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This morning finds me in Southern California on my way to Sotto in Los Angeles, where I’ll be working the floor tonight — pouring and talking about the wines — and introducing my good friend Giampaolo Venica tomorrow night, when we’ll be hosting a dinner in his honor and featuring his wines.

The wine list at Sotto is devoted almost exclusively to Southern Italian wines and so it seemed a propos to feature the appellation of Cirò (Calabria) for this week’s episode of the Italian Grape Name and Appellation Pronunciation Project.

That’s Cirò winemaker Francesco De Franco, above, who appeared here previously for the pronunciation of Gaglioppo (and who made one of the most original contributions so far).

In the wake of his Gaglioppo performance, a lot of readers — many of them women — wrote me to tell me how endearing Franco is.

But I regret to inform you that my camera simply doesn’t do justice to this man’s charisma. Like his wine — ‘A Vita (Life) is the name — Franco is one of the most vibrant and electric personages of the Italian wine world today. I was thrilled to finally meet him in person at the Radici Wines festival the week before last in Apulia and I can’t recommend his wine highly enough.

The wines are scheduled to make their North American debut this fall.

But in the meantime, his moving image, as seen through my lens, will have to suffice…

Thanks again, to everyone, for all the support for this ongoing project. And thanks for speaking and drinking Italian grapes!

CLICK HERE FOR ALL EPISODES.

The inimitable Francesco De Franco (above) first appeared on my blog when I wrote about his use of social media to battle the evil forces of the globalization and industrialization of his appellation, Cirò in Calabria. Even though I’ve never met Francesco, I know we’re going to become friends: anyone who writes “I am trying to avoid that a wine unique and inimitable becoming a wine without soul” is a friend of mine!

I finally got to taste his wine in February in Italy when my good friend Riccardo (one of Francesco’s distributors in Italy) gave me a bottle. (We shared it over dinner in Quarto d’Altino with Tracie P’s high school friend from her Singapore days.)

Man, I was BLOWN away by how good this wine was… It entirely changed my view and impression of what Gaglioppo can be. While most producers are spoofing their Gaglioppo to be richer in body and color (à la californienne), Francesco lets the real, honest fruit shine through in this gorgeous wine… The best news is that Francesco’s wines should be hitting North American shores in the fall. I CANNOT WAIT to put this on the list at Sotto!

I wrote to Francesco, asking him to send me audio/video of his pronunciation of Gaglioppo (another tough one for Anglophones because of the palatal lateral approximant gli, as in Aglianico).

I’m not sure that Francesco is destined to be remembered as Italy’s 21-century Chopin, but I LOVE what he did for the video… and I can’t recommend his wine highly enough to you…