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Articles by Susannah Gold
Happy Bastille Day!
I have been fortunate enough to celebrate La Fête Nationale Francaise – Le Quatorze Juillet, a holiday marking the anniversary of the fall on July 14, 1789 of the Bastille, in Paris on a number of occasions. As readers of this blog know, I was a Francophile in my early life and majored in French in college. My father had always been somewhat obsessed with France and the lifestyle and food so it is a natural for me to think of today as a celebration.
Monday Musings: 5 Topics of Interest To Me
Will Rosé Continue to Expand its reach and will darker roses from red grapes such as Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo become commonplace on wine lists, in wine retail, and on consumer’s minds? Why is Wine Tourism so hot right now? What glasses are all the rage and where do they come from? After basketball players, are soccer stars also star winemakers? Which 2 grapes are going to be the surprise of the summer? Of the remaining 15 states that you have not covered, what is the main grape variety in each?
The All That Wine Workshop Series
Four free live workshops for wine producers – every week during July, starting on 7 July at 18.00 CEST Helping wineries communicate with purpose, connect with people, and grow with confidence. Parliamo sia inglese che italiano — per chi preferisce, siamo disponibili anche in italiano.
Wineries in Some Western States of America
I have been having so much fun researching wineries across the US. I realize how challenged my geography is and how few of these states I have actually visited. I have already covered Oregon, Washington, Nevada, and Colorado which are certainly considered Western States but have yet to mention Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana.
More American Wine Info for 250th Anniversary
Yesterday I explored wine regions in the Midwest and today I want to continue with some of the other 22 states I have not yet mentioned starting with the southwest states of New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and Colorado. Arizona just like many other American states has a vibrant wine scene with three AVAs – Verde Valley, Wilcox, and Sonoita, each with their own microclimate and soils.
Wine Around America – Wines In All 50
american flag textile close up As we move towards the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the American Republic, I am looking at the celebration under many lenses, some historical, some personal, and many wine-related, as is my way. It’s amazing to think that today in 2026, grapes are made into wine in all 50 states.
Muscadine: Widespread Variety in Southern US States
I have been in the South this week and thinking a lot about wine in this part of the country. I am here because my son is in Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama at the US Space and Rocket Center. He is super lucky to have had the privilege of participating in this amazing program and I to be down here with him. It’s my first time in Alabama and while they have a large Northern Winery trail, I spent my time visiting a friend in Atlanta and viewing museums, and Civil Rights landmarks.
50 States of Wine for Our 250th Anniversary
This great map from @WineFolly inspired me some years ago to write about wine in different areas of the United States but I didn’t get very far. I am going to try again. I don’t have 50 days between now and July 4th, but only 18. So I will be linking to articles that I have already written about some wines and parts of different States such as New Mexico, Michigan, New York, Virginia, Oregon, Texas, Massachusetts, Washington California, Maryland, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.
Wine Reflections on Jan-June 2026
2026 started out very slowly in my corner of the wine world and then built up a bit in March with numerous and interesting events I participated in for producers, large and small. Some highlights were: Slow Wine for the Pasini family winery from Lake Garda, showcasing Valtenesi wines made with a blend of Groppello, Sangiovese, Barbara, and Marzemino. I am very partial to these wines, the Groppello grape variety and the Pasini brand. I have written about them before and will write again.
Restarting The Conversation
Hi. My name is Susannah. I have been writing this blog off and on since 2008, May 8th to be exact. I just had my 18th anniversary. This is one of my longest relationships ever but I have not been a good partner. I have been absent, inconsiderate, dismissive, and yet, more people showed up then ever before. For some reason, I have had more traffic this year than in the past 15. This year in which I literally have only posted three times.
Friuli Venezia Giulia: Rosazzo Discoveries
Lynn of Savor the Harvest, invited the members of our Combined Wine Groups to Explore Wine Regions, Wineries, and Varietals that were new to us to start out our year, I began thinking about which regions I wanted to write about and thought about many regions that I know little about. Then I realized that I learned a lot about a country that I am extremely familiar with in the Fall – Italy, and specifically the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia and one of its top wine areas called Rosazzo.
Buona Befana A Tutti!
Gearing up for the end of the winter holidays, everyone makes numerous resolutions, including me. One of mine is to write more copy this year and launch a few initiatives. I will start all that tomorrow because today is the end of the Christmas holiday, it’s the Epiphany, Three Kings Day and the day that ends the Winter break in my view.
Happy New Year-Buon Anno - 2025 Highlights
This short post is just to say Happy New Year/Buon Anno. I hope it’s a healthy and happy one for all. I’ve had a very challenging final month to 2025 and I am happy to leave last year behind and step into this new one. Reflecting on the year, here are some highlights from 2025 in my wine journey included: Writing/Multi-Media: Starting a substack with Katarina Andersson called All That Wine.
