Uncorked: My Journey Through the Crazy World of Wine

After years as a professional designer, Pasanella applied his skill in crafting life spaces and focusing on critical details to a new venture when he opened Pasanella and Son Vintners in New York City’s South Street Seaport in 2005. Pasanella tells of the challenges he faced in transforming his unorthodox whim into a solid business. Overflowing with stories of local downtown Manhattan history and politics intermingled with charming recollections of the author’s time in Italy, his narrative is far more than a retrospective on building a wine shop business, which should appeal to anyone interested in the history and personality of New York, regardless of their opinion on wine or retail. Of course, Pasanella doesn’t leave out the wine, explaining how some learn to identify winemaker and year from a blind tasting and how he commissioned and designed his own custom wines from organically farmed grapes. Pasanella captures his characters beautifully, though his frustration with one former employee comes through so clearly as to be uncomfortable for the reader. In the end, Pasanella conveys the real work behind making pipe dreams come true. Agent: David Kuhn. (May)