Sure, it’ll make you crave a Barbera d’Alba or a Prosecco from the Veneto, but following Italian wine experts can be rewarding even when there’s no bottle within reach. For one thing, Instagram offers free lessons in Italian wine education while providing plenty of tips on producers to try, cult bottles to seek out and inventive food pairings.
Here, we take a look at six Italian wine Instagrams to follow (or at least feeds that prominently feature Italian wine). While we’re at it, allow us to recommend following @lacucinaitalianousa as well, where you’ll find many, many photos of delicious-looking Italian food, and hopefully some good wine photos as well!
Joe Campanale
Campanale’s Instagram account is one to watch right now as the restaurateur behind Brooklyn hot spots Fausto and LaLou, and a former Babbo sommelier, is ramping up to the fall release of his long-awaited Italian wine book. When he’s not recommending Sangiovese to diners and drinkers at his beloved restaurant and wine bar, Campanale can often be found touring (and posting from) organic Italian wineries or teasing tales from his upcoming tome.
Recent post of note: Campanale told his followers that Lazio is one of the most exciting wine regions in Italy right now, posting a photo of Podere Orto Trivium, which he describes as “a blend of indigenous grapes, grown at a high altitude (moderate alcohol) and made naturally without being natty.”
Laura Maneic Fiorvanti
Maniec Fiorvanti is a Master Sommelier who co-founded Corkbuzz, which now has two locations in New York City and one in Charlotte, North Carolina. The wine bar/restaurants double as wine education centers, offering classes and special events. While her feed features wines from around the world, as you’d expect from a prolific wine educator, she calls out Italian gems frequently—and you can check her Corkbuzz accounts, starting with @corkbuzzwine, for even more inspiration.
Recent Post of Note: On a chilly night, Maniec Fiorvanti posted a bottle of a 2015 Tornatore Trimarchesa Etna Rosso in front of a fireplace from Shelter Island on Long Island’s North Fork, a decidedly cozy-looking tableau with an iconic Sicilian wine.
Anthony Giglio
This Italian-American wine writer and educator posts food, wine and travel photos that often highlight Italian producers, both from his home turf in Jersey City, New Jersey and from his frequent visits to Sicily and Venice. Giglio’s unpretentious style as a writer and speaker has made him a go-to resource for wine advice, and he’s often seen extolling the virtues of Italian wine on TV and writing about it for magazines like Food & Wine.
Recent post of note: Giglio returned home from one trip to Italy only to return to Jersey to eat more pasta and drink a classic bottle, captioning his post: “It’s good to be home... but I’m still eating pasta and drinking Italian wine. Made @marco.cooks’ fave pasta: Penne Carbonara (spaghetti purists: no judgement!), and then poured myself the first of several glasses of Gaja Cà Marcanda Camarcanda 2015.”
Bobby Stuckey
A master sommelier who owns Frasca Food and WIne, the award-winning Italian-American restaurant in Boulder, Colorado, Stuckey
Recent post of note: Stuckey’s feed can feature snapshots of life in Colorado (skiing in Aspen) and vignettes from winemaker dinners at Frasca (like a recent tartufi dinner with Vietti Winery from Piedmont). But his feed’s trademark is his #sundaynightvinyl posts featuring record albums paired with great wines, like a recent menu of hip-hop/soul artist Madlib with a Cappellano Nebiolo.
F. Saverio Russo
The lone Italy-based ‘grammer on this list, Russo also writes a wine blog in Italian. On his Instagram, he posts favored bottles as well as shots from his travels to Italian vineyards, photos of important wine personalities and bottles that are worth seeking out. Of course, to read his captions, you’ll need to use Google Translate unless you can read Italian, but you’ll be rewarded with insider knowledge and will get plenty of great wine and travel tips along the way.
Recent post of note: Russo’s posts often have a sense of humor, as with a photo of a young sommelier from Ristorante Villa Maiella in Abruzzo, posed enjoying a glass of Prosecco with two pigs in a picturesque setting from the Maiella National Park.
Jeff Porter
Jeff Porter is an American sommelier known for his expertise in Italian wine, who late in 2019 partnered with the American wine website Vinepair to start producing videos, calling the series “Sip Trip.” His @siptripitaly Instagram account features excerpts from the series as well as photos from his journeys. So far, he’s focused on Chianti, Sicilian wines, and Prosecco, and his account has posted teasers for an upcoming Sardinia episode. You’ll also find shorts that aim to educate about Italian wine.
Recent post of note: One of the recent shorts from Umbria features Colpetrone's Raffaele Pistucchia discussing the indigenous grape Sagrantino, which produces bold reds from the region.