The last time I wrote about Calabria was 2016, four years after spending some time with winemakers that left me wondering what the future held. What I took from my visit could have been lifted from the pages of Mark Rotella’s “Stolen Figs and Other Adventures in Calabria,” a narrative of a journey he took with his father, who hadn’t been back to the family’s hometown Gimigliano in 30 years.
Rotella describes a culture and people whose lives remained almost untouched by the progress seen in other parts of Italy. Their “que sera, sera” view of their world summed up Calabria’s wine fortunes. My impression was of an insular, low-key system bogged down by the weight of tradition and an unwillingness to look ahead.
