Italy, Texas, y'all
Just a quickie as my winemaker colleague from Romagna, Stefano Salvini, and I are working the Texas market. Stefano is in Texas to introduce his wine from the Campodelsole estate. So far we haven’t done any 1,000 kilometer days, but we have been racking up the miles. And let me tell you, the wines are selling like hotcakes. In fact we are so hot right now we can barely stand it.
To all of you sitting behind a computer screen in an air conditioned room, pondering the vagaries of natural wine or oak, either way, you are in a cooler place then we are. My car is fitted with two coolers, one which needs ice and the 30 year old Koolatron, still working after all these years. Just like me.
Stefano is a good egg – I think we almost hit the wall yesterday – it got up to 104° F – and this is just June. Stefano originally comes from Friuli (his Godfather is none other than the great Livio Felluga). As we drove from Dallas to Austin, the corn fields were getting higher – June is busting out all over!
Lots of fun, though. Last night we were treated to a “professional men’s dinner.” After a hard day of work and an Italian wine seminar at Vino Vino our host rushed home to put out a spread of tuna, bruschetta, a tomato and mozzarella salad, a beautiful bucatini and another green salad (we can use the roughage, believe me). But the pièce de résistance was his "killer" California Guacamole.
I’m not going to spoil it by telling his little secret (he might want to post that himself) but suffice it to say, he knocked it out of the park. Being from California myself, I knew exactly which region his “guac” was from and it reminded me of my childhood in Palm Springs and going to Las Casuelas on Palm Canyon Drive. And to top it off it went great with the indigenous whites we brought from Campodelsole, the Bombino Bianco ‘San Pascasio Pagedebit’ and the ‘Selva’Albana. Thanks a million, Dottore.I probably shouldn’t have had that taste of tequila. I know I was warned, but I am a sucker for a triple distilled Anejo, especially the Tres Generaciones. Oh well, “live and learn, die and forget it” as my dear gal Liz used to tell me.
Anyway folks, we have some driving to do, and a sold out wine dinner to make back in Dallas. And it’s already 8:00 am and 90+ °F. Gotta run. More over the weekend. Stay Kool y’all.
"Selling like crazy in Texas"