Childhood memories. I see a shy seven-year-old boy wandering with a half-full glass of red wine, freshly drawn from a barrel, in a cellar that (only to him) seems immense. Continuous flashback: that child is me and the cellar – which ultimately wasn’t that big – was that of my maternal grandfather, in the countryside of Milazzo, in Sicily. I also remember my father, with my grandfather and the “colonist”, as they engaged in an authentic ritual: the first tasting of the freshly tapped new wine, the one made with the grapes of our land. Fantastic emotion!
It’s the beginning of my story. I have always had love, passion and endless curiosity for wine, for the harvest, for the intense aromas of fresh must. And in the same way I was moved by those enormous barrels that touched the ceiling of the cellar, and which made me feel much smaller. My grandfather and my father, unfortunately, are no longer here, but the love for that (once) mysterious liquid (white or red), but alive and true, fruit of the earth and man’s work, has remained intact in me. .
Since those days a lot of water (sorry wine!) has flowed under and over the bridges. Today I am a journalist, a reporter decidedly oriented towards modern, “non-formal” communication of wine, on multiple media platforms and on the web. I have accumulated a lot of professional experience that I won’t list in a boring CV. I graduated as a Sommelier and Master Class Sommelier at the AIS in Rome, I am a journalist for the Economic editorial team of Tg2 Rai and that’s it. Television is my ideal means of communication, the most immediate, due to the intrinsic power of images.
What you are kind enough to read is my personal Web Magazine, authentic, true, without filters and without any influence or interference. It is dedicated to the world of Italian wine (and not only), good food and much more, conceived and written in two languages, to have a less provincial and more international feel. Hope you like it!
Umberto Gambino