ABOUT
kerinokeefe.com
If you love Italian wine, you’ve come to the right site.
A subscription-based publication, kerinokeefe.com provides independent reviews of Italian wines as well as hard-hitting articles on the growing areas, wines and producers by Kerin O’Keefe, one of the world’s foremost authorities on Italian wine.
Dedicated exclusively to the wonderful world of Italian wine, kerinokeefe.com brings to life the people, the places and the stories behind the labels from up and down the boot. Even though top denominations like Barolo, Barbaresco, Brunello and Etna are a major focus, kerinokeefe.com also provides a steady stream of content on lesser known and emerging areas and wines to keep you informed, entertained and up-to-date on what the site founder feels are the greatest wines in the world.

ABOUT
Kerin O’Keefe
Kerin was born and raised north of Boston. Wine wasn’t a part of her upbringing, and as a teenager, she thought beer was the true nectar of her generation. Always an avid traveler, she spent her junior year of college studying English literature at the University of East Anglia in the UK and traveling around Europe. It was during this period that she tried her first wine, a red Claret from Bordeaux that she shared with Robert Plant at an after-hours party the night the rock icon performed at the university.
The only thing that wasn’t exciting and amazing about that night was the wine, and she never imagined that wine would not only become a part of her lifestyle and a constant dinner companion, but that she would one day be one of the industry’s top writers and critics.
That all changed a few years later when Kerin met her future husband, Paolo, an Italian from Varese. Paolo, like most Italians, grew up drinking wine at the table, and had a good knowledge of the top denominations from the country’s premier regions. Kerin soon fell in love not only with Paolo but with the wines from Piedmont and Tuscany. Her Aha! moment came while she and Paolo sipped a bottle of Inferno at a restaurant in Valtellina on a cold winter evening, and she knew instantly that not only would they need to order a second bottle (which they did) but that she needed to know the whole story behind the bottle, starting with its intriguing name.
After moving to Italy a few years later, she became a certified sommelier to further her knowledge of Italian wine. She started working in the industry, including one year with US importer Winebow. But what she really wanted to do was write about the many great wines that were being ignored and often criticized by both the international and Italian press back in the early 2000s, and to discover emerging wine regions, wines and wine makers.
From the beginning, O’Keefe focused on Italian wines made with native grapes and on discovering new producers, back when all the other critics, both established names and newer voices, focused on the same handful of famous wineries from the top denominations and on wines made with international grapes.
Kerin started writing about Italian wine in 2002 for the US magazine The Wine News, where she was a contributing editor until 2009. She was a core contributor to Decanter from 2002 until 2013, and during this time she also wrote regularly for World of Fine Wine and winesearcher.com. From 2013 until June 2022, she was the Italian Editor for Wine Enthusiast.
Kerin is the author of Franco Biondi Santi, the Gentleman of Brunello, (Veronelli Editore 2004 and the English version in 2005), Brunello di Montalcino – One of Italy’s Greatest Wines (University of California Press, 2012) and Barolo and Barbaresco, the King and Queen of Italian Wine (University of California Press, 2014).