A Mid-West misfit turned world-class wine and spirits expert, spiritual seeker, and seasoned screw up, drags wine out of the white-tablecloth fantasy by the thymus glands and drops it squarely onto the tray — next to commissary noodles, questionable meat, and poor choices.

There are wines that pair well with sorrel vichyssoise and caviar, but also tasty with cool ranch corn chips. From street food and Michelin-starred temples of epicurean excess to beautiful vineyards and Himalayan bootleggers, from Burgundy to the back of a squad car, Arturo dismantles the elitism of wine with irreverence, precision, and zero patience for bullshit. Along the way, he breaks down why wine tastes the way it does and how to pair it with anything—whether it’s chinghiale cacciatore or beanie weenies.

This is a story of study, hard work, excess, spiritual insight, dangerously dumb behavior, humility, and the dizzying labyrinth of life. Through his experiences, Arturo creates connections between gastronomic knowledge and the enigmatic road he’s travelled in the most unique, candid, educational, and entertaining way.

Learn approaches to tasting wine and food that are used by the best professionals in the world. Learn how to use your eyes, nose, and mouth, to “hear” what wine has to say. Learn that wine can be just as enjoyable with your darkest guilty desire for honey-BBQ chicken wings, as it is with wagyu beef. Wine isn’t about prestige. It’s about perspective. A cheap wine and a killer cheeseburger with the right person is more memorable than drinking $500 cult wines with an asshole.

Wine Pairing for Prison Food: Reflections and Ruminations unpretentiously puts the irony and hilarity of a life blessed with great food and great beverage, in perspective with life’s real truths.

Somewhere between wisdom and idiocy, there exists a simplicity to the ups and downs of life. Gratitude. Life is beautiful.