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Some wines touch you like a caress. Others split your head open--much in the way that Emily Dickinson claimed it felt like when she read great poetry. Because I'm talking about drinking wine, and not about actually getting hit, both kinds of wine feel good--both the wine that reaches out and touches you with gentle fingers and the wine that slams you with an explosive fist. Different meals, different company, different states of emotion, and different moments all call for different wines. One of the things that I love most about wine is how it can focus your attention and your senses, making those meals, that company, and those moments extraordinary.

This week, I'm happy to offer you three producers from Italy's South--Palari from Sicilia, and Mastroberardino and Galardi from my childhood home of Campania. If you think about wine as being on a spectrum that runs from gentle caress to explosive punch, these three producers run that gamut. Even though all three share the commonalities of cult status, a reliance on indigenous grapes, and vineyards planted in volcanic soils, all three coax very different personalities from their wines.

Palari makes these wines that have this savory, salty, umami quality; a sip of Faro fills your mouth like a bite of Sicilian caponata. But it also touches you with tenderness. It feels like a blind person reading your face. Taurasi Radici from Mastroberardino, the producer famous for saving Aglianico from destruction, is reserved and elegant even as it builds unexpected power in your mouth. And Galardi's Terra di Lavoro hits you like a fist wrapped in velvet. It's a powerful wine with depth and density that'll knock you out.

All of these wines--along with Faro's little brother, Palari Rosso del Soprano--give you different wine experiences; they all strike different, complementary chords; and they've all been big hits at IWM tastings. While a little time in the cellar will only work to mellow these wines, all of them are drinking beautifully right now. Open a bottle, and you can feel that punch, that caress, and that sting for yourself. It feels good, and it tastes even better.

My Best,