Italian Wines For Thanksgiving
Katarina Andersson of Grapevine Adventures and I started a substack this fall called All That Wine. I posted a piece yesterday about Italian wines for Thanksgiving holiday. You can read it here or you can join our substack. It’s a work in progress and we are starting slowly but we have lots of ideas about what we are going to do in 2026. We have both had quite a lot of goings on in 2025 but decided to start anyway.
Preparing For Thanksgiving
Getting ready for Thanksgiving and considering all that I have to be thankful for starting with loved ones, health, and general good fortune. I have had the gift of late of appreciating everything that happens in the present. For many years this was not the case. I lost my Dad last year and the experience changed so much for me. What it also did was make me appreciate the time I do have with people I love, remind me to savor all the little things, and always say I love you to those you do.
What we do at All That Wine
I hope you can join Katarina Andersson of Grapevine Adventures and me tomorrow for a discussion about what we are working on with our new collaboration called All That Wine. Katarina and I have been thinking about launching this new project for a few years. Life got in the way for both of us but we have finally committed and taken the plunge. We have launched a new substack publication. Our publication will have articles on topics of interest, regions, and grapes. We will offer news and beyond that.
All That Wine -Bocale Winery Livestream
We did something new! Katarina Andersson of Grapevine Adventures and I launched a new substack newsletter called All That Wine. Part of our new platform will include livestreams with producers. We start this adventure with Valentino Valentini from Azienda Agricola Bocale in Montefalco. I just met Valentino this summer at the A Montefalco week of events celebrating the area in June. Katarina has known him for much longer. It promised to be an exciting chat.
Montefalco Rosso - New Favorite Tuesday Wine
Today I remembered that my diner companions and I had another interesting Montefalco Rosso at that dinner I wrote about yesterday. This one was completely different from the first both in style and grape composition. I want to mention it to illustrate how much variety you can find in this denomination from Consorzio Tutela Vini Montefalco but also to show how within their diversity, they are all a very high level of quality thanks to all the work being done in the vineyards and in the cellars.
Monday Musings: Can Montefalco Rosso Compete With Tuscan Reds
Today’s post is about Montefalco Rosso DOC, one of the denominations in the Consorzio Tutela Vini Montefalco’s stable of wines. As I mentioned in my writing over the weekend, it is one of the denominations that they protect. Made with a blend of grapes that includes 60-80% Sangiovese, 10-25% Sagrantino, and 0-30% other grapes, the wine can be quite varied. What they have in common is my favorite grape variety – Sangiovese.
La Notte di San Lorenzo-Night of the Shooting Stars
Tonight, August 10, is officially known in Italy as la Notte di San Lorenzo or the Night of the Shooting Stars. This is because, apparently, if there are clear skies, one can see many shooting stars. I always thought this was very poetic but somewhat of a myth. Until I went sailing in the Mediterranean years ago on August 10. I saw tens of shooting stars and it was indeed magical.
Discovering Spectacular Wines in the Green Heart of Italy-Montefalco in Umbria
This past June I was invited by Miriade & Partners to attend the Anteprime called A Montefalco and produced by the Consorzio Tutela Vini Montefalco. The Consorzio presented to 2021 vintage of Montefalco Sagrantino DOCG and the vintages currently on the market of Spoletino DOC, Montefalco DOC, and Montefalco Sagrantino DOCG. According to the Consorzio, the 2021 is a 4 star vintage which is considered excellent.
Wine Wednesday: Kent’Annos from Cantina del Mandrolisai
I was invited by Paola Pavan of OPC Consulting to a wine & cheese pairing event last month at the Columbus Citizens Foundation hosted by the House of Made in Italy. The cheeses were some of the classics from Italy and the wines were a surprise group of wines, some of which were also shown during the Fancy Food Show.
Summer Sips: Friendly Whites from Italy
This week has been surprising with Earthquakes shaking our home in New Jersey two days in a row. Luckily I have had lots of nice bottles of white wine on hand to help calm my nerves through it all. This lovely wine from Villa Matilde’s Rocca dei Leoni estate was a Falanghina, a white wine from Campania that is floral and fruity, pairs beautifully with salad and seafood and is a crowd pleaser in our home.
Monday Musings: Wine Tariffs
Here we are. August and rather than focusing on the dog days of summer, most people involved in the wine industry are thinking about tariffs which have been in effect thus far at around 10% on imported products. However, that number is now going up to at least 15% if not 20% by August 7th. There have been many articles written about tariffs and what they are and who pays for them. Tariffs are a tax, consumers end up paying for them because prices are rising and the dollar is falling.
What’s Your Favorite Grape?
Over the course of the last two days, I have had a lot of fun tasting various wines and foods with wine friends and a couple of events. While I tasted many different wines, every time I taste Sangiovese, I confirm that it is my favorite grape in most of its iterations.
