just turn the container back. Beyond the big players in big wine, behemoth tax bills like this are going to take many operators down for good.

In the best of times, some of them might be able to make it to the fourth quarter (and potential tariff relief) when most actors account for 50 percent or more of their total sales.

But these are not the best of times: changing consumer habits, consolidation by big wine, and soaring production and logistics costs have been suffocating Italian-wine focused small business. And not just importers and distributors. For those restaurant owners and retailers who rely on Italian wine as part of their brand, the disruption in the flow of wine from Europe will create extreme havoc and severe pain.

Right now, all we can do is wait to see what plays out between Trump and the EU. In the meantime, please remember to support local and regional businesses by drinking a bottle of Italian wine this week. Thanks for your support and solidarity.

“Coraggio a tutti noi!” was the last message received yesterday before my phone was silenced last night. “Stay strong, everyone!”

Italian wine people on both sides of the Atlantic are freaking out after Trump’s post announcing looming 200 percent tariffs on European wines.

For many industry actors, the threat represents an existential crisis.

The U.S. is by far the largest importer and consumer of Italian wine.

The U.S. is also an important media market for Italian wines: high-profile placements in major U.S. cities serve to position the brands on an international level. All those Mionetto umbrellas are good for something, after all.

In my last message to my Italian interlocutors last night, I pointed out — and this is extremely important, Italians! — the tariffs are not yet here. They are most likely coming. But let’s wait for the official declaration (not the Trump post) to see what they will entail.

Colleagues have been asking me questions like: “will they apply to volume or value?” and “will they apply to ex-cellar prices or importers’ wholesale prices?”

The answer is simply that we don’t know and we need to wait and see what they will look like. And we don’t know if they will reach 200 percent, a figure that seems unlikely given the tariffs imposed on China, Canada, and Mexico.

It’s no secret that Trump uses bluster and hyperbole as a negotiating tactic. It’s also clear that Trump will follow through on the threat, as he has done with Canada and Mexico, countries that were once our friends and largest trading partners.

But the way Trump’s post has been reported in mainstream and social media in Italy makes it sounds as if the tariffs are already in place.

Now it’s time to hold tight and prepare. It’s time to band together as community and help one another as partners on both sides of the divide.

There’s going to be sacrifice and there is going to be pain. But we will get through to the other side. For now, let’s wait and see what transpires.

Coraggio a tutti noi! Hang in there, everyone. Stay strong.

Feeling genuinely blessed this morning as I read music writer Bob Ruggiero’s write-up about my band, The Bio Dynamic Band, and our new partnership with Susan Davis, owner of Emmit’s Place, a neighborhood night club that we are transforming into a family-friendly venue for music this Sunday.

Music has given me so much in life: lifelong friendships, travel, and the chance to share my own music with the world, something I hold precious and dear.

I never thought I’d be playing music regularly at 57. But as the Italians like to say, è più forte di me, it’s just too much for me to resist.

We’ve got a great lineup for this Sunday, 3/16, 2-6pm, at Emmit’s Place: Rhythmix, a jazz outfit formed by children of some of the best musicians in our neighborhood, and The Tomorrow, my cousin’s high schooler rock band, will be opening. They are both fantastic. And the first hour of the show will be open mic for all.

We’re still working on the food option but I should have that info soon. And as Bob notes in the piece, Susan is expanding her mocktail offering for the kids.

Anyways, I couldn’t be a luckier son of a gun to live and play music in such a great neighborhood and community.

Please come on down and support local music and local business this Sunday in Westbury. The last show was such a blast and I know this one is going to be off the hook! Hope to see you there and thanks for the support!

Giving a huge shout-out this morning to my friend Sarah Phillips (above). She is one of the best U.S.-based wine writers right now imho and she is currently studying to become an MW.

Her work first came to my attention via the Jancis Robinson wine writing competition (she won, of course).

A few years ago, when I was working in situ with an importer in Miami where she lives, I got to know her and her husband Aidan through attending tastings together. We became fast friends. They are the nicest people and I have deep respect not just for Sarah’s work but also her work ethic and her ecumenical approach to wine writing and education.

She and Amanda Barnes MW will be leading a South American Wines seminar at the Texas Wine School in Houston next Monday morning, March 17.

Click here for details and registration.

I don’t get out to many tastings these days and South America is not exactly in my wheelhouse. But I wouldn’t miss Sarah and her tour for the world.

I hope you’ll join me.

Thank you to Sarah and Amanda for coming to Houston!

While in Washington D.C. this week, I was thrilled to be welcomed at the White House. Here’s what I told the President.

President Trump, your Excellency, let me begin by saying what an honor it is to be here. If only my Jewish mother could see me now! Thank you for the opportunity to share the wine industry’s concerns with you.

And please allow me also to thank you also for creating a new benchmark for U.S. wine. The superb, world-class wines you have produced in Virginia are among North America’s best wines.

Dear Mr. President, as in industries and trades across our great land, the wine — big and small — is worried about the many uncertainties on the horizon.

Just today, we learned that Canada has banned the sale of Californian wine. The state that first made American wine great was already reeling from the impact of wine country fires and the more recent devastation in Los Angeles.

Across the country, small business owners are holding their breath as they await updates on EU-targeted tariffs.

Staffing at the FDA is an even more urgent issue for importers who are struggling to understand and implement new rules for nutritional and organic labeling. A colleague recently told me her only reliable point of agency contact is the inspector who visits the warehouse.

Many of our European partners are pivoting away from America. They are freaking out about expanding war in Europe, tariffs, market disruptions, new labeling requirements. Many are looking to friendlier, thirstier markets. As a result, we and downstream businesses are losing “placements” and “depletions” to big time wine. Will we ever get them back?

