Italian Wine Map Porn, Long Lost Cousins and My Favorite Fizzy Red in Austin

Ron Wight and Scott Ota checking out the sexy Italian centerfold

Sometimes I think I should just shuck it all and live out of my suitcase. It seem like that’s pretty much what I have been doing all summer. And with a full fall schedule ahead of me, maybe it’s time to do the radical downsize. Who would know? All my stuff? Yeah, right.

This week I have been holding out in Austin, where wine dinners and work-withs have taken me. Not too many folks are buying, but this is the seed planting time. Working in August doesn’t produce instant results, but when the cool weather returns and folks get their minds right to do some business, all the hard work in the heat pays off.

Austin just passed a milestone: 70 days over 100 °F, breaking the previous record set in 1925. Right now as I write, it is almost midnight and outside the temperature is still 99°F. Like one lady said on the radio today, “I don’t want to die and go to hell, but it just might be cooler than Austin.”



So it goes. The past two days I have been out with our uber-geeky wine crew. I had no idea yesterday was a root day with nodes, not conducive to wine tasting. My colleague Daniel McKeever (check out his groovalicious blog) clued me in on the bio-dynamic calendar. We just endured a Mercury in retrograde event and with this heat maybe we are coming up against the end of time? If so we have some wine to be drinking before that.

Two sommeliers who will help are Ron Wight, founder of the Uncorked Wine Bar on the East side of Austin and Scott Ota, the Wine Captain at the venerable Driskill Hotel in historic downtown Austin ( who has his own video log at wines.com. They totally fell under the spell of Italy when I pulled out Steve Delong’s Italian wine map. Scott was talking about the 91 or 92 (or was it 191 or 192?) Italian IGT's when I whipped out the map and showed them Steve's awesome opus with the DOC and DOCG’s.  When I turned it over, I though Scott was going into Italian wine nerd-vana overdrive. He was so psyched and his and Ron’s enthusiasm was so refreshing. I gotta say, when folks are as jazzed about Italian, or any wine, I’m in heaven.

Flickr photo by Boz Bros

Speaking of heaven, only in Austin can one find an old 7-11 that has been converted into a super-hip little market with a radical wine set. Live Oak Market in South Austin is a 7-11 that has died and gone to heaven. A must see if you are in the area, for the great breakfast tacos, super selection of sensible (and healthy but tasty) foodstuffs along with a wine selection that is eclectic and wonderful. With an organic garden out in the back.And the clientele there also make for great people watching. Like one yelper wrote, “this is like a deadhead’s version of 7-11.” Uh-huh... Check it out. Worth a trip out of your way to go to.

Ok, where were we? Oh yeah, wine dinners. So I did two this week. Mandola’s markets. Easy menu, four wines, 90 minutes. My Austin cousins (their granddad and my grandmother are siblings) Jennifer and Karon Scalora met up with me at the first one Monday night. Seem they are also related to the Mandola’s via another family connection, so it was “cuzzin” night. Totally unexpected and joyful in that somewhere in Austin I have family who made the effort to come to a wine dinner. We had a blast. And who knew?

Karon and Jennifer Scalora, my Sicilian cousins in Austin

Frank Floca from Temple on the Italian Grocers "Wall of Fame"

On the Italian Grocer's "Wall of Fame" at Mandola’s Market there was a picture of Frank (Francesco) Floca, another relative, at his turn of the (last) century store in Temple, Texas. This family man was humbled and, to use the cliché, geeked.

Lastly, I’m on a Lambrusco jag. Ever since I ran across the Cleto Chiarli wines on my trip to Emilia Romagna last October, I have been smitten with the wine. They make a Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro, which we have been showing all week. But my pick, let’s say the IWG’s Wine of the Week is their Lambrusco di Sorbara “Vecchia Modena” Premium. All retro, so “Italian in the 30’s” looking label. But man, the wine is delicate, soft, juicy, dry, everything one need on the hellatious weather we have been enduring for over 2 months.

So there you have it – Austin in 72 hours. Lots of jammed packed excitement. All that and hanging with my favorite pregnant couple in Groover's Paradise.

Dallas, here I come. I have an appointment with a burger and a Beaujolais before I pack my bags and head back to “you know where” for more harvest reports and adventures on the wine trail in Italy.

written by Alfonso Cevola limited rights reserved On the Wine Trail in Italy