SJ COLLABORATORS
Livia Alyson Careaga
[no link because she likes to remain mysterious]
Producer, marketing strategist, sounding board and invaluable idea-generator for SteepleJack, she is the person who can understand a person’s dreams and turn them into reality. A longtime friend who has the deepest and widest set of relationships with Italian wine producers of anyone I know, she is also mom to Italo, the feisty Jack Russell who occasionally features in SJ stories
Jordan Mackay
Wine & food writer extraordinaire and genius nickname-giver who decided mine was SteepleJack. Here is Jordan’s dramatic rationale for the nickname.
Read Jordan’s rationale
In days of yore, the steeplejack was a village’s solitary guardian of the heights, scaling church spires to tend the bells and weathervanes that watched over entire communities, working alone where others feared to climb. Likewise, Stephanie “SteepleJack” Johnson ascends where others dither: tall and lean as the steeples themselves, she ventures brashly into the world of wine, casting her gaze from rarefied altitudes. Uncompromising and incorruptible, she works alone, her insights ringing clear across the valleys of our understanding—each bottle uncovered, every vintage chronicled, another call to climb higher, look farther, and taste what awaits the bold at wine’s sacred peaks.—Jordan Mackay
Maki Yamaguchi
Gifted Brooklyn-based artist who created the SteepleJack image, SJ monogram and portrait
Erika Grattapaglia
Talented designer for the Argo Business Solutions team who created the look and structure of this website
Podcasts
Wine & Spirits Magazine
Many thanks to Joshua Greene, Tara Q Thomas and the ever-evolving team at W&S Magazine for starting me on my professional journey into the beautiful world of Italian wine. The US wine community continues to feel the loss of this influential and principled publication.
WHO IS SJ
Stephanie Johnson, a.k.a. SteepleJack or SJ, has been writing exclusively about Italian wine for more than a decade. Her wine career spans the journalism, retail and restaurant sectors, including five years as Wine Director at City Winery in Soho. She joined Wine & Spirits Magazine as Tasting Director in 2013 and served as Italian Wine Editor from 2016 to 2024. Her pursuit of stories about Italian wines and the people who make them takes her to all 20 of Italy’s wine regions.
Stephanie holds the WSET Diploma in Wine & Spirits and is one of 22 people worldwide who are certified as an Italian Wine Expert by Vinitaly Academy. She has judged at international competitions such as the Concours Mondial du Sauvignon in Bordeaux and Five Star Wines in Verona, led masterclasses for top sommeliers in NYC, and presented at major industry events including Vinitaly and wine2wine in Verona. A passionate educator, she teaches WSET Level 2, Level 3 and Diploma courses at NYC’s International Wine Center.
WHAT IS
No scores, just stories
I have tasted, scored and written tasting notes for thousands of wines during my tenure as Italian Wine Editor at Wine & Spirits Magazine. While scores can provide an easy shortcut to wine-buying decisions, you will not find any on SteepleJack.
Over the last decade I have visited hundreds of wine producers, most of them small family farmers. I’ve sat across their kitchen tables and listened to stories about their family histories, the unique features of their land, and the challenges they face in growing grapes and making wines that express their passion and purpose.
These stories will be the focus of SteepleJack. My goal is to promote a wholistic approach to wine enjoyment rather than reducing wines to a numerical score. I’ll do this by bringing to life the people, places and histories behind Italian wines.
In this people-centered approach, you can assume that any producer profiled here is one that I recommend. I hope you’ll form your own relationship with these growers and winemakers. Explore their whole range of wines, trying them across multiple vintages. Wine encompasses culture, food, history and geography, creating a natural path for exploration, so take this site as an inspiration to book a flight and meet these producers where they live and work. I think you’ll find that this deepens your connection to and enjoyment of the wines you choose to drink, and your appreciation of the people who make them.
One final but important note: I have zero financial connections or incentives to promote any wine regions, products or producers. The stories and profiles in SteepleJack are based on my own opinions and experiences formed during multiple and ongoing visits and tastings. Some SteepleJack trips may be sponsored by regional consortiums or foundations, but I do not accept visits or hotel stays funded by single producers.
— Stephanie Johnson, SteepleJack