Meet Giuseppe

Mostly based on a real person (the father of Chef Tony), Giuseppe was born in the United States and raised in the warm chaos of a big Italian family in New York—most of them born in Italy. His namesake and hero, Grandfather Giuseppe (born 1903), emigrated in 1917, started as a cook working for the railroads, and eventually opened a restaurant in the Bronx with his wife, Angelina. Sunday dinners were a ritual. At age six, little Giuseppe received a tiny juice glass with a splash of wine and a lesson: "You must develop a taste." The seed was planted.

Wine didn't win him immediately. First came computer software, where he built a successful career—fast, analytical, exhilarating. But the old whisper of Sunday dinners grew louder. Giuseppe became a Sommelier and opened a wine bar in the U.S., the sort of place where small-production bottles nudged their way onto the list and regulars turned into friends.

Pilgrimages followed: Italy, France, Spain, and beyond—year after year—where he hunted for soulful, under-the-radar wines and the passionate people behind them. He brought those bottles—and their stories—home to share.

Then came the grand leap. Giuseppe and his wife fell for Italy a bit too hard and moved to Umbria, the green heart of the country. Today they live among vineyards and olive trees, roaming Europe together, knocking on cellar doors, tasting in caves dusted with history, and championing growers whose wines speak softly on the label but shout with character in the glass.