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Dinner with Joanie
Quarant'anni fa...Sitting at the bar of a tiny restaurant in the fashionable SoCo zone of Austin last night, two ladies were hugging the corner of the bar. The room was crowded and loud and people were...
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Soldera to Parker to Galloni: Comets, Meteors and other Eclipses of 2013
"Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble"If I have learned one thing on Planet Earth it is that every one, all 7 billion of us, consider ourselves the center of the universe. Because of that we go...
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For the Love of Barbera
This week on a Twitter conference, #SommChat, one of the guest speakers, John Ragan recommended wines for Spring. Barbera was one of them. One of the listeners tweeted,“Barbera is new to me. What is...
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Soldera revokes his irrevocable resignation, Parker drops his lawsuit against...
Wow – what a week it's been in the wine world!I have to say, I never saw any of these coming – this has been a watershed week in the world of wine for resolution and retroverse reconciliation and...
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Quintarelli's New Importer in the US is Great News for Italian Wine Lovers
No, this is not an April Fool’s joke. This is the real deal. Busily preparing myself for Vinitaly, which starts this Sunday (Saturday for me, but that’s a whole ‘nother announcement) my inbox had this...
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Vinitaly XLVII - The Super Bowl of Italian Wine
Flashback: Vinitaly 14 - ICE president Luigi Deserti welcomes Burton Anderson, John Mariani and Lou IacucciThis’ll be quick, as it is late and I’m still packing for Vinitaly – I’ve been going to the...
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Trento Report: €3 Euro Muller-Thurgau, red wine with white fish (and green...
A bad day in Italy can often be better than a good day in many other places. And a good day, well, let’s just say that’s off the charts. I haven’t been here long but the wine gods have been good to...
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Vinitaly XLVII Notebook: Good times with good friends in 2013
Vinitaly, what can you say? Anything can happen. While it is easy to make light of some things and zoom in on other things, what it all comes down to is one’s attitude. This evening we went to...
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Vinitaly XLVII round-up (w/news about #Vinitaly2014)
“One of the best Vinitaly in years” would probably be my way to say it. Along with all the hustle and confusion that this Italian wine fair comes with, there are also a lot of good things that come out...
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Thoughts while watching a sheep being skinned in Tuscany
When we arrived to the place we would be staying after Vinitaly, we first stopped at the nearest neighbor’s house. They are shepherds from Sardegna who moved to this remote corner of Tuscany many years...
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Italy from a different perspective
Photos by Col. Chris HadfieldOnce I arrived back home from Italy and the Vinitaly show, I spent two days on my back in bed, exhausted from a most intense visit to Italy. It was a great trip, but too...
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Where was the Wine Advocate at Vinitaly?
I woke up this morning and didn’t know where I was or what day it was. I’ve been traveling a bit lately. Fortunately I was in West Texas and among friends. Which, considering my orientation in no easy...
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Screaming Eagle for Breakfast
There once was a time when one hungered for knowledge of the great wines. If one couldn’t taste the old classics, one could always read about them in Michael Broadbent’s book, The Great Vintage Wine...
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Italia, Quo Vadis?
Post #1,000This past trip to Italy, I had the chance to wander the streets of Milan with a camera. I’d been hitting it hard at Vinitaly and on the wine trail, but the country seeps with emotion. Ever...
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Three Days in Trento: Wine, Food and Relaxation without the Tourists
Friends of mine in Austin have a restaurant, called Trento. They asked me to set some of their friends up in the Italian town of Trento for a three day wine visit. That is the impetus for this post. I...
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Franciacorta vs. the World
Maybe it was the way he raised the glass when he toasted the group at our gathering. Perhaps it was the conversation we had about my next trip to Italy and where I was going. Or maybe he had grown used...
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An Italian Giant Passes
Photo from the film by Lisa ScafuroExcuse me for this diversion- I’ve been in New York all week for meetings and importer tastings. This seems to be wine week in NYC. I’ve seen everyone; New York has...
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“I don’t read wine blogs anymore”
One of the takeaways from this week in New York was the admission by a surprising number of industry and journalists I met with who said they just don’t read wine blogs like they used to. This comes on...
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The Silence of the Alambic – The Spirit of Romano Levi
We were walking around Neive, looking for a bite to eat. One of our colleagues, Michele, started talking to this forlorn looking fellow. As it turned out this young man, Fabrizio Sobrero, had recently...
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Italy is “Open for Business”
Ever since we touched down, this recent trip on the wine trail in Italy has been non-stop tasting and traveling. From three days in Piedmont and the Langhe to a day of travel in which we spent in the...
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