Up your wine game by branching out from the same old same old. While we all love tried and true favorites... but sometimes you just need something new. Let’s explore why you should look for off the beaten path wines, what to look for or ask your local wine shop, and where else you can find these uncommon, rare, or unknown grapes and wines. Get ready to enter a world of new and exciting wines!

Hear the story of the Ukrainian woman turned winemaker in the Modena province of Italy who was on a mission to make a monovarietal wine from a rare grape that thrives only in high altitudes. She made several attempts and then Sgarbato was born. This Pet Nat sparkling wine made from 100% Uva Tosca,  an ancient grape whose wine was described as "really healthy" by a 17th century Italian agronomist, is like drinking cranberry juice as a sparkling wine. Uva Tosca was abandoned after phylloxera, and thanks to Irene of Frignano, it is making a comeback in Italy's Emilia Romagna region. Read on to learn about this "underdog grape" and to explore the rich cultural heritage in the land where this grape was born.

Are you planning a party ? Are you going to one?  Needing a gift but not sure what wine to select?

Hosting a  party or finding a great gift for a wine lover just got easier with our tips on finding crowd-pleasing, drinkable wine that caters to diverse tastes, while also finding wines that are unique and stand out.

We have an approach to finding crowd pleaser wines in our latest blog article. We liken it to Goldilocks - remember her? But now we've moved up, from porridge to wine.

Read on for expert tips and find your own Goldilocks wine!

Wine and food pairing can seem like a daunting task, yet, once you get down the basic principles, there is almost no right or wrong. It can turn into a life long skill that you can practice all the time, while alone or in groups, while at home or out and about. Start with this article which lays out an easy to follow approach to pairing foods. Then you’ll be on your way to doing fun and tasty food and wine pairings with others.

In the captivating world of wine, there's an age-old secret that lies within each bottle—the vintage. It's a timestamp of history, a testament to the unique interplay of climate, terroir, and winemaking expertise. As we delve into the climatic nuances of wine vintages, we unlock a trove of stories, each sip an invitation to a specific moment in time. From the warmth of a sun-soaked harvest to the cool feeling of a late autumn rain, wine vintages encapsulate the essence of the year they were born. Find out how you too can assess a wine vintage in this article.

Now that you have at your fingertips these 5 Tips for Pairing Cheese and Wine let’s put your knowledge to practice with some of the best cheese and wine pairing suggestions. In this guide we break down wine and cheeses by category including favorite wine and cheese pairings by some Vero producers. Pairing cheese and wine allows for a lot of fun experimentation, making get-togethera more engaging and interactive. Use this guide as a “go-to” when seeking out the best cheese and wine pairing to have at your next party.

What is umami flavor? Do you know that it is considered a fifth taste, after sweet, sour, bitter, and salty? In what foods can you find this fifth taste? Can you find umami in wine as well as food? … You may not know that some wines have umami flavors, or that certain wines pair better with umami dishes than others. Discover the flavor of umami and how it interacts with wines in this article.

Meet Rosanna Melchionda, a native from Apulia (aka Puglia), in Southern Italy, whose passion for history led to passion for wine. What drives her is her love and commitment to her family and her region. Read this exclusive interview as she takes us through the history, culture and beauty of Puglia, and what is unique about her family estate’s terroir for wine making.

This is the story of a Ukrainian woman, farm raised who winds up immigrating to Italy and heading up a winery in the mountains surrounding Modena, called Frignano. Upon meeting Irene Balim, we were struck by her commitment and passion towards the unknown native grape varieties in her area and to making traditional and natural styles of sparkling wine, trailblazing in the heart of Lambrusco land. This woman in wine and farm girl at heart has an inspiring story. Read it in her words in this exclusive interview with this woman winemaker.

Wine and beer lovers need not pick a side! Let us find middle ground in the wine vs beer discussion with something that both can love. Through exploring alternative wines and lambic sour beer, we can find beers that wine lovers can enjoy and pet nat wine that beer fans will fall in love with. In this article we find the common ground between wine and beer, so beer drinkers can find wines that they will enjoy.

When one thinks of natural wines, it is not often that eastern philosophy or the Japanese art of wabi sabi comes to mind. Yet, the true appreciation for wine is in the beauty of imperfection. How a minimal intervention, farm-to-glass, wild and scare wine can create ‘perfect imperfections’ or even flaws in wines thats can be considered the ultimate representation of terroir. But where do you draw the line between an imperfection that goes too far? We explore this in this article.