Happy Bastille Day!
I have been fortunate enough to celebrate La Fête Nationale Francaise – Le Quatorze Juillet, a holiday marking the anniversary of the fall on July 14, 1789 of the Bastille, in Paris on a number of occasions. As readers of this blog know, I was a Francophile in my early life and majored in French in college. My father had always been somewhat obsessed with France and the lifestyle and food so it is a natural for me to think of today as a celebration.
Monday Musings: 50 States of Wine
As we celebrated our 249th birthday, I am musing about the Fifty States of Wine in the United States. I will be launching a once a week article on wines from each of the states and by next July 4th, will have completed the 50 posts. The first one will be about New Jersey. While I have lived half of my life in New Jersey or half time in New Jersey and for the past couple of year have also judged wines coming out of New Jersey. I will write the post tomorrow and look forward to digging in.
Texas and Hill Country On My Mind
Thinking about Texas and the lives lost and the incredible devastation there. I have done some wine events in Texas though the years and know many Texans from the industry there. I have not yet had the pleasure of visiting Texas wineries yet but its always on my bucket list. I just read a blog post that summed up much of my thinking too about using a wine blog to talk about other topics of dire importance. Here’s an important post from the Wine Fairy who I do not know but whose post appealed to me.
Petit Manseng Makes Its Mark in Virginia
When I was a girl, my parents took me to Jefferson’s home and to the University of Virginia. I am thinking of Jefferson today because he wrote, along with a selected few the Declaration of Independence. I remember how impressed I was with the campus, the State, and how much I wanted to seem like a college student although I was only 13.
July 4th Traditions
Happy Fourth of July! My favorite times on this holiday were when my Dad would read the Declaration of Independence, which he liked to do every year whether from our documents or from the New York Times. He loved to tell the story of how two signers and Presidents, lifelong friends John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on this day, 50 years after they signed the Declaration of Independence.
ShowBiz Toast With A Smile
Its been a few weeks since Summer began for my family. My son has been in theater camp and last night performed in Annie Jr, a shortened version of the play. It was delightful to see him on stage, having fun, confident, singing, dancing, and enjoying being part of a group of kids working towards a performance. I am amazed how they put together a performance in 8 days.
Wine Wednesday: Offida DOCG Passerina Tenute Recchi Franceschini
I attended the last day of the Summer Fancy Food Show this week. I was invited to follow a short wine tasting offered by Coldiretti.
Abruzzo Delights At Il Gattopardo
Last week I had the opportunity to join a group of writers, sommeliers, importers, and educators at The Gattopardo in New York City for a delightful tasting on wines from Abruzzo organized by the Consorzio Tutela Vini d’Abruzzo and under the aegis of the Charming Taste of Europe campaign.
I have always enjoyed the month of June, filled with occasions to celebrate and people to salute with a celebratory toast. If May is the start of Summer, June is when it really gets into full swing. May for me is now a distant month because it is the month when my Dad passed away last year so it will always be a hard one I think in which I miss him even more intensely. That said, it was a month where I tasted a lot of great Italian wine.
Discovering Brda in Slovenia
This month the #WorldWineTravel group is writing about lesser known wine regions. I am taking the opportunity to write about an area of first heard of in 2018 from one of the members of the Scurek wine family at an American Wine Society event. I was there to give a Masterclass on Lugana wines from Lake Garda but also was able to attend other sessions. I attended one on Slovenia and learned about a very interesting region called Brda that is right on the border of Friuli Venezia Giulia.
Join Me: World Wine Travel - Lesser Known Regions -#WorldWineTravel
I am hosting our combined wine writers group in May this year and our topic is lesser known regions of the wine world under the #worldwinetravel hashtag. I hope many of you will join me. I have not hosted in a while and am excited to jump back in. This is my 17th year of my blog and it coincides with this week so I am happy if I am also actively sharing with others, what blogs are supposed to be about, if memory serves :).
Italian Wines At Altitude
This month the Italian Food Wine and Travel crew looked at wines from the mountains also known as Alpine wines. I am always excited to drink wines that I know are grown at altitude and as climate changes continue, many more areas are looking to plant higher up, in search of freshness, straight forward flavors and purity of fruit that I find you get in wines that come from grapes grown at altitude.
Tasting Irish Whiskey At Keens
I wish I were at my favorite steakhouse, Keens ,right now, sipping some Irish Whiskey and eating a steak. Keens has a long and glorious New York history that started in 1885 when it was part of an actors club. I like to take non-New Yorkers there for dinner. I like the pipes hanging on the walls, the art, the armor, the old wooden seats, the iceberg wedge. Keens Steakhouse owns the largest collection of churchwarden pipes in the world.
