About Me
“FOLLOW YOUR BLISS,” THEY SAY. For Patricia Thomson, that led to a second career in wine.
As a wine writer, Pat has roamed the resurrected vineyards of Pompeii, bottled Barbera in a medieval cellar, and tasted wine from barrels at the side of world-renowned winemakers.
She writes the wine column in Tastes of Italia, a bimonthly cooking magazine. And she has written about wine for Gastronomica, WineEnthusiast.com, Pasta, Cellar Fine Wines, Budget Living, and other publiations.
In addition, Pat is president and cofounder of La Dolce Vita Wine Tours, a boutique tour operator specializing in educational wine tours.
Pat’s interest in wine began during her student years, when she studied Italian Renaissance art history in Florence. Here she was seduced by Sangiovese, enjoyed at magic hour while gazing at terracotta rooftops and evening swallows from her loggia on Piazza Santo Spirito. Over time, her passion grew into a vocation. Trips to wine country were followed by studies with the Wine & Spirits Education Trust and membership in the Society of Wine Educators and Wine Media Guild.
On one fateful trip to Italy, she met her husband, Claudio Bisio, while bikin g the hills of Piedmont. In 1999, the duo founded La Dolce Vita Wine Tours, a boutique tour operator specializing in wine tours in Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Since then, Pat’s work as a wine guide and educator has dovetailed with her writing, enabling her to see the vineyards firsthand, build relationships with winemakers, and dig deep into wine culture. She currently divides her time between New York City and Italy.
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About La Dolce Vita
LA DOLCE VITA WINE TOURS offers wine tours in Italy, Spain and Portugal. The company was founded in 1999 by me and my Italian husband, Claudio Bisio. We have 19 itineraries in three categories: gourmet wine tours, wine + walking tours, and wine-intensive tours. We keep our groups small and target folks who aren’t “tour people” but want a learning vacation, engaging dialog with winemakers, gorgeous settings, and stellar food. Is that you? Come join us for a taste of la dolce vita.
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I stumbled across your article while doing some research on wine bars. I am throwing around the idea of opening one, and beyond the wine, I want the atmosphere to be perfect. I live in Charleston, SC and really appreciate reading your thoughts.
Shellie
Good luck on your venture, Shellie!
I personally don’t have experience starting a bricks-and-mortar business, which is a long way away from being a writer or a wine-tour operator. But I know what I’d do first: Visit as many wine bars as possible to see what I like/don’t like.
Take a road trip. Atlanta has a huge number of wine drinkers (witness the High Museum’s successful wine auction), so I bet they have their share of wine bars. Or come to NYC for a long weekend, where you’ll find wine bars of every stripe. Hang out anonymously to get the vibe. Schedule appointments with the owners to brainstorm and learn from their mistakes and successes. Since you wouldn’t be direct competition, I expect they’d be open to it. In short, do the research — which is this case, would be fun work.
Best of luck, and keep me posted!
Pat
Hi Pat
Love your website specially your beautiful map of Chianti wine area.
Could you possibly tell me where you found this - or did you draw it?
I ask because I found your site while looking for maps of Chianti to use on my daughter’s wedding invitation - she is getting married in August at Castello Gabbiano and I would love to use something like this - thank you and kind regards Vicky
Hi, Vicky. I believe I got that map from the Consorzio Vino Chianti. They have a different one on-line now [http://www.consorziovinochianti.it/en/territorio], but browse thru their site, and you might find more. Make sure whatever you use is print-quality resolution!
Hi Pat
I stumbled on a couple of very interesting old pieces you’d written on Brunello - and the soap opera of Brunellopoli. What’s the latest? To explain I am a wine writer and am preparing to interview the boss of the Consorzio. Any leads .. insights would be a big help, thanks Tom
Hi, Tom,
Just yesterday I posed your question to a far greater Italian wine authority than me: Tom Maresca [https://ubriaco.wordpress.com/]. He suggested you take a look at Karin O’Keefe’s book on Brunello [http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520265646], which covered Brunellopoli as well as the consorzio’s subsequent discussion (and rejection) of allowing other varietals into Brunello. It covers the question of subzones on Montalcino, which seems to be the hot topic these days.
I’d also check out the Do Bianchi blog; writer Jeremy Parzen stays on top of the wine news from Italy, and will have lots of on-going entries on the foibles in Brunello land: http://dobianchi.com/
Tom Maresca also cautioned that you probably won’t get a forthcoming answer to anything. The winemakers of Montalcino are still medieval, in some ways — a very small, isolated, self-contained group, who might feud amongst themselves, but are even more distrustful of “outsiders,” including (or especially) journalists whom they haven’t known for years and years. So take everything they say with a grain of salt.
Hope that helps — and doesn’t come too late for your interview. Buona fortuna!
Pat