MEET THE SOMM | Luigi Casanova

20 May 2026

Senior Sommelier at our London Club, 36-year-old Luigi arrived into wine after a decade or more spent touring the world as a session musician

I was born in Rimini in 1989, the youngest of four. Rimini is a very popular tourist resort, and was super trendy in the 1960s and ‘70s, but I grew up in the countryside, in a little village up in the Rimini hills. My mother was a nurse, my father worked in local government, and we lived on a very small farm where I spent all my time outdoors with chickens, dogs and horses, climbing cherry trees, picking figs and strawberries, and making tomato passata and plum marmalade with my mum. The window of my room looked out onto our little family vineyard with the sea in the background. I have beautiful memories of those times…

My parents bought the place in the ‘70s as a passion project, but it wasn’t until I was born that the family moved there to live. It breaks my heart now, but they actually cleared two hectares of old Sangiovese and Trebbiano vines to make space for the house. They kept just over a hectare, though, along with space to plant some olive trees and other crops and vegetables. The most magical time of the year was September, when I would help make the family wine. My father would make some for us and some for the neighbours, which he would sell for €1 per litre. He never bottled it – he would store it in demijohns and people would come and fill their own bottles. He didn’t actually know much about wine – this was the only wine he and my mum ever drank, but it was always on the table.  

When I was about 11, I started getting into music, playing bass guitar, and after high school I went to Bologna to study modern music with my childhood friend [and former 67 sommelier] Nelson Pari. When we graduated, we both got a scholarship to the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford. I didn’t know anything about Guildford, and hadn’t planned to go to the UK, but our director in Bologna told us we were the best in our class and that it was a great opportunity. My English at the time was awful – I remember on the application form we had to pretend otherwise – and it was a struggle for the first few months. There was this one Scottish professor who I couldn’t understand at all, and Nelson and I were terrified that he would ask us a question during lectures. But we managed to catch up, and luckily, we were a bit ahead of the rest of the class when it came to our ability as performers.

Many of our lecturers were in the music industry, and through them I found myself playing gigs in Europe as a session player immediately after graduation. Things progressed quickly, and I spent the next 10 years or so touring the world with countless different bands. I was playing rock, soul, blues and jazz, even Afrobeat, everywhere from the US to Japan, Carnegie Hall to the Royal Albert Hall. 

Over that time, the music industry changed a lot. Social media started to dominate, meaning it was more about how good you were at making videos than how good you were as a musician. That’s not really my thing, and I started to wonder if this was the life for me. Then Covid hit. I was mid-tour in Spain with a jazz sitar player, and we had to cancel the remaining dates and fly back to the UK. 

I spent lockdown in Cornwall in a studio outside Redruth, surfing, making music and discovering the beauty of the West Country. I loved it – and it gave me a lot of time to reflect on life. I’d always thought my whole career would be as a musician, but now I wasn’t so sure. I started thinking about how I pictured myself in 30 years’ time, and I kept coming back to an image of me at the family home, in the vineyards. 

When I eventually came back to London I reconnected with Nelson, who had moved into wine, and I told him about my dream. He introduced me to the wine world, pushed me to do the WSET Level 2, and found me a job at a wine bar and tastings venue called Humble Grape. After I’d worked there for a little while, Nelson got me an interview at 67 with Federico, who was the Head Somm at the time. Despite such meagre experience, Fede believed in me, and welcomed me into the team. I’ll be forever grateful to him for the opportunity – it changed my life. And to Nelson, of course. I owe Nelson a lot. 

I planned to stay here for a year. But after a year, I thought to myself, ‘Wow, I’ve learned so much. But I still have so much more to learn.’ Every day I’m tasting wines, meeting winemakers, and learning from colleagues and Members. I’ve qualified as a certified sommelier with the Court of Master Sommeliers and have just two exams left to pass for my WSET Diploma. 

Naturally, I gravitate to Italian wines. I like elegant reds – Montalcino, Langhe, Barolo, Barbaresco, Etna. I’m not such a fan of big Bordeaux blends. I prefer Syrah, and high-altitude Garnacha. And Burgundy, of course. But I’ve also started pursuing my ultimate goal – to set up a winery in my own name in my home region of Emiliana Romagna. It’s not a region that is known for quality, and would love to help change that perception.

A few years ago – again, thanks to Nelson – I met Francesco Bordini, a winemaker and viticulturist in Modigliana, on the Tuscan-Romagna Appennine border, around an hour and a half from my family home. I fell in love with this terroir: high elevation, sandstone/marl soils, surrounded by forest. It’s a hidden gem, and with Francesco’s help, I started my own project, buying grapes and making my first wines in 2025. 

I make 1,500 bottles of Sauvignon Blanc, fermented and aged in tonneaux with partial malolactic fermentation and six months ageing. I love the wines of Didier Dageneau and Duncan Savage, with that tempered aromatic intensity and more focus on mouthfeel, length, salinity and mineral character. Those wines are my model. Then I also make a Sangiovese, fermented and aged in amphora with 30% whole bunches and a long maceration to showcase the purity of fruit and aromatic character. 

Today, I spend most of my time off flying back to Italy to tend our family vineyard and look after my project in Modigliana. Ultimately, I’d like to get my hands on my own vineyard – probably on a long-term rental basis – which I can then plant. I often swap notes with my colleague Gastón [Assistant Deputy Head Sommelier, who has a vineyard in Tuscany]. It’s really exciting to have a colleague doing the same thing. Sometimes, it feels like my life has just been a series of happy coincidences…