Staff Writers
Ian D’Agata
Ian D’Agata is an internationally famous, multi-award winning author who has been speaking and writing about wine for thirty years. His latest books (Native Wine Grapes of Italy, Italy’s Native Wine Grape Terroirs, Italy’s Grapes and Wines: The definitive Compendium Region by Region and the most recent, Barolo Terroir) are considered the bibles of Italian wine and have received numerous prestigious awards such as the Louis Roederer International Wine Awards “Book of the Year” title, the Gourmand World Book Awards “Best European Wine Book” and being named to the “Best Wine Books of the Year” lists of newspapers and magazines such as the NY Times, the Financial Times and Food & Wine. For eight years, Ian has also been the co-author of the Italy section in Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Book of Wine, the world’s best- selling wine guide with 46 editions to date and over 12 Million copies sold all over the world; he has since been also put in charge of the Alsace and Malta sections.
He is the is currently the President of Ian D’Agata Wine Culture, one of China’s wine education platforms, that includes the Ian D’Agata Wine Review and the Ian D’Agata Wine Academy. Ian is a former staff writer at Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar, Contributing Editor of Decanter, and Senior Editor of Vinous. His writings have always focused on the wines of Italy, France, China and Canada, for which he has won numerous international awards and accolades, including the Comitato Grandi Cru d’Italia “Best Youngest Wine Journalist of Italy” and the “Best Wine Journalist of Italy” awards, as well as Canada’s 2018 VQA award (Out of Ontario section) and 2017 Cuvée Award of Excellence.
Intensely devoted to the research and study of native wine grapes, Ian was officially named in 2015 to Italy’s prestigious Accademia della Vite e del Vino (Italy’s official association of wine academicians, researchers, and university professors) and is currently the Vice President of the Association Internationale des Terroirs.
Michael Apstein
Michael Apstein is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a member of the Division of Gastroenterology at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, who has written about wine for over three decades and has received numerous awards for his wine writing, including a James Beard Foundation Journalism Award in 2000 the Les Grands Jours de Bourgogne Press Trophy in 2008.
As a free-lance writer, he has written over 300 wine columns for The Boston Globe newspaper. His writing has also appeared in a variety of U.S., Canadian, and U.K. publications, including Decanter, The San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Magazine, and Wine and Spirits. Furthermore, he has been a regular guest commentator on Whitley on Wine, a radio show based in San Diego and broadcast nationally. Over the course of his career, Michael also judges frequently at numerous international and national wine competitions and is a well-respected wine educator who taught at the Boston Center for Adult Education for 20 years, an activity for which Bon Appetit magazine chose him as one of five instructors nationwide whose “focused classes closely examine a specific wine producing region or wine style.”
Michele Gargani
Michele Gargani, originally from Italy, moved to California in his 20s and built a dynamic career that blended culinary arts and a passion for wine. With years spent as a chef, his interest in winemaking was sparked by working several harvests in Paso Robles. This passion led him to a sommelier position at La Casa Nostra in Bangkok. After two years as a restaurant owner in Friuli, Michele decided to pursue winemaking full-time. He gained hands-on experience with a harvest at Venica & Venica in Friuli, followed by work at the renowned Turley Cellars in Paso Robles. Now, as a contributor to Ian D’Agata Wine Reviews, Michele combines his expertise in both wine and food, shaping his journey as a writer and winemaker.
Michele Longo
A graduate in Information Systems with a Master Degree in Engineering and Management, Michele is a certified Italian sommelier (AIS)
Contributor of Barolo&Co (a magazine on wine, gastronomy, tourism and culture) of the column ‘Territori del Mito’, to describe the history, toponymy, pedology and the characteristics of the wines of the great terroirs of Piedmont.
He is currently the Associate-Director of iandagata.com and is co-curator, with Ian D’Agata, of the Italy section in Hugh Johnson’s “Wine Pocket Book”.
He started writing about wine for the on-line magazine New Wine Journal in 2009, created by Ian D’Agata and Massimo Comparini, for which he edited the column ‘Terra & Tradizione’ (Land & Tradition) which, through interviews with producers, recounted the extraordinary bond that binds places, producers and their traditions.
His most recent book prior to the award-winning “Barolo Terroir: Grapes crus People Places” was the also award-winning “The Grapes and Wines of Italy: The definitive compendium region by region”, both co-written with Ian D’Agata.
Michele is also a former judge at the Decanter World Wine Awards and is one of the past curators of the Wine Educational Board (W.E.B.), co-curator of the “W.E.B. Tasting Notes” section, and the co-curator, together with Massimo Comparini, of the “Best Italian Wines Guide” up to the 2017 edition.
Robert Millman
Robert Millman’s wine career began in the early 1980s, when he began working from Morrell & Company, one of the USA’s top wine retailers. During that time, he co-founded Executive Wine Seminars (EWS) with Howard Kaplan, which over the years became one of NYC’s most highly regarded wine events companies. Robert Parker was a regular guest presenter at the tastings, and through 2011, the results of the tastings were published on the Wine Advocate website. Having reached an age where taking a step back from the wear and tear of life in the wine fast lane made sense, Millman currently enjoys being a taster and wine writer for Grapes the Wine Company, an excellent, leading e-retailer based in Westchester and is a regular contributor to the Ian D’Agata Wine Review.
Yumi Liu
Yumi Liu has been collecting and drinking wine for more than a decade and has earned a slew of wine certificates in the interim: level 3 WSET and now planning diploma studies; Educator level in Spanish wines (Wines of Spain certified), top level New Zeland wines (Wines of New Zeland certified) and obtained the highest score in her class for German wines (Wines of Germany certified). She has passed all of Ian D’Agata’s Italian wine courses and is generally regarded as being one of the most knowledgeable people on Italian wine in all of China. Over the years, she has also served as the Wine Educator at EMW wines, one of China’s five largest and most important fine wine importers and has led masterclasses on wines at prestigious wine shows including the Wine to Asia fair in Shenzhen and Vinitaly in Verona.
Management team of the Ian D’Agata Wine Culture Company
Ian D’Agata
President
Yumi Liu
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
Giulia Corino
Chief Operating Officer
Giulia graduated in Literature, specialising in Government and Human Sciences, and in Cultural Management. She has worked in events organisation, project management and EU policy.
Now based in Brussels, Giulia’s passion for wine and food is deeply rooted in her Italian heritage from Piedmont. Yet her work and passion have taken her travelling, and wine and food have been her gateway to immersing in diverse cultures, as she dedicates herself to discovering local wine and culinary scenes, trying must-visit spots, uncovering local trends and hidden gems.
Giulia has 8 years of experience in the wine industry, organizing wine tasting events, developing projects, curating wine-related translations, and occasionally writing about wine, travel, and hospitality. She has worked closely with Ian D’Agata for all those years in organizing the 3iC wine school and its courses all over the world, from NYC to San Francisco to Toronto to Tokio, London, Copenhagen, Singapore, Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu and many more cities, as well as large international wine shows, meeting with success and critical acclaim such that Ian named her Chief Operating Officer (COO) of his new company, the Ian D’Agata Wine Culture company. Giulia is also a WSET Level 3 graduate and is currently pursuing the WSET Diploma.
Contact us at: contact@iandagatawine.com
