Mike DeSimone and Jeff Jenssen write about travel, food, wine, trends and culture. Their articles and photographs have appeared in Wine Spectator, (2.4 million readers) Wine Enthusiast, Sherman's Travel, The European, and International Living's IL Postcards. Their work frequently appears in SolTalk, the English-language magazine of the Costa del Sol. Well known in southern Spain, Mike and Jeff have made several appearances on The Mary Harboe Show and The Hannah Murray Show on REM-FM, the largest English-language radio network in continental Europe. They were featured speakers at International Living's Live and Prosper In Europe seminar in Barcelona and they have spoken at Kevin Zraly's Windows On The World Wine Course. Jeff and Mike can be seen in their podcast-style travel and cooking show, Bring it Back Home, on www.Devour.TV.
Mike and Jeff both hold certifications from the International Wine & Spirit Education Trust in London. Mike is a member of the International Travel Writers and Photographers Alliance. He studied journalism at New York University, and holds a degree in marketing from New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology. Jeff has over twenty years of experience in food, wine and hospitality. Mike and Jeff home-test recipes for cookbooks, including those published by Williams-Sonoma.
They have visited many of the world’s wine regions, including Spain’s La Rioja, Ribera del Duero, Penedes, Castilla y Leon, La Mancha, Rueda, Jerez, D.O. Malaga, Toro, and Cigales. In France, they have toured Burgundy, Provence, Bordeaux, Sud-Ouest, Alsace, Loire Valley, and Champagne. Among the regions visited in Italy are Tuscany, Chianti, and Friuli. Their travels have also brought them to Tokaj and Eger in Hungary, as well as wine-growing areas in Argentina, Australia, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Turkey, Greece, and Morocco. Closer to home, they have been to Long Island’s North Fork, and Napa and Sonoma in California.
Mike’s travel memoir, Between the Mountains and the Sea, is currently under management with Peter Miller at PMA LitFilm in New York City. Upcoming projects include Always Andalucia, a collection of anecdotes, recipes, and photographs, and Italica, a historical novel set on the Iberian Peninsula during the Roman Empire. Mike and Jeff are currently planning an around-the-world adventure trip with media exposure in multiple outlets.
There is nothing more exciting to us than “drinking the wine in the land where the grape is grown”—then sharing that wine and the accompanying memories with our friends back home. We believe that wine is just as important to everyday living as it is to special occasions. The French have a phrase, Bon Vin, Bon Prix, or Good Wine, Good Price, that pretty much sums up what we think wine should be all about. Wine should taste good, it should make you feel good, and you should never put down that bottle feeling that you have overpaid for it.
We have tasted some of the best – and worst—wines in the world, and the most important aspect for us is the feeling of conviviality that surrounds the opening of a bottle of wine. Wine brings people together: Conversations foster mutual understanding, barriers are dropped, friendships are formed, and people of all cultures realize how similar our lives are on this planet we call home.
The World Wine Guys are all about visiting the places grapes are grown and wine is made, eating the food that goes along with that wine, and letting you know what we have found. In a phrase…WE UNCORK YOUR WORLD.