Lastly, Mr. President, sir, we in the U.S. wine trade are counting on you and we trust in you to keep our economy great so that our industry may continue to thrive as it has for the past four decades.

Thank you Mr. President. I feel blessed to have been given this opportunity. G-d bless you, G-d bless America.

FTR Although prêt-à-porter, the President seemed to approve of my black Hugo Boss two-piece.

It’s a scary time to be shipping Italian wine from Europe these days.

No one knows when or to what extent the U.S. government will impose tariffs on European goods, although most expect that the tax is inevitable.

With the new Russia-U.S. alignment, there are fears in Europe that war could spread to other former Soviet block countries. Supply chains (like glass from Ukraine for wine bottles) have already been severely impacted by the conflict and with the breakdown in Ukraine-U.S. relations, there is no clarity on when a cease-fire could begin.

But perhaps even more daunting for Italian winemakers is the fact that the U.S. government has made severe cuts to human resources at the FDA just when new organic labeling regulations have come into effect.

At our exhibitors panel on Sunday night as part of the Taste of Italy Houston trade fair, the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce invited a top wine and food importer, a top Italian wine buyer, and a Michelin-starred chef to speak to wine and food producers presenting their products. It’s one of the events I am most proud to be a part of: each year, our panelists offer genuinely useful information and guidance for companies who export their goods to the U.S.

But the moment that filled me with hope was when Tom Dobson, Italian wine buyer for Spec’s, one of the largest wine retailers in the world, said that he believes wine sales are going to return to their pre-Covid levels. The pandemic caused wine sales to spike, he explained, but volume and value decreased significantly over the last two “post-Covid” years. With moderate confidence, he told our group that he believes we are on track to revive our industry. His outlook, he explained, is based on the mountains of data that he analyzes every day for his company.

His comments were echoed by Michelin-starred chef Felipe Riccio of Houston restaurant March. While his observations were more anecdotal in nature, he talked about how he and his team are seeing an upward trend in wine sales again. And his restaurant group continues is ambitious plans to expand.

Uncertainty is not good for wine sales but guarded, well-informed optimism is great for a beleaguered industry. I, for one, am hopeful.

Thanks to everyone who made the 11th annual Taste of Italy fair a success.

The U.S. government’s sea change in Russia-U.S. relations and the resulting Russia-U.S. alliance are shameful abjurations of values held by generations of Americans.

The mineral rights shakedown of a vulnerable people by an emboldened MAGA movement is despicable.

In the light of these aberrations, I am ashamed to be an American. And I feel compelled to speak out and I hope that other Americans will feel the same.

I recognize that most Americans don’t even know where Ukraine is. They could hardly care about what happens to a people in a faraway land, an ocean between us.

But I also believe that a majority of Americans, from all stripes, know that Russia’s leader is a cutthroat, malevolent dictator who has murdered and imprisoned his opponents, exploited his people for personal gain, a cunning dissembler who has sent hundreds of thousands of people to their deaths.

The U.S. government must acknowledge that Russia started the war in Ukraine. The U.S. government must stand up to the Russian dictator and call him out for what he is.

Realpolitik is unavoidable in world affairs. Russia’s gains in the war might be irreversible.

But if America doesn’t stand up to dictators and murderers any longer, then we must speak out and up. We must call for policy change.

The current administration’s push to reshape the government and its role is misguided and potentially dangerous in my view. The American people seemed to have wanted upheaval in their governance and social services. Fair enough. Let’s see what happens.

The Putin-Trump alliance is a step too far — way to far. It undermines everything our country stood for throughout my lifetime and my parents’ lifetimes.

Political consultant James Carville’s recent Times editorial where he called on democrats to stand by and do nothing is bullshit — an immature, irresponsible, and unacceptable response to the emetic reshaping of American values by the MAGA movement.

It’s time to speak out and up, people! Thanks for being here, thanks for the solidarity. Thanks for believing that there is hope for American dreams and ideals.

One of the most compelling visits of my 2024 in wine was with winemaker Giovanna Trisorio who runs the Cincinnato cooperative in Latina province south of Rome.

I’d tasted the wines over the years and after she and I connected at Vinitaly last year, I wanted to get my boots on the ground and try to wrap my mind around why Cincinnato’s wines and so many other wines from this area are so good.

For the record, the Cincinnato cooperative is located just off the ancient Appian Way about an hour south of the capital. It’s one of the most stunning drives you’ll ever make.

First you travel through the Castelli Romani where it’s hard not to miss the renaissance of grape growers there. Make sure you stop to look at the gorgeous lakes which were formed by the ancient craters of a volcano. It’s such an important element to understanding the volcanic legacy of the winemaking there.

But then you drive down into the Latina plains. The best vineyards, I discovered, are those that rise up in the foothills on the eastern side of the valley. There, where you can feel the maritime influence of the sea, the volcanic soils make for some of the best wines produced in central Italy. It’s such an amazing place to see. Check out the topographic map of the area below.

As you can see from the images, the soil is richly volcanic. But as you can see in the photo of a newly planted vineyard, there is also a limestone component.

These soils were created thanks to the eruptions of a volcano that would form the high-altitude lakes, Albano and Nemi, in the Castelli Romani.

Giovanna’s wines are fantastic, very focused, and very market ready. The whites in particular really impressed me. But the reds have the power and depth — again, thanks to the soils and unique exposure there — that the market looks for.

For the record, the cooperative is named after Cincinnatus, the ancient Roman statesman and farmer whose story inspired our own George Washington.

The coooperative also has one of the best tasting rooms and hospitality programs in the region. I highly recommend the wines but also encourage you to make the journey yourself. You won’t be disappointed!