So it's not often when an energetic and passionate wine expert such as Filippo Bartolotta (editor of L’Espresso Guide to Italian wine) comes to Manhattan to meet with a tiny handful of the city's most notable journalists to lead a tutored tasting through Italy, including a food and wine pairing of many dishes (black truffles, anyone?). MORE >>

They combine the fruit forward spicy charm of a good cru Beaujolais with the complex woodsy perfume of red Burgundy, and the tannic structure of Nebbiolo. Okay, maybe not quite Nebbiolo, but the wines are tannic. 2006 Domaine Tissot Arbois Poulsard Vieille Vignes , $18, Imported by Frederick Wildman & Sons. MORE >>

Many Nebbiolo fans were made from a sip of this wine. Luzon, monastrell, Jumilla, 2008 (about $8): This wine was funny since it was the cheapest wine we tasted for the day, yet the most popular as people reached for their pens to scribble this one down. Another six-week session of my NYU class just wrapped up last week. MORE >>

Even if like me, you are an ignoramus when it comes to Italian wine, if some one asked you to name the places where the finest wines made of Nebbiolo come from, you would say Barolo and Barbaresco. Antonio Vallana is one of the producers who made fine Nebbiolo wines in the '50s and '60s. Utterly ridiculous with old Nebbiolo. MORE >>

We like to end the class in style: a giant edition of show and tell and taste. Each participant brings in a wine to present to the class, which means we get to taste about 25 wines that evening. It is a delicious young nebbiolo from a co-op in Piedmont that I will absolutely look for again. It is an assignment! Good times! MORE >>