Why am I passionate about this?
I am a winegrower, farmer, writer, photographer, and pop-upeuse. I fell in love with food and wine while living and working in Italy, then returned stateside to create an homage to the people and place that embraced us and taught us so much. That endeavor--the restaurant osteria pane e salute opened with my chef husband Caleb Barber—was where I curated the wine program and became passionate about wines farmed artfully. I began working as a winegrower in 2007, a personal landscape experiment that led me down the rabbit hole of growing and making wine from hybrid varieties focused on regenerative viticulture and low intervention winemaking.
Deirdre's book list on wine, love, and landscape
Why did Deirdre love this book?
I have long loved Robert Camuto’s writing about living in Italy and the wines and winemakers he’s discovered. My own food and wine awakening happened while living and working in Italy, so naturally I gravitate to books that take place there or tell the stories of others who’ve chosen to live there against all odds. Robert Camuto’s newest book South of Somewhere has quickly risen to my list of favorites. In this evocation, he traces his own history back to the town of his ancestors, and the relationship that evolves from a life-defining memory of a childhood summer in this village to his exploration and understanding of it as an adult. His work captures the essence of Italy, Italian life, and Italian wine: “the chaos that gives birth to inspiration”.
From chapters on the nostalgia of that Southern Italian childhood summer to a series of portraits of winegrowers from Italy’s…
1 author picked South of Somewhere as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
A New York Times Best Wine Book of 2021
A Washington Post Best Wine Book of 2021
Named one of the Best Wine Books of 2021 by Henry Jeffreys, timatkin.com