Opening a Bottle

03/25/2026

Four reasons to fall in love with Collio, Italy 👇
🥂 To Know the Collio is to Love the Collio
🥂 Collio's Rising Star: Tamara Podversic
🥂 Collio Friulano: Buy It Now, Thank Yourself in 5 Years
🥂 Collio Bianco: Two Schools of Thought, No Wrong Answers

Special coverage on one of northeastern Italy's most beautiful — and most overlooked — wine regions is live now.

Visit: https://www.openingabottle.com🥂

03/17/2026

What’s new on the home page of openingabottle.com this week. 🤓

For those of you new to what I do: I am a wine writer and photojournalist, published author, certified Wine Scholar (3x over 🇮🇹🇫🇷🇪🇸) via , and Certified Advisor who plans wine vacations for my readers and paying subscribers. I am also a public speaker and will announce soon that I am a brand ambassador for a major Italian wine region 🤫 (coming soon).

Opening a Bottle is the hub, an in-depth photo-rich magazine on European wine that I have been producing for 12 years. There is a special focus on Italian wine, where my connections are deepest.

Nice to meet you. If you are new (or not), leave a comment and tell me your favorite cheese. Because why not?

Link in bio.

03/13/2026

“Nowadays, there is always the problem in the world of wine that we divide the vineyard from the cellar. They should never be divided, for wine is a communication between the two.”

My latest for Opening a Bottle on the compelling new winemaker at the helm at Damijan Podversic ... his daughter, Tamara.

Meet Tamara Podversic, one of Italy’s most talented young winemakers who is taking over her family estate in Collio from her father, Damijan.

03/12/2026

Opening a Bottle’s Kevin Day has been nominated as “Author of the Year” by the Wine Travel Awards for his book 𝘖𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘉𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦: 𝘐𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘺.

Please take a moment and cast a public vote on the link below. Finalists proceed to a judging panel. Thank you!

Kevin Day is a wine writer, photojournalist and certified travel advisor with a focus on Italy, France, Spain and Austria. He lives in Denver, CO where he conducts classes, seminars and wine dinners, and advises on private collections.

03/02/2026

I am excited to now be offering travel-planning services to Opening a Bottle readers. Do you have a complex trip to Europe that you want to finally make happen?

Want the inside track on the best wineries and cultural sites to visit in Italy (without contributing to overtourism)?

My thoughtful approach and curatorial taste for authentic experiences might be exactly what your next trip needs. Imagine arriving somewhere and already knowing which wine bar to visit, which cellar to descend into, and which back road leads to an unforgettable vantage point. That's what I'm here to help you find.

Connect with me via the link below. Members of Opening a Bottle qualify for a $100 credit toward travel-planning services.

Pack your passion for wine and discover a new way to travel with Opening a Bottle’s travel planning services powered by Fora.

02/17/2026

That concludes the Chianti Classico Collection. 🇮🇹🍷

Thank you for continuing to raise the bar on what a two-day wine event can be. This consortium is not only well organized, but it is clearly backed by a community of producers all striving to push things forward, which is reflected in the wines year after year. When I come to Florence every February, I am constantly amazed by all the new discoveries, the different but authentic interpretations of grape and terroir, and the willingness to share this place with the world. That’s a trifecta that few wines regions have; they might have one or two of those items, but rarely all three.

My reports will be coming soon, but for now, I leave this photo collage of some highlights from Stazione Leopolda. Until next time, Friends of the Gallo Nero!

02/16/2026

“It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.” -Benedict Cumberbatch

02/13/2026

My goal with Opening a Bottle is to bring the reader into the sights, smells, textures and moods of the wine countries I report on. The more I can get out there with my camera and do it, the better.

Last November, I visited the noble farmhouse estate of in the area just outside Florence over the course of two rainy days. I’ve long admired these wines, but getting to know the warm-hearted and generous Contini Bonacossi family, seeing the wild vineyards, and smelling the sweet air of the vin santaie as grapes dried for vin santo, was an experience I’ll never forget.

NEW ON OPENING A BOTTLE: a free article and photo essay that explores this family and their timeless farm. Follow the link in bio.

Special thanks to .comunicare.il.vino for arranging this visit, and the team at Capezzana for their generosity of time.

02/08/2026

Presenting this weekend with of at the was a “full circle moment” for me.

Dalla Terra helped arrange my first winemaker interview back in 2015, and they, as well as have been easy collaborators since. We hosted a seminar centered on my book and poured wines featured both in its pages and in Brian’s portfolio: .lageder and .

And I was joined this weekend by my wife, (who laid the book out) and daughters to have a little New Mexico getaway. Earthships, hot cocoa, adobe, chips n salsa, and blue skies galore.

Brian: Thanks for putting so much faith and energy into promoting my book, both at this event, to your team and your colleagues over the last few months. Cheers to you and the good people in your portfolio. You represent what the world of Italian wine is all about. And thank you for making this possible with your 40th festival. Cheers.

02/05/2026

The official word on the 2021 Brunello di Montalcino is “fragrant, defined and vertical.” But as I assessed one after another at Benvenuto Brunello in November, I kept thinking about what a colleague had said to me a few days before: “pay attention to the shadows.” Was this because I had my camera on the tasting table, or was it because we were tasting a brooding Sangiovese?

It then hit me what I was looking for: Brunello always conjures the shadows aromatically, flavor wise, even the serving context (hello dark days of winter). But it’s actually the opposite — radiance — that elevates the great ones, even in their nascent stage at release.

All month I’ve been pouring myself into producing three reports for members on Montalcino’s newest wines, isolating those that strike this balance right out of the gate. Yes, these will all take time to evolve, but it is not unreasonable to want a little chiaroscuro from the start.

My editorial dives deeper into this, profiling the 20 wines that most caught my attention for these attributes for my readers. One of those is featured in the slides above, from . Link in bio.

01/15/2026

🇮🇹 LIVE on YouTube: Italian White Wines 🥂

We’re going live to explore some of Italy’s most compelling and distinctive white wines — from indigenous varieties that scream sense of place to a category-busting Pinot Grigio that might change how you think about the grape.

👥 Who we are:
Bob Paulinski MW brings 40+ years in the wine trade, global judging experience, and a hands-on, real-world approach to wine education.

Kevin Day is the author of Opening a Bottle: Italy, founder of openingabottle.com, a longtime Italian wine writer and speaker, and an Italian Wine Scholar with Highest Honors who has reported extensively from Italy’s top regions.

Together, we’ll taste the 3 wines pictured above, and dig into why Italy has dramatically ushered in a new era for fine white wine. Whether you’re a student, collector, or just curious, come join us.

📍 When: SATURDAY, January 17 at 1pm EST/10am PST
🔔 Where: YouTube Live (link in bio)

Bring your questions as we will have the chat open. See you there!