Hootanny begins with the life affirming love of wine, evolves to include spontaneous romance and grows even to incorporate the enduring love of lifelong friendship.  To begin, New York native Summer Wolff was a seasoned sommelier and wine broker on a journey through central Italy that would take her up to Piedmont.  There she met Barbera virtuoso Fabrizio Iuli and everything changed.  “We often joke that we’re not sure if I was more smitten with the wine or with Fabrizio himself,” Summer says, “regardless I had to have both.”  Through Fabrizio she was connected to a network of Fabrizio’s winegrower buddies, traditional artisans producing high integrity, natural wines from responsibly farmed grapes.  After stepping away from her first import company, she took her small cadre of excellent growers with her to into a new, two-woman import company.  She runs the business with her longtime friend and managerial badass, Carolyn Agee.  Summer’s job is to be the archnerd and liaise with the producers and, as Summer puts it, “once the wines hit US shores she takes the baton and makes sure they are checked in and moved out to all of our incredible distributors.”  The duo have a small but terrific portfolio totally rock-solid, classically styled wines.