There’s a lot to be said for going out in style…

On Monday of this week, I hosted the last tasting in the 2016 Franciacorta Real Story campaign in Atlanta at one of the city’s top wine shops, Le Caveau.

Between the editor-in-chief of Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles Gena Christman and the magazine’s owner Adam Japko, a handful of local food and wine writers, and a bubbly group of Atlanta-based wine professionals and wine lovers, it was a pretty classy group that came out to taste 6 Franciacorta wines with me.

Thank you, Gina and Adam, for helping me to get the word out and for being there with us!

And special thanks to Le Caveau owner Eric Brown for putting the tasting together and helping me to pour.

That’s the wall at Le Caveau above: it includes one of the best selections of artisanal Italian wines in the country (and I write that as someone who has been traveling the U.S. for the Franciacorta consortium visiting wine shops and wine bars).

What a great shop!

And I also have to give a shout out to Michael Bryan, Atlanta-based wine professional and educator and owner of the excellent wine bar and shop Vino Venue. We didn’t get to taste together but we did meet and chat about Italy and Franciacorta. He’s a huge Italian wine fan and travels there regularly, often with groups of his clients.

It was great to meet him as well and learn that the Atlanta wine scene is so rich and vibrant.

I can’t wait to get back to this market and Franciacorta producers, I can’t recommend it to you highly enough: currently there’s not a lot of Franciacorta available there and the market is ripe for the picking!

Thank you again, Gina, Adam, Eric, and Michael, for the warm welcome and the wonderful support. You guys are the best…