Malcolm Jolley talks to legendary food and wine writer John Mariani…

The acclaimed American journalist and author John Mariani recently posted a column at Forbes magazine and his own website and newsletter, Virtual Gourmet, with the headline ‘Have Italian Wine Laws Become a Counter-Productive Farce?’. In it he questions whether the appellation system that ensured quality and brought Italian wines to the top of the market has gone too far with literally hundreds of designations. If Mariani’s headline sounds critical, the criticism clearly comes from love and the column is a great read, providing a good summary of the modern history of Italian wine as well as posing some interesting questions about it present state and future. Since I have been a fan of John Mariani’s food and wine writing since I was a young man, I took the column as an excuse to send him an email and an invitation to talk to me about it at GFR. To my delight he accepted and our conversation on Zoom from his home office in Westchester County, New York makes up the video interview below.

Email versions of this post may not display video. To see it at GFR click here.