Roma (Italy)

ISOLA DEL GIGLIO: HEROIC VITICULTURE | WINE & TRAVEL

Posted on By Layne Randolph

Decanter
Giglio Island, just 11 miles off the Tuscan coast, has a winemaking history as enduring as its ancient stone terraces, some of which are believed to date back to the Stone Age. Its prominence continued through Etruscan and Roman times, and even Florence’s Medici family championed the island’s Ansonica wine. Today, that legacy is kept alive by a group of fiercely dedicated winemakers who continue growing Ansonica despite grueling conditions, what the Italians call viticultura eroica, heroic viticulture.

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Roma (Italy)

WHY IS A VINEYARD GROWING ON ROME’S PALATINE HILL? | WINE

Posted on By Layne Randolph

Decanter
Gabriella Strano is the landscape architect for Parco Archeologico del Colosseo (‘Parco’), which houses Vigna Barberini. ‘The story of Rome begins with the Palatine Hill,’ she proclaims as she walks towards Vigna Barberini’s three rows of vines incongruously set among ancient ruins. She gestures to the broader expanse of property overlooking the Roman Forum, once home to emperors. ‘Augustus built his palace here, on the site of the Lupercal.’ The Lupercal is where Romulus – the mythological founder and first king of Rome – and his brother, Remus, were nurtured as infants by a she-wolf. Ancient maps and records attest to the continuous presence of grapevines on the Palatine. ‘From the time of the Empire to when the emperors fell, from Medieval times to the Renaissance, the vines were always here.’ Driving home the sanctity and historical weight of the place, Strano adds, ‘This place is considered sacred.’

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Roma (Italy)

ROMA TO SONOMA E RITORNO: CINCINNATO WINERY’S INTERVIEW WITH LAYNE RANDOLPH | WINE

Posted on By Layne Randolph

Fabio Ciarla, Cincinnato Winery
An incredible path that binds Layne Randolph to Italy, if “the outward journey” saw fashion as the protagonist, “the return” is all oriented towards wine. After a few years of study and work in Turin and Rome, with prestigious assignments for fashion houses of the level of Fendi, Layne decided to return to the US to pursue other career paths, however choosing a landscape that was similar to the Italian hills. So here is Sonoma, and the beginning of an adventure in the world of wine that she explains to us in the first answer to our questions. We met her for an insight into the wines of Lazio and we are really happy to have had this opportunity, such high-level writing is what every territory wants to make itself known!

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Art

THE ART OF THE VESSEL: WHY WINE GLASSES MATTER | WINE

Posted on By Layne Randolph

Jetset Magazine
The evolution of wine glasses shows that a glass is never just a glass, not when it’s shaped by the heritage of Riedel, the precision of Lalique, or the drama of Baccarat. Three tastemakers—Maximilian Riedel, Jean-Charles Boisset, and James Suckling—lead that evolution, each through bold collaborations that merge centuries-old craftsmanship with modern sensibility. From Baccarat’s sculptural showpieces to Lalique’s featherweight crystal and Riedel’s high-performance forms, these visionaries are reshaping how we see—and sip—wine. We spoke with all three to explore the intersection of wine, design, and the sensory experience.

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Wine

MEMENTO MORI: REMEMBER YOU MUST DIE | WINE

Posted on By Layne Randolph

Forbes.com
In Napa Valley, access and advantage usually belong to legacy families and global corporations. Vineyard land is scarce, and prices have climbed accordingly. So, when Memento Mori’s three founders with no wine background, a winemaker who grew up making homemade wine in Oklahoma, and a once-private art estate in Calistoga, converged—and with their winemaker going on to earn three separate 100-point wines in a single vintage—it felt less like a business plan and more like a case study in daring and manifestation.

