Some wineries take themselves too seriously. Poderi Cellario forgot to — and somehow makes some of the most honest wine in Piemonte because of it.

Playful labels. Litre bottles. Crown caps, not corks. If you judged this estate by its look, you'd walk right past it. That would be a mistake.

In this episode of Read Between the Wines, we head to the western edge of the Langhe, Italy, to meet Simone Cellario of Poderi Cellario — third generation, biodynamic-leaning, and allergic to pretension. We talk Dolcetto, and why calling it "simple" is the laziest insult in wine. We dig into Grignolino and Nascetta — two grapes most people couldn't pronounce, let alone place — and what it actually takes to bring the forgotten back without turning it into a museum piece.

And then we get into the part nobody wants to talk about: money. Because making honest wine is the easy part. Making it pay the bills, season after season, without selling out the soul of it — that's the real work. This is a conversation about tradition versus change, identity versus survival, and wine that isn't trying to be perfect. Just real.

The conversation doesn't stop there. A bonus episode — deeper into sustainability, farming philosophy, and the decisions nobody sees before the wine reaches your glass — is waiting exclusively at readbetweenthewines.com.

Featuring: Poderi Cellario, Langhe, Piemonte, Italy, Dolcetto, Grignolino, Nascetta, Biodynamic farming.