Summary: EPISODE 154. Gianluca Rottura was born and raised in Manhattan, New York City, when it was really New York. His parents are both Italian immigrants; his father was literally "off the boat" from Calabria and mother is from Salerno. Almost every summer was spent in Italy, traveling all over, as well as spending time with family. He devoured all the possible documents he could get his hands on detailing Italian History, both past and current. More importantly, he was very blessed and lucky to live these experiences culturally and socially. Everyone in his family made the foods and drinks they consumed and, though everyone made their own olive oil and wine, his paternal Grandfather did those very two things as a profession full-time. His family was in the restaurant business and then opened up a one of a kind wine store in 1997. In Vino Veritas is truly a New York City Landmark and the first liquor store to open in Manhattan after Prohibition ended. The Rottura family took it over in April 1997 and dedicated a full year to completely renovating the store. Unearthed during the renovation process were huge pieces of stained glass dating back to the 1800's. The prized glass was restored to its former glory and they inserted the new store name into it. Everything was hand-designed by the father. They were and probably still are the very first and few to have a climate-controlled wine cellar where every bottle of wine sold to the customer is kept at a perfect temperature. In Vino Veritas carries wines from all over the world but specialize in Italian wines. You can visit the historic wine shop online at www.invinoveritas.nyc Gianluca also has spent decades teaching wine classes and seminars and writing for a newspaper. He also wrote a wine book, Wine Made Easy. It was written in 2002, came out in 2004, and re-published it with a new company and updated it in 2019. The book breaks down the supposed "scary" and "difficult" subject of wine. Wine Made Easy offers the reader simple hand drawn maps of each wine country discussed in the book. No stupid graphs or boring charts. No difficult language, just simple English. It is very approachable and comforts the "intimidated" wine consumer by its easy, school work-book look. Gianluca Rottura is working on his next book, which will focus on food. He also wrote pizzaandcoffee.com and also has a blog piazzalife.com . To purchase the wine book, Wine Made Easy, please, visit https://www.amazon.com/Wine-Made-Easy-Gianluca-Rottura/dp/0578591618/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=wine+made+easy+rottura&qid=1615317594&sr=8-1 To shop our merchandise, visit https://www.paninishoppe.com/growingupitalian Follow us on Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/growingupitalian Be sure to check out our Instagram https://www.instagram.com/growingupitalian As always, if you enjoyed this video, be sure to drop a Like, Comment and please SUBSCRIBE. Grazie a tutti!
