No this is NOT a vineyard in Italy or a biodynamic one. This is an experimental plot of Chardonnay by a citrus company in Santa Paula where I was pruning today.

This March, I am hosting the Italian Food Wine Travel (ItalianFWT) investigation into Italian Viticulture. We’re a group of influential wine, food, and travel writers with a passion for Italy, and we get together on the first Saturday of each month to compare notes on a particular topic, for example, last month was Sagrantino hosted by Jeff Burrows and in October I hosted Lugana.

My original idea was to have us focus on biodynamic wines of Italy by finding wines certified by Demeter, but when many of us found this challenging, myself included, I suggested we shift to Italian Viticulture in general with an emphasis on biodynamic, organic, and other green practices but not necessary certified, so we could explore the stories and controversies around this subject.

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