Monica Larner is a wine critic and writer based in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. She is the Italian Reviewer for ''

The Wine Advocate ''The Wine Advocate'', fully known as ''Robert Parker's Wine Advocate'' and informally abbreviated ''TWA'' or ''WA ''or more recently as ''RP'', is a bimonthly wine publication based in the United States featuring the consumer advice of wine cri ...

'' and eRobertParker.com, the bimonthly wine publication and website founded by wine critic, Robert Parker. She was selected in 2013 by Parker to replace the departing Antonio Galloni.Lucy Shaw '
Parker appoints three new critics
'' The Drinks Business, April 25, 2013. In 2003, Larner was selected to be the very first dedicated

Italian wine Italian wine () is produced in every region of Italy. Italy is the country with the widest variety of indigenous grapevine in the world, with an area of under vineyard cultivation, as well as the List of wine-producing regions#Countries, world's ...

editor for ''

Wine Enthusiast Wine Enthusiast Companies is a New York based company that engages in the wine, e-commerce, information, education, events, media, and travel markets.Covel, Simona, ''The Wall Street Journal'' (October 2, 2008)Wine Enthusiast Looks to Win Over ...

''. She is also a two-time winner of the ''Best Young Journalist of the Year'' (2008, 2010), one of the top honors given out yearly at the

VinItaly Vinitaly is an international wine competition and exposition that is held annually in April in Verona city, region of Veneto, in northeast Italy. The event is exclusively for wine professionals featuring an average of 3000 wines from several doze ...

exposition. In 2012, Larner won ''Best International Journalist'' also presented by the Comitato Grandi Cru d'Italia panel at VinItaly.Claudia Ricci '
Monica Larner Named Best International Journalist
'' ''Wine Enthusiast Magazine'', Web 2012. Accessed: December 19th, 2013 As of 2013, Larner is the only wine journalist to have won one of these top prizes in wine journalism three times.Marketwired '

"'' ''The Wall Street Journal'', April 23, 2013. Accessed: December 19, 2013 Through her work at ''The Wine Advocate'', Larner's opinion on Italian wines is often cited by mainstream media publications like ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' and ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

''. She has been described by Robert Parker as "...one of the most comprehensive writers of Italian wines out there."

Early life

A Los Angeles native, Larner's family moved to Rome when she was 11 years old for filming of the 1983

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

television mini-series ''

The Winds of War ''The Winds of War'' is Herman Wouk's second book about World War II (the first being '' The Caine Mutiny''). Published in 1971, ''The Winds of War'' was followed up seven years later by '' War and Remembrance''; originally conceived as one vol ...

'' on which her father, Stevan Larner, worked as the

director of photography The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the recording of a film, television production, music video or other live-action piece. The cinematographer is the chief of the camera ...

. After high school in both Italy and California, Larner earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees in journalism (an MA with a minor in Italian studies) from

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

and

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

respectively.

Career

Larner began her career working for the Italian daily ''

La Repubblica (; English: "the Republic") is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper with an average circulation of 151,309 copies in May 2023. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and l ...

'', followed by four years as a reporter in the Rome bureau of ''

BusinessWeek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'' (and before that ''Business Week'' and ''The Business Week''), is an American monthly business magazine published 12 times a year. The magazine debuted in New York City in Septembe ...

'' (her bylines include an in-depth look at the

Antinori Marchesi Antinori Srl is an Italian wine company, based in Florence, Tuscany, that can trace its history back to 1385. They are one of the biggest wine companies in Italy, and their innovations played a large part in the " Super-Tuscan" revoluti ...

wine dynasty). She spent two years as a staff writer covering news and Italian wine for Italy Daily, a joint venture with the ''

International Herald Tribune The ''International Herald Tribune'' (''IHT'') was a daily English-language newspaper published in Paris, France, for international English-speaking readers. It published under the name ''International Herald Tribune'' starting in 1967, but its ...

'' and ''

Corriere della Sera (; ) is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan with an average circulation of 246,278 copies in May 2023. First published on 5 March 1876, is one of Italy's oldest newspapers and is Italy's most read newspaper. Its masthead has remain ...

'' that has since folded. The next phase of her career was characterized by intense travel for four guidebooks she authored including ''Living, Studying and Working in Italy'' and ''In Love in Italy''. In 1997, Larner's father retired and her parents purchased a 134-acre ranch in Ballard Canyon,

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara (, meaning ) is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States excepting A ...

. Monica helped to establish the

vineyard A vineyard ( , ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines. Many vineyards exist for winemaking; others for the production of raisins, table grapes, and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is kno ...