Monday Musings On Wine Education: Focused on Studying Burgundy
What are you studying for someone in the wine industry asked me recently? I have been attempting to focus on the Master of Burgundy wine with the Wine Scholar Guild for awhile now without much success however, last week’s tasting of Burgundy wines and an upcoming focused one on Bouzeron’s Aligote have turned me into a believer that this could be the year, finally. I have always been on the side of that debate that opts for education, formal and informal.
A Look At Montepulciano, Italy’s Second Most Widely Planted Grape Variety
Tomorrow I will be at the Slow Wine Event in New York at Eataly serving wines from Abruzzo made with Montepulciano. Come say hello if you are at the event! Even though Montepulciano is Italy’s second most widely planted grape variety after Tuscany’s Sangiovese, it is still not as revered as it could and, in my view, should be. Many tend to see this welcoming variety as an easy, quaffable beverage.
I have been tasting and drinking Susanna’s wines for about 18 years now and think they are terrific. One of my favorites is her Vin Santo. I wanted to share a conversation that we had about Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. Wine has been made in Montepulciano for 2500 years starting with the Etruscan King Porsenna. Throughout the centuries it has been a favorite of illustrious men including two American statesmen, Thomas Jefferson and Vian Buren.
Each year starts off with good intentions and January always seems like a blur between lists of what happened in the previous year and predications for the year that just began. This year the alcohol industry also received a lot of interest because of the Surgeon General’s warning about links between consumption and cancer, because of the plethora of campaigns against alcohol coming from various corners and for different reasons.
Happy Lunar New Year - The Year of the Snake
This is the year of the Wood Snake. In the Chinese Zodiac there are 12 signs and 5 elemental powers. This combination is what is represented this year and is supposed to bring a year of wisdom, new beginnings, and hope. I had always thought of the holiday as Chinese New Year the Lunar New Year is celebrated in many Asian countries including Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau, Singapore, and Korea.
With the pace of today’s news and events, writing about wine seems to be not only a luxury but at times superfluous. Whether it be the wars raging overseas, the political battles and scenes closer to home, or the alcohol conversations flourishing that are mostly negative, except by wine insiders – myself included, continuing to write a wine blog or post on other social channels is at times not only daunting but almost dare I say – unnecessary.
Zenato’s Lugana Riserva Shines
This fabulous bottle of Lugana was my drink of choice this week. It was a 2016 Lugana Riserva from Zenato, a venerated winery in the Veneto, equally famous for Amarone and Lugana, among other wines. I was the Lugana brandambassador for 8 years and worked hard to transmit and promote this amazing area. When I got to serve Zenato’s wines my job was very easy. This 2016 was amazing and showed how beautifully Lugana can age and show notes of honey, pear, and even tropical fruit.
Buona Befana A Tutti!
Gearing up for the end of the winter holidays, everyone makes numerous resolutions, including me. One of mine is to write more copy on this blog. I will start with today’s holiday – la Befana. It is a holiday in Italy where an unattractive old looking woman gives out coal to children who are bad and candy to those who were good on January 5th, the Epiphany Eve. January 6th is the Feast of the Epiphany.
December Pleasures: Bubbles from Ridgeview Winery in Sussex, UK
Last night I had the pleasure of trying these two beautiful bottles of bubbly that hailed from Ridgeview in England. I have had other English sparkling wines in the past which I wrote about here but never these two and never a blanc de noir. The winery started in 1995 in Sussex. The winery’s second generation is now also involved. Ridgeview is a certified B Corporation and is also a founding member of Sustainable Wines GB. The vines at Ridgeview are up to 28 years old, some of the oldest in England.
Thoughts on Pearl Harbor
December 7th is always a strange day. On the one hand, I think of Pearl Harbor, the day that will live in infamy and how the USA got into World War II and all that that meant and all the lives that were lost on this day. My great Uncle was at Pearl Harbor. It was the signature event of his lifetime. His license plate even spoke of it. On the other hand, I think of my adopted city of Milan which celebrates its patron saint on this day,.
AltaVista Brut Rosé Rings In December
This lovely sparkling wine from Argentina graced my table and helped ring in the December holidays. It hails from Mendova from AltaVista. It was made using the Charmat method which works well in wines that want to show primary fruit aromas. This wine had plenty of charm with its bright pink color, fine bubbles, strawberry and citrus flavors and its zesty acidity, which was listed as 7.2 g/l. The wine is made from the French grape Malbec which is so omnipresent in Argentina.
Capezzana’s Vin Santo di Carmignano
Life is short, eat dessert first or better drink it first. That’s the way I am feeling today and wishing I had a bottle of this wine from Capezzana, which I tasted earlier this year. We were told that their winemaker, Benedetta Contini Bonacossi ,checks on the grapes three times a day , 7 days a week when they are drying in the Vinsantaia. Their particular Vin Santo is made from a. blend of Trebbiano Toscano and San Colombano, a less well known indigenous grape.
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