The video goddesses at WinePeeks.TV, the web’s “exclusive wine video channel”, introduced us earlier this week to two gentlemen creating quite a buzz in Napa Valley’s Oak Knoll District and considerably beyond.

Coming soon, we’ll share a video peek at a conversation with Blackbird Vineyards proprietor Michael Polenske (far left) during his recent visit to the Chicago area. (We’re also about to launch Hinsdale Cellars’ new video wine tasting series. Stay tuned.). Off camera, we chatted with Blackbird’s new chief operating officer/chief marketing officer Paul Leary (second from left), former VP of marketing at Duckhorn.

Bruce Schoenfeld in Padova, Italy

What: Le Calandre, one of only five Michelin three-star restaurants in Italy.

Where: Via Liguria 1, Sarmeola di Rubano, Padova, Italy;
011-39-049-630303; www.alajmo.it.

Why Go: Few Italian chefs are turning heads like Massimiliano Alajmo, who brings a restless creativity to a stratified and rigid cuisine. And he offers nearly 200 of the 700 wines on his list by the glass.

The Ambience: Off a hotel lobby on a busy street, it’s comfortably sleek, and almost under-decorated for a restaurant of its caliber.

The Cost: $300 for two, including bottled water but not wine: a typical three-star tariff.

Steve Woodward in Barboursville, Va.

Something was in the air. Or about to be. I walked into the reception area of Barboursville Vineyards’ offices last week only to overhear the woman at the desk patching a call into the winemaker about “the helicopters.”

For a brief moment I envisioned some grandiose wedding, complete with choppers whisking away a love struck couple and their closest friends to a reception on manicured grounds in nearby Charlottesville. Or, perhaps, this being a vineyard owned and operated by an established Italian family, a VIP was shuttling in, fresh off a flight into Washington’s Dulles International Airport for a routine inspection of the 150+ planted acres.