Jeff Porter’s jovial face now beams at roomfuls of amateurs and professionals who’ve flocked to hear his pronouncements on Italian wine. How times have changed since he was a filthy, reeking dishwasher no one wanted to go near.

A man with a seriously healthy sense of humour, a love of hospitality and a bent for the theatrical, Jeff has played just about every role going right across the wine scene.

Most of these experiences are given rich context by Jeff, from his discovery of wine as a dishwasher for a sympathetic chef, through retail at Central Market in Austin, Texas, and various restaurant jobs in California.

The pinnacle of his sommelier career came as wine director at the iconic Manhattan restaurant Del Posto, which closed in 2021. Having fallen for Italian wines during his time in Napa, Jeff was headhunted to head up Del Posto, which became renowned, among other things, for an epic Italian list and a treasure trove of Jeff’s second love, Champagne.

Among his media roles, Jeff and I talked about his show Sip Trip, which you can find on YouTube. (I recommend that you do.) For the past few years, he’s served as writer-at-large for Wine Enthusiast, where he reviews the wines of Northern and Central Italy.

Some of the more affordable wines Jeff mentions as gateways are the dry whites from the grapes Verdicchio and Fiano (closely associated with the Marche and Campania respectively), and the red wine Valpolicella DOC, a blend from the Veneto traditionally based on the Corvina grape with others like Corvinone, Rondinella, and Molinara potentially in the mix.

There is no room here to go into the minutiae of Barolo and Barbaresco, two of Jeff’s favourite wines. But these are both made from the Nebbiolo grape grown in delineated areas (DOCGs) of Piemonte, northeast Italy. The podcast features the term MGA, which stands for Menzioni Geografiche Aggiuntive. These are what the French would call “crus” or lieux-dits—specially recognised, distinctive sites.

I met Jeff when he visited Australia in late 2023. We judged together the Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show in Mildura, Victoria. The show traces its roots to the turn of the century, when a few visionaries decided it was time to celebrate grapes that go beyond the usual suspects of Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Merlot, Syrah, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Riesling, et al.

Mediterranean vine varieties, especially from Italy, feature heavily at AAVWS, and Jeff gives an interesting perspective on this experience in our conversation.

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