The founder

Carmelo

Founder, Innerwine

Sicilian by birth, Carmelo moved to Rome to start his career in financial services, then to London in 2013, where he grew into a seasoned director in strategy and business development. Always sociable, he found himself, more nights than not, at the centre of good company and a bottle of wine.

But he never really understood wine. He judged every bottle the way most people do without meaning to: by the moment, by the company, by how the evening felt. Never by the wine itself.

Curiosity about AI eventually pulled him into a side project: building an app. Researching what that app could actually be, he kept circling back to the one resource he'd always had and never used: his sister Francesca, a certified sommelier. Leveraging her knowledge to make wine genuinely accessible to drinkers like himself, people who choose a bottle by feeling rather than by expertise, is how Innerwine came to life.

Articles by Carmelo

Wine trends13 Nov 2026

Wine Trends This Week

This week in European wine: Champagne allows a one-off alcohol exception, Rioja battles a UK sales slide with 125 venues, and Greece's own numbers complicate the decline narrative.

Wine trends12 Nov 2026

Wine Trends This Week

This week in European wine: the EU forces wineries to prove their green claims, France's harvest forecast swings upward, and Chianti Classico locks down Gran Selezione.

Producer spotlight11 Nov 2026

Quinta do Crasto

Quinta do Crasto just picked its earliest Douro harvest since 1923 — a look at the century-old vines and family behind it.

Wine trends6 Nov 2026

Wine Trends This Week

This week in European wine: UK duty rises again, EU lawmakers spar over cancer warnings on wine, and Loire growers fight a vine-disease policy shift.

Wine trends30 Oct 2026

Wine Trends This Week

This week in wine: Wine Spectator founder Marvin Shanken dies at 83, Chile debuts as 50 Best Vineyards host, and New Zealand's harvest shrinks by design.

Producer spotlight20 Oct 2026

Bollinger's New Chef de Cave

Bollinger just handed its cellar to a new chef de cave and called itself 'deeply optimistic' about Champagne — right as the region tests its limits.

Wine trends16 Oct 2026

Wine Trends This Week

This week in European wine: Louis Roederer marks 250 years with a new Cristal, Lalou Bize-Leroy enters Decanter's Hall of Fame, and thieves hit Antinori.

Producer spotlight13 Oct 2026

Nyetimber's Earliest-Ever Harvest

Nyetimber just started its earliest harvest on record, after a brutal spring and a record-hot summer — and it keeps beating Champagne at awards.

Wine trends9 Oct 2026

Wine Trends This Week

This week in wine: Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc becomes China's casual pour of choice, 90 years of Haut-Brion sell from the estate's own cellar, and English Pinot Noir outgrows its sparkling label.

Producer spotlight6 Oct 2026

Planeta

Majestic just built an exclusive range around Planeta, the family that spent 30 years convincing the world Sicily could make serious wine.

Wine trends2 Oct 2026

Wine Trends This Week

This week in European wine: Tuscany delays its icon releases to autumn, Istria's young winemakers reshape Croatian wine, and natural wine outshines organic.

Producer spotlight29 Sept 2026

Spier Wine Farm

At South Africa's Spier, cellar master Johan Jordaan is betting that patience — not control — is the real answer to a changing climate.

Wine trends25 Sept 2026

Wine Trends This Week

This week in wine: a chatbot may have won a writing prize, California's wine industry splits between conviction and collapse, and single-vineyard hype faces scrutiny.

Producer spotlight22 Sept 2026

Louis Roederer in Burgundy

Louis Roederer just bought its way into Gevrey-Chambertin's grand crus. Inside the 250-year-old Champagne house's first move beyond its own region.

Wine trends18 Sept 2026

Wine Trends This Week

This week in wine: Champagne's alcohol cap rises to 15% after record heat, Michelin issues its first Bordeaux wine ranking, and Balkan native grapes shine at DWWA.

Wine trends11 Sept 2026

Wine Trends This Week

This week in wine: Spain's biggest-ever global wine campaign, an Italian cooperative's 75-year quality push, and Bordeaux's cheapest prices in a decade.

Wine trends4 Sept 2026

Wine Trends This Week

This week's top wine trends — orange wine's global breakout at DWWA 2026, record-early harvests in Bordeaux and Burgundy, and Sancerre's Google Trends spike — read through mood-based wine pairing.

Wine trends2 Sept 2026

Caparzo Toscana IGT Sangiovese

This year's Tuscan harvest arrived almost two weeks early. Here's why Caparzo's everyday Sangiovese — bright, generous, unpretentious — is the bottle for the nights you actually want to slow down for.

Wine trends31 Aug 2026

Etna Bianco Superiore

Right now in Milo, a two-week festival is celebrating Etna Bianco Superiore — Sicily's rarest volcanic white. Here's why its verticality, freshness, and identity make it the wine for an evening worth remembering.

Meet Francesca, our certified sommelierRead the Journal