(A Memior of Food, Wine, and Family in the Heart of Italy)

by Sergio Esposito with Justine Van Der Leun

Sergio Esposito is the owner of Italian Wine Merchants in New York City. He speaks at and hosts wine dinners throughout the country, has a much-visited website, and writes a popular e-mail newsletter about his discoveries and travels in Italy. He lives with his wife and two children in New York CIty.

“Passion of The Vine” is Esposito’s intimate and evocative memior of his colorful family life in Italy, his abrupt transition to life in America, and his later travels into the heart of Italy – its wine country – and the lives of those who inhabit it. The result is a remarkably engaging and entertaining wine/travel narrative replete with vivid portraits of seductive places – the world-famous cellars of Piedmont, the sweeping estates of Tuscany, the lush fields of Campania, the chilly hills of Friuli, the windy beaches of Le Marche; and of memorable people, diverse and vibrant wine artisans – from a disco-dancing vintner who bases his farming on the rhythm of the moon to an obsessive prince who destroys his vineyards before his death so that his grapes will never be used incorrectly.

Esposito’s luscious accounts of the wonderful food and wine that are so much a part of Italian life, and his poignant and often hiliarious stories of his relationships with his family and Italian friends, make “Passion of The Vine” an utterly unique and enchanting work about Italy and its eternally seductive lifestyle.

for more information on Sergio Esposito and his book “Passion of The Vine” go to: www.italianwinemerchant.com or www.passiononthevine.com