Building Out Your Cellar with Aged Etna Bianco
Sicily's Most Rewarding Age-Worthy Wine Isn't Red. It's White. And Now Is the Time to Buy It.
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Opening a Bottle is an independent publication funded entirely by subscribers. A subscription to Opening a Bottle includes numerous perks depending on the type of subscription your choose:
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Ideal for: Students, connoisseurs, collectors and individual wine pros.
Benefits:
Access the entire site including all Tasting Reports, Essential Winemakers and Wine Reviews;
Join any live class and view video of any class we've conducted;
Invite friends from anywhere in the world to our live Zoom wine classes by contacting our Editor-in-Chief directly;
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Ideal for: Organizations in the wine industry such as consortiums, importers, PR firms and others.
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Enjoy the same benefits of access, but for up to 5 different staff log-ins;
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Rotating logo on the home page thanking your organization;
The ability to unlock 1 paywall article per year for public reading;*
Rights to republish content.
How It Works
Our paywall is very straightforward. All articles filed under Get to Know Wine in the main navigation are free. Viewing more than one free article a month will prompt you to create a free account to view more. By creating a free account, you'll also join our mailing list for content updates.
These articles and stories are focused on wine education and stories primarily from Italy and France, with occasional profiles on Spain, Austria and around Europe.
Articles and profiles filed under Wine Reviews in the navigation are behind the paywall. This is where we offer buyer intelligence and inform you on which wineries are most worth the pursuit.
Access to live online wine classes (and all recorded videos of these classes) is restricted to paying subscribers as well.
What Our Subscribers Are Saying ...
"The content on your site is the best out there. Perfect balance between subjective reviews and opinions along with the educational content. This is such a gift you have."
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Support from the Wine Industry
From consortiums to restaurant groups, importers to wine education providers, the wine industry sees value in the content we're doing ... and the audience we've cultivated. The following are just four of the many organizations who have established a group subscription and have their own page.
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The Essential Winemakers of Italy & France
Looking to build a cellar or liven up your roster of wines at home? Start here. These highly curated lists of the most compelling and consistent producers in Italy and France are regularly updated, and thoroughly comprehensive. Get detailed info on winemaking practices, maps, tasting notes, photo galleries and why these producers matter so much to us.
Tasting Reports
These periodic producer-, vintage- and/or regional-focused reports focus on the relevance of each wine within their respective context. No boring charts and word-salad descriptors. Just answers to which wines you should seek out, and why you should care.
Focus: France, Spain, Austria and especially Italy — each year we issue subscriber-only tasting reports for appellations in Tuscany, Piedmont and Sicily.
Wines to Admire
A collection of short-and-sweet wine reviews focused on only the most exceptional wines we come across. Tasting notes avoid cliche and meaningless "wine speak," instead focusing on both what a beginner and a wine obsessive might like about each wine.
Focus: Italy, France, Spain, Austria and occasional wines from America
Live & Recorded Wine Classes
Quarterly, we host live online wine classes, topical seminars and discussions. Each class is recorded and made available only to subscribers in our Online Wine Class Archive.
Join Editor-in-Chief Kevin Day as he tours the vineyards and regions of Europe with an approachable demeanor and a highly visual, polished presentation. Guests are responsible for buying their own wines, but Kevin provides a Study Guide that serves as an indispensable shopping resource for that topic.
Focus: Italy, France and global wine matters
What Winemakers Say About Us
Few things are more rewarding for us as writers than to get genuine praise and acknowledgement from winemakers themselves. They see a lot of fluff copy, and have to deal with meaningless and reductive critical evaluations constantly. That's why within winemaking circles, Opening a Bottle has developed a following all its own.
"I honestly believe that your understanding of Etna and its wines is very, very good. Your article on Etna Rosso is a must read." –Antonio, Sicily
"I love how your reviews are focused not so much on giving arid point-based marks but actually talking about the wine, which is in my opinion something fundamental." –Mattia, Northern Italy
"I can feel how you take care of your articles and that’s also why you have so much success ... It’s the same to make a top wine, you need patience!" –Sophie, Northern France
"That is the best thing I've ever read about us." –Alessandro, Central Italy
*Paywall articles are only eligible for unlocking 14 days after their publication date.