5 Days, 4 Cities, 3 Hotels & 3,700 Miles

The Empire State Building @ 3AM

What a week this has been. The wine trail has ventured from Dallas, Texas to New York and back to Dallas in 24 hours. Then, a day in Dallas for a trade tasting and a sold-out dinner for 61. Get up the next morning and drive to Houston for a trade tasting and a dinner for the distributor managers. Get up the next morning and drive to Austin for a trade luncheon and a final dinner with the Italian winemakers. And get up the next morning, drive to Dallas for another event a holiday party for the Texas office of the company I work for.

This morning I awoke from a night of strange dreams. I remember two parts. The first part was me floating over a large body of water, tracing the path of giant luxury liners from above with my finger. Sharks were swimming in the sea and when I flew too low they tried to lure me into their jaws of death. The other part of the dream had to do with going somewhere. I was glad to be home and happier to wake myself up from that confusion of a dream. Probably meant to make me feel not so regretful of the travel.

And I’m not. This week has been a week of stories to write about. I have met some very nice folks, the young Italian wine community who are taking the reins from the older generation. That is a good thing to see.

Would you buy a Bonzarone from this man?

New York
The tasting at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square was to recognize the producers of the import company, Vias, and their 25 years of business in the U.S. Vias is a confluence of Americans and Italians that has put together some very nice properties to bring here. It is run like an Italian company, which is to say, there is always a little bit of improvisation. It’s quirky, but it seems to work for them. There are smaller importers who probably look at Vias like they are some kind of middle-of-the-road company. But I sense there is still a good amount of passion for the little, artisanal winemakers. When Northwest manager Chris Zimmerman mans a booth with wines named the Lambrusco Grasparossa, Pignoletto and Bonzarone there is an indication that the flame still burns brightly.

Look Ma, no wrinkles

Blogger ConfluenceAs I wrote earlier last week saw a coming together of some of the bright lights of wine bloggerdom. Alice and Keith were there and it was a moment to actually talk, not type, to each other. I will probably come back to the NY apartment in May for a week, so we can properly taste wine and maybe even share some ideas.

I'll have a glass of Adelmo Rosso, please

Un Quartino
Back in Dallas, we had two events, both at Jimmy’s. How I wish every town had a Jimmy’s. Here’s a place where the proprietors want only Italian wine and are not afraid to put them on the shelf. Owner Paul DiCarlo hosted the winemakers for a trade event that was packed for three hours. Folks like Chef Sharon Hage from York Street showed up, Charlie Palmer sommeliers Drew Hendricks and Brandan Kelley made an appearance, as did blogger David Anderson and his Italian wife Rafaella.

The spawning migration of the Anjou Pears

And when it was over, Paul & Co. turned the room around in an hour and set it up for 61 people. Chef Lisa Balliet prepared a wonderful meal and the eight wineries had each a wine in the meal. The meal went for three hours and all but one person stuck around for the whole event. The pears for the dessert were a welcome sight at the end of a large meal. Good idea, fruit for dessert. Well done, all.

Houston, we have lift-off
After a cold front moved on (the one that was supposed to cripple the Northeast?) and an early morning drive to Houston, I met up with the winemakers at Catalan. Sommelier Antonio Gianola and Chef Chris Shepherd hosted the event, which was classy and well paced. Blogger Tracie B joined us. One winemaker, Thomas Romanelli of Riseccoli, remarked that he thought she was a very good palate. Tracie has come back to Texas, perhaps to immerse herself in the wine world. We will see. She speaks Italian very well; even if some of the Northern Italians think she does it with a Neapolitan accent.

Afterwards, a not so short dinner with the distributors managers at a local Italian place. And though some of the winemakers were starting to get restless, I convinced the young ones to go have a drink and meet up with Tracie and her friend Talina to see some belly-dancing.

Italians can sometimes be reticent about new experiences. But once they get into the soup they mix in well.

Austin – T.G.I.F.Again, after a late night I rose and drove through rain and fog to Austin. There would only be one official event, a two hour tasting and lunch at Zoot. This one was well attended by most of the wine cognoscenti of Austin, folks like Austin Wine Merchant’s John Roenigk , wine merchant and blogger Greg Randle, friend Chuck Huffaker, sommelier Devon Broglie and many more friends and colleagues. The distributor representatives from Austin and San Antonio also came.

Who says Barolo is King?

Austin was cold and wet, but the vibe is always welcoming. People just “get” Italian wine in Austin. Nice finale.