Let’s discover what wabi sabi, meditation, beauty, and wine all have in common.

How are YOU celebrating the Holidays? Whether pairing foods like potato latke or Grandma’s favorite Christmas cookie, this guide to pairing wine and food will help you choose a great Holiday wine for your table no matter what you celebrate. Inside you will find suggestions for not only full bodied red wines, or age worthy white wines, but also sparkling wines from Italy and sweet dessert wines. Pick out great tasting Christmas wines, wines to pair with Hannukah’s fried feasts and New Years Sparklers.

You want to give wine for gift, and you want it to be special, either something they don’t have already, or something that will surprise, and impress them, yet something that they will also like the taste of. That seems like a tall order for what seems like a simple task, especially with the myriad of wine selections out there.

We’ve made it easier for you to gift for wine lovers with our first wine gift guide, that we are introducing just in time for the holiday gifting season.

For the wine lover on your list, be it a friend, colleague, customer, family member, or significant other, use our wine and olive oil gift guide to find a wine in line with their wine taste preferences, whether it’s bold red wines, old world wine, natural wine, orange wines, rose wines, champagne style wines, pet nat wines, even EVOO, use our list to find the best wine for gift giving and build your own wine gift baskets.

Find out what we learned when we sat down to sip and chat with the insider & top Czech winemaker Jakub Smrcka of Thaya in our VeroTalk. From its history as a crossroads, we found out how winegrowing has evolved over time in the Czech Republic, capturing its local market of beer drinkers and turning them into wine lovers. Get the full scoop in this article.

Do you love wine but then struggle finding the ‘right words’ to describe it? Or are you on your way to becoming a wine expert and need a de-brief on terminology for wine tasting?

What does complex mean? Or what is a primary aroma? What is a smooth wine?

We are on a mission to teach you how to fish… for wine!

Here is a wine glossary of terms you can use during your next wine tasting or wine pairing to work your way to becoming a wine pro. Then put these descriptive wine words into practice by buying the wines which fit each definition. Then have wine tasting home party with your wine loving friends. Sooner rather than later you will master wine speak!

Get started by learning the wine description words inside.

We may have discussed sweet wine pairing in the past… but never with a recipe for crostata like this before! A classic Italian pie that every Nonna has in her arsenal, the crostata is versatile enough that it can pair with both the sweet white Moscato d’Asti and the sweet red Brachetto d’Acqui. How? Well come inside to find out! Read the full article and get the authentic recipe from an Italian chef inside.

This is not a pot roast recipe from your grandma… but a beef roast recipe with a piedmontese cuisine flair. Explore the bold red Nizza barbera wine and enjoy it with this traditional Monferrato roast recipe. It has a Piemontese touch with a hazelnut gravy and a wine pairing that will wow at your next dinner, and warm you up as the days get colder heading into fall.

When one thinks of ‘Italian Food’… normally pasta is the first thing that comes to mind. Let’s explore some pasta dishes from the piedmontese cuisine of the Asti Monferrato (like mushroom pasta), and get the wine pairing to match (spoiler, a great barbera wine goes a long way).

Keep reading on to get our exclusive recipe for a mushroom sauce with fresh lasagnette from a Vero Chef living in Piedmont, Italy.

Explore the Monferrato on a journey through pots, pans, and plates. The Piedmontese cuisine based food culture of the Monferrato and Asti is as varied as the wines of Nizza Monferrato winery Ivaldi.

Try this traditional chicken salad recipe from a local chef in the Monferrato in Northern Italy, and discover this delicious wine pairing (hint is with a champagne style wine from the area). The combination of this recipe and wine is a great idea for your next lunch, brunch or party you’re planning!

If these trees could talk, they would tell you about the Febo family in Abruzzo farming their land as early as the 1500s.. Olives were the mainstay of their farming family, from the Febo family’s olive tree grove whose trees date back to 500 years ago. For centuries, they lived on a ‘cucina povera’ or poorman’s cuisine of which their treasured olive oil was a fundamental part of it. Find out what we learned about olive oil production on a small, artisanal scale from Davide Febo, winemaker of Febo’s natural wines, and their organic extra virgin olive oil they bottled from their family’s private stash just for us.