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Travel

ARMENIA CLAIMS THE WORLD’S FIRST WINERY | WINE

Posted on By Layne Randolph

Forbes.com
Along the Arpa River in Armenia’s Vayots Dzor province, it takes almost 100 stone steps to get to the opening of the Areni-1 Cave complex, a cool, echoing cavern perched on an old caravan route. In 2007, a UCLA-led team uncovered a shallow clay press draining into a fermentation vat, storage jars half-buried for temperature control, a cup and bowl and piles of grape skins, stems and seeds that tie the scene to wine. It is the earliest complete winemaking setup ever found.

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Wine

WINES OF THE BIBLE WINE ROUTE | WINE & TRAVEL

Posted on By Layne Randolph

Traveling the Wines of the Bible Route and sampling wine along the way gives a whole sensory experience. The route offers fascinating places like Ayalon Valley, in the Judean Foothills, where the Clos de Gat Winery sits near where Joshua defeated the Five Kings. Named for an ancient “gat” (Hebrew for wine press) and pre-dating the Roman period by a thousand years, the Clos de Gat’s 3,000-year-old grape press is one of the oldest in the world.

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Roma (Italy)

HEROIC VINEYARDS | THE WORLD’S MOST CHALLENGING VINEYARDS

Posted on By Layne Randolph

Heroic defines the vineyard workers as much as the vineyards. “What was once done on the back of a mule or donkey today is done on the shoulders of the grape harvesters. We’re talking about kilometers of climbing up the cliffs to reach the means of transport, stuff from another time! In the recent past, even if the vineyards were more promising and qualitative, they were abandoned in favor of others more easily reachable and closer to the roads precisely because of these difficulties.”

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Art

500 YEARS OF HISTORY AT SICILY’S VILLA TASCA | TRAVEL

Posted on By Layne Randolph

Haute Living, August 2024
Over the centuries, the Palermo estate has been a haven where royalty, artists, and intellectuals sought inspiration and respite. The villa’s opulent interiors have welcomed luminaries such as German opera composer Robert Wagner, Italian violinist Niccolò Paganini, and Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, each leaving their mark on its storied halls. Wagner, for instance, stayed on the property in 1927 while he was writing the third act of Parsifal, and 60 years later, at 85, he composed “Villa Tasca” based on his visit.

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Sonoma (US)

DRY FARMING IN AMERICAN VITICULTURE? | WINE

Posted on By Layne Randolph

Decanter
We only take what Mother Nature gives us,’ said Lokka. Emeritus proudly holds the title of the largest 100% dry-farmed Pinot Noir estate in Sonoma County. ‘We don’t turn on water. We don’t need it,’ Lokka added. ‘When we first started dry-farming, we saw a reduction in crop load; the vines had not had water. When the water was shut off, the vines grew deeper to find it in the clay soil. Now, the vines are producing 3-3.5 tons per acre (approximately 6.75 metric tonnes per ha) with no problem.’

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Roma (Italy)

CHAMPAGNE: WE’RE TASTING STARS | WINE

Posted on By Layne Randolph

Napa Valley Life Magazine
Over 400 years ago, Pierre Pérignon joined the Benedictine Abbey of Hautvillers in the Champagne region of France. As a monk, he was given the honorary title of Dom and the prestigious position of cellar master. As the story goes, when Dom Pérignon created bubbly wine, he shouted, “Come quickly, I am tasting the stars!” The rest is history. Dom Pérignon was instrumental in inventing what is now known as Champagne, and he has a posthumous, eponymous Champagne, produced by Moët & Chandon, to prove it.

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Sonoma (US)

BODEGA BAY | TRAVEL

Posted on By Layne Randolph

Napa Valley Life
If it weren’t for the 1963 Alfred Hitchcock film, “The Birds,” Bodega Bay might be just another scenic fishing village along the Sonoma Coast. The townspeople of Bodega and Bodega Bay embrace the area’s claim to fame with locations like The Birds Café, a visitors’ center with The Birds theme, and an annual “parade” with attendees wearing costumes from the film.

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