Later that evening we took the Italians for BBQ and beer. What a trip, all of us Contadina and Count alike, gnawing on bones and popping jalapenos. Meat lovers, these Italians are. And Texas can put out a spread of meat.

Meat brings everyone together

Saturday Morning, we did our farewells, and “See you at Vinitaly” and we all spread our wings and headed home. So after 5 Days, 4 Cities, 3 Hotels & 3,700 Miles, I am home in my cocoon and reflecting on the past week.

The young people are embracing this wine business both in Italy and in America. They are smarter, they speak each others language, and within this next generation we’ll see a further evolution of the appreciation of Italian wine and culture in these here United States. Stay tuned.

Today's mixed-up youth: Tracie, Talina and the 2 Luca's

Pictures from the tour HERE

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

If It's Friday This Must Be Austin

Monday and Tuesday-New York. Wednesday-Dallas. Thursday-Houston. Friday-Austin, here we come. Eight winemakers-Four cities. Planes, cabs, driving across Texas, wine events, dinners and even a little belly dancing. We've had wines and their young winemakers, from all across Italy. And we've run into wine bloggers all across the country. More on that later. It's very late and very tired are we. So enjoy the pictures that follow the jump and we'll tell their stories later.

Dallas Tasting with the winemakers

Working very HARD

Houston Tasting with the winemakers

Belly Dancing with the winemakers

"Working" very HARD

The wineries and their ambassadors:
Meri Tessari from Suavia
Matteo Bisol
Luca Ghione from Araldica
Luca Fontana from Mesa
Gualtiero and Anna Ghezzi from Camigliano
Thomas Faure Romanelli from Riseccoli
Natalino Crognaletti from Fattoria San Lorenzo
Aldo Vacca from Produttori del Barbaresco

The bloggers:
Alice Feiring of Veritas in Vino
Keith Beavers of East Village Wine GeekDavid Anderson of Italian's Insight to Travel Italy
Tracie B of My Life Italian (on hiatus)
Greg Randle of Good Taste Report

& Talina Grimes - The Belly Dancer~Teacher

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

We Are Transmitters

Lately, when I sit in front of a blank screen with absolutely no idea about what I am going to write about, one word shouts out to me. Dogs. So today I am going to exorcise, pay homage, or do whatever I need to do to get this voice out of my head.

We have a coyote in the neighborhood and many nervous neighbors. I remember the days in the foothills surrounding Los Angeles, when I was in my twenties and I’d take Aunt Betty’s dog up in those hills. Aunt Betty had passed away and we inherited this old cocka-poo, Fifi. She had long black shaggy hair. So did I. They say dogs take after their owners. Well old Fifi and I were a pair. She loved to go for walks in the hills; it was her time to roam free, like the coyotes we would encounter. That dog would take off like she was a child of those wild ones that made their home in the sage burnished hills. She always returned, but I felt she came back leaving a part of herself in those hills. I know how she felt.

When my son got older than a few months, I’d put him in Aunt Betty’s old Falcon wagon with me and Fifi, and we’d head up into the hills for a walk. This would give his mother some time in the shop to get some work done. My son and I were born within blocks of each other, he in our little California bungalow with a midwife and me in a hospital surrounded by nuns and vineyards. The last I heard, Quentin Tarantino used the forgotten hospital as a set for Kill Bill. It is in an area that was a vineyard for old Los Angeles. On those days when we would head up Eaton Canyon to walk and air out the dog, it was hang time before getting picked by the wine gods to carry on the work that I do.

I believe in some kind of intervention, be it Divine or otherwise ordained by a power larger than all of us. Nature guides and leads us to what we must become and to where we must go in order to express that energy that seethes through our spirit. D.H. Lawrence wrote a poem, called, We Are Transmitters, in which he expressed that idea so beautifully.

Yesterday, a handful of Italian winemakers landed in Texas to visit Dallas, Houston and Austin and transmit their energy to these lands. Ambassadors from Bacchus, dressed in Prada and Gucci. Those stories will follow in days to come. That they are just coming here feels like the reinforcements that get through the lines, once in a while. And while the battle is on the floors of wine stores and in shiny leather booths in dimly lit, fashionable restaurants, the life I have chosen is getting a little bit of help from the ancient vineyards of Italy. Here we convene in Texas, from Italy and California to open bottles and talk to people about the art and the craft and the passion and the love of this concentrated, miracle-blessed grape juice. Funny thing.

How can anyone decide to go into this business and not want to embrace all that it represents from the history of thousands of years of this cycle? How can one not want to squeeze every last ounce of joy from the experience, the gift we have been given to gather and tell stories and open bottles and eat and drink and laugh and love? This sounds so naïve, and that coming from a vet who has been in these trenches for 25 plus years.

If you are in the wine business and you do not feel this I suggest you choose one of several options. It all distills down to this; Get it or get out. Life is too short to waste doing something you cannot throw yourself into 150%.

The other option is to go through the motions. Don’t answer your phone before 9:00AM or after 4:30PM or during the lunch hour, or when you are otherwise occupied. Don’t engage in the dance of the grape. Don’t wake up. Just lie there in the bed staring at the ceiling waiting for someone to rescue you. From yourself.

What about the dog? Well, old Fifi went on to join Aunt Betty, but that old dog had such a nobility about her, something I didn’t quite see so well, until all these years passed ever so quickly. She woke up every morning to answer the call of her destiny, to run with the coyotes, to be as wild as her nature called her to be. To transmit her dog-ness and to teach an old fool in a young man’s skin about life and calling. I will never forget her.

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

Choppin' in the Woodshed

A Nor’easter is bearing down on NYC, planes are arriving late and I am packed and ready to catch a 7:00 am flight, right into the middle of the Big Slushy Apple, tomorrow morning. Hopefully, I will get there in time for the events. Importer Vias is celebrating their 25th anniversary and the wine will be flowing at the portfolio tasting and dinner to follow.

Yesterday I spent the afternoon on the floor of a local wine store specializing in Italian wines. From time to time, I get in there and roll up my sleeves and sell some boxes, it’s really a lot of fun. Then when things slow down, I attack a section or two and try to make sense of the set. Back in the old days, when I was a retail rat, re-sets were a part of weekly life. So it is second nature to me. Yesterday I took on the Brunello and SuperTuscan section. It seems some of the distributor’s salespeople don’t know a Brunello from a Tignanello, fancy that?

OK, so this will be a short rant followed by some wine notes. Warning: This is not a short post.

I was really concerned to see folks in the store looking to buy wines, expensive wines, and they were having a hard time finding the wines that correlated with the shelf talker. When I got down and looked with a couple of customers, I even was having a hard time finding the wines. But now it is all in order. That will last about 2 days. It’s really a shame, because the salespeople who just throw a wine in any old place really do a disservice to many people. First, to the consumer, making it hard for them to find the wine. Secondly, to the hard working, never-take-a-vacation store owners, who invest money in product, only to see it be merchandised not in a user-friendly way. Let’s see, we’ll just put an Amarone in the Barolo section, where there is a hole. Or let’s put a Sangiovese in with the Montepulciano d’Abruzzo section. Thirdly, the salesperson is doing a disservice to their employer and their importer and their winemakers, because the wines get lost and all that hard work getting the wine to the front line gets hidden in a bunker, never to see the light of day. It has been like this for as long as I have been in the business, but it really is a primitive problem, one that online retailers don’t have to contend with. And friends of mine, who would rather hunt on-line than in-bins, don’t spend their money on wines we all have worked so hard to get out there.

Anyway, we just have to keep going back and setting it right. And that’s one of the things we do, when we be choppin' in the woodshed.

Now for the wines.

I did have a number of pleasurable moments with customers. People came up to me and said things like, “I want to buy a case of wine, give me what you like to drink,” or “I don’t care how much it costs, give me some big reds,” and “ I just got back from Italy and I want to know more about the wines of Campania, Basilicata and Apulia.” Music to my ears.

These five were some of my go-to wines this weekend. The store is like this wonderful artist’s palate with all these colors (flavors) and tons of folk wanting us to paint ‘em a picture. Can do. Good feeling. Visceral. Selling. Hunting. Bagging the catch. Yeah!



Brunello di Montalcino – Castiglion del Bosco
I put this wine in many hands for a couple of reasons. First, the wine is drinkable and accessible. So if folks want to try a Brunello, this is a great gateway Brunello. It tastes Tuscan, it has healthy fruit, it is not excessively expensive and it is really a nicely balanced wine. I met Enologist Cecilia Leoneschi at the Merano Wine Festival in November. She is taking on the old men in Montalcino and holding her own. I admire the owners for giving her rein. Cecilia brings her perspective to Brunello. That is, for me, a lighter hand, letting the grape come through, not wrestling it to the ground, but rather, gliding it into the bottle. One to watch for in the years ahead, Cecilia is young and in for the long haul.

Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro from Tenuta Pederzana
You cannot do better with a plate of salumi than with this wine. Chill it up a little bit, and start your engines. From the Grasparossa grape, I took a bottle over to a chef from Emilia-Romagna the other day. Now this guy has known me for years, but has rarely if ever acknowledged my presence in his world. When I handed the bottle to his son to give to him, you’d think I was his long lost cousin. His eyes lit up, he smiled, he liked me he really, really, liked me. I owe it all to this friendly little Lambrusco.

Get yourself hooked up with a Lambrusco like this. It takes the snob off the table. It’s subtle and bold, delicate and a romp. It’s a serious wine that laughs at itself. Go get you some.


Vermentino Vinga “U Munte” from Colle dei Bardellini - Riviera Ligure del Ponente
Long title for a white wine. I had a gent who was looking for a white with character, didn’t care how much it cost. “Hit me with your best shot,” was his challenge. I recounted my recent trip to the region, pulled it from the top shelf and handed it to him. “Take this home and don’t tell too many people I told you about this wine,” I said. He countered with the inevitable “Why?”

What can I say? They don’t make a lot? True. We don’t get a lot? True again. No, I had another motive.
I want most of it for myself. There is something about my attraction for this region that recharges me on the wine trail in Italy. It’s like a new Italy has just risen with the new day sun. It’s a revelation, it’s a wonder, and the wine embodies all that energy. All for under $20. You open the bottle and all of Liguria opens up with it. Fragrances, herbs, salt, high altitude old-growth, perfume, richness and serenity.


Re Manfredi Terre del Svevi Basilicata Bianco
While we were taking bottles off the top shelf, I also handed this bottle to the same gentleman. Where in the world of wine do you have the paradox of a landscape like Basilicata? Then take white grapes that were born and raised in parts of Italy where German is the mother tongue. Muller Thurgau and Traminer, hijack and sequester them in deep, dark, Basilicata. It is cold in Basilicata in January, but the grapes have found their winter home. There is fruit and that reminds me of aromatic West Coast whites from California, Oregon and Washington. There is forbidding landscape filled with rocks and stones and pumice and all sorts of impenetrable minerality. And the wine picks it up as the vine squeaks through the cracks in the earth. I have tried this wine with all sorts of food and am looking forward to the day when I taste it with cooking from someone’s aunt or grandmother from Potenza or Matera or Rionero.



Cadetto Rosso Nero d’Avola from Tenuta La Lumia in Licata, Sicily
The winery could be someone’s dream of a winery in Old California. Mine. But it is firmly rooted in Old Sicily.
This is a wine that has going on, underground, all sorts of mineral wealth. If it were in Texas, they’d probably strip mine it and be done with it, git us some Hummer fuel. But this is Sicily and that won’t happen. All I can really say about this wine is that when I open it and taste it, it makes me happy. It fires up all my synapses relating to some Sicilian-well-being molecules that reside within these mortal walls. I can taste the wine right now, there’s cherry and salt and rare meat and pomegranate and orange peel and Idiazabal and Mimolette and Canestrato. Who needs food? Just a little hard bread and one of the aforementioned cheeses- Happiness in Paradise.


Tomorrow, we head into snow and slush and delayed planes and Manhattan gridlock and more wonderful wines from the wine trail in Italy.

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

Fun Tina, Bar Talk and Fran's List

No animal was harmed to make this meal- Take that, Bertolucci

One of the conflicts about having a job and writing a blog is that sometimes there isn’t enough time to do it all.Yesterday was a long day. I got home after 9:00 pm. A reception for Italian trade, followed by chat sessions around the bar at Bicé.

What I really want to do is a list. But I have these pictures and they need to be woven in. I don’t know why, but that is the way my mind works. So let’s have at it.


Do we all secretly want to eat dog food in Hell?
I talked with one of my colleagues tonight, on the way home. He is worried about his daughter, because her dog found a tampon in the garbage and ate it. Of course, the dog got sick and had to go in to get unplugged.

Word to the dog – chase something that shows signs of life. Look at the cat chasing the mouse. Do you see a pattern here?

The list
1) Re: Sales - Find the live ones.


Is there nothing today’s chef won’t plug?
Recently Molto Nascario could be found blogging on a website called Serious Eats, called Mario Unclogged. That lasted about 15 minutes. Then he started his own blog and that lasted about as long as it takes to digest one of those hot dogs from street vendors in New Orleans. Yes, Reginald, as you say, "talk about a confederacy of dunces." Heaven help us if he starts hawking for Kohler.

Word to MM – you have enough money – now stop.

The List
2) Re: Livelihood - Sauté or get off the pot.


How many Italians can you fit into a Taxi?
In New York, or Buenos Aires, getting around town in a taxi is a way of life. In Dallas or Houston, not really. Out west, until the oil runs dry or the polar