The secret ingredient in today's quality Italian wines is a man named Luigi Veronelli. Born on this day in 1926, in Milan, capital city of Italy's Lombardy region, Veronelli was to become one of the world's greatest wine thinkers. Drinker, intellectual, TV personality, he was also publisher, magazine editor (that the three titles he launched in 1956 were I problemi del socialismo, Il pensiero, Il gastronomo gave fair warning of things to come), writer, cook, food activist. In 1977, he got Coca Cola thrown out of Italy. "Una sola volta ho bevuto Coca Cola. Mi ha fatto schifo e perciò, l’ho esclusa," he said.

"I drank Coca Cola one time only. It made me sick and therefore, I avoid it." Veronelli came of age as the Second World War ended. The latter half of the 20th century was one of profound change for Italy, as it moved from an agricultural and segmented nation to an idea of national culture fueled by new industry and technology, wealth, urban population growth. "Italians were not too disturbed by all these changes," wrote Alberto Capatti in Camminare la terra, a collection of essays that accompanied a recent exhibit on Veronelli's life.*