Kevin LoVullo is a man of many passions. From insurance to horticulture to broadcast media, his life has followed many different dreams and career paths. Growing up in a hardworking Irish-Sicilian family, LoVullo remembers being inspired by his father’s love of winemaking. Thirty years later LoVullo is carrying on his father’s passion for wine – across the airwaves, as host of his own weekly talk-radio program, Spiel the Wine, which airs Sundays at 6 p.m. on WWKB–1520 AM.
But before he was an East Coast wine expert, LoVullo worked for his family’s insurance company, which he joined right after high school. “As a teenager, going to work and making money seemed quite appealing at the time,” reflects LoVullo. “I learned a lot the following years, but going away to college is much more rewarding, beyond an education. An 18-year-old is too young to be put into a corporate environment. I made money, learned quite a bit about business, and met my wife Jackie to whom I have been married for 25 years.”
LoVullo’s life began to switch gears in 1998, when his Insurance Premium Finance Company was offered an acquisition by a Kansas City company. One year later, the deal was done, and less than a year after that, LoVullo resigned from the company to direct his interests to more “earthly” pursuits. “I am passionate with plants and trees,” he says. “I opened a retail specialty garden center in East Amherst, New York, called ProGardens, selling specialty plants, Vietnamese pottery, fruits, vegetables, and kettle corn.”
In August 2004, an offer was made to buy ProGardens. LoVullo refers to the sale as a bittersweet moment. “As you grow older your passions evolve,” he says. “In this case, it was my interest with wine.” LoVullo’s interest in wine began with a book he has yet to publish. Spiel the Wine (the book) is a collection of Q&A-style interviews with world-renowned winemakers, sommeliers, and wine enthusiasts. The radio program of the same name was born of those interviews and features LoVullo engaging in discussions about wine with distinguished guests, including Alessia Antinori, the first woman in twenty-six generations to take over the Antinori dynasty, and Thomas Matthews, Executive Editor of Wine Spectator magazine.
As for what kind of wine LoVullo prefers? True to any wine expert, he cannot pick just one “A 2000 La Spinetta Camp. It’s a Barolo that I tasted rather impromptu, but at just the right time. Also, a 1988 and a 1990 Chateau d’Yquem. Those wines are in a class by themselves and are usually consumed after dinner, but they pair exceptionally well with foi gras. How can I forget 1995 Krug Champagne – one of the finest wines on the planet….”
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