; selecting clones, setting cordons and pruning vines. Stevan Larner died in a vineyard accident in 2005. Today, Monica's enologist brother Michael manages the family wine venture. In 2003, Larner was approached by ''

'' to be the magazine's first Italy-based correspondent and was formally trained to use the 100-point scoring system by Managing Editor Joe Czerwinski. She was among the first American wine writers to bring attention to Italian indigenous grapes and up-and-coming wine regions such as

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

Mount Etna Mount Etna, or simply Etna ( or ; , or ; ; or ), is an active stratovolcano on the east coast of Sicily, Italy, in the Metropolitan City of Catania, between the cities of Messina, Italy, Messina and Catania. It is located above the Conve ...

. Over the course of the next ten years, her tasting responsibilities grew to 3,000 wines per year (totaling 16,000 published reviews overall) and she was named the magazine's Italian Editor. Before leaving Wine Enthusiast, she published a 185-page special collector's edition dedicated to the wines of Italy. In 2013, she joined The Wine Advocate team as the Italian reviewer. One of Larner's first changes at the publication was the addition of new regions to The Wine Advocate's "Vintage Chart" that lists the world's most cellar-worthy wines. In addition to

Barbaresco Barbaresco is an Italian wine made with the Nebbiolo grape. Barbaresco is produced in the Piemonte (wine), Piedmont region in an area of the Langhe immediately to the east of Alba, Italy, Alba and specifically in the ''comune''s of Barbaresco (CN ...

Barolo Barolo ( , , ; ) is a red (DOCG) wine produced in the northern Italian region of Piedmont. It is made from the nebbiolo grape and is often described as one of Italy's greatest wines. The zone of production extends into the communes of Baro ...

Bolgheri Bolgheri () is a central Italian village and hamlet (''frazione'') of Castagneto Carducci, a municipality (''comune'') in the province of Livorno, Tuscany. in 2011 it had a population of 131. History First mentioned in 1075, in a papal bull by Po ...

Brunello di Montalcino Brunello di Montalcino is a red DOCG Italian wine produced in the vineyards surrounding the town of Montalcino, in the province of Siena, located about 80 km south of Florence, in the Tuscan wine region. Brunello, a diminutive of ''bruno'' ...

and

Chianti Classico Chianti is an Italian red wine produced in the Chianti region of central Tuscany, principally from the Sangiovese grape. It was historically associated with a squat bottle enclosed in a straw basket, called a '' fiasco'' ("flask"; : ''fiaschi'' ...

, Larner added Etna,

Friuli Friuli (; ; or ; ; ) is a historical region of northeast Italy. The region is marked by its separate regional and ethnic identity predominantly tied to the Friulians, who speak the Friulian language. It comprises the major part of the autono ...

Taurasi Taurasi is a town and municipality in the province of Avellino, Campania, southern Italy. In antiquity it was a town in Samnium. The town's name probably derives from the Latin ''Taurus''. Over time it changed from ''Taurasos'' to ''Taurasia ...

, Trentino-Alto Adige and

Valpolicella Valpolicella (, , ) is a viticultural zone of the province of Verona, Italy (wine), Italy, east of Lake Garda. The hilly agricultural and marble-quarrying region of small holdings north of the Adige is famous for wine production. Valpolicella ra ...

to the chart. In August 2013, Larner sparked controversy for refusing to taste the wines of an Italian producer who had used racial slurs against Italy's first African-Italian Minister

Cécile Kyenge Cécile Kashetu Kyenge (; born Kashetu Kyenge, 28 August 1964) is an Italian politician and ophthalmologist. She was the Minister for Integration in the 2013–14 Letta Cabinet. From 2014 until 2019, she was a Member of the European Parliament ( ...

. Larner is an active member of the Ordine dei Giornalisti and of Italy's Foreign Press Association community. She is a certified sommelier with the Italian Sommelier Association.

Awards

*Awarded the "Best International Journalist" Silver Grape Leaf three times by the Comitato Grandi Cru d'Italia, an association of 130 top producers. *

Gambero Rosso ''Gambero Rosso'' is an Italian food and wine magazine and publishing group founded in 1986. Its name literally translates as 'red prawn' and comes from a tavern in ''Pinocchio'' where the Fox and the Cat dine. History and profile ''Gambero R ...

recognized her as a "Leader of Italian Excellence," a rare achievement for a non-Italian.

Works

*''Living, Studying and Working in Italy'' *''Working & Living France, 2nd (Working & Living – Cadogan)'' *''Buying a Property: Italy (Buying a Property - Cadogan)'' *''In Love in Italy: A Traveller's Guide to the Most Romantic Destinations in the Country of Amore'' *''Wine Enthusiast'' magazine's Wines of Italy (Special Collector's Edition).

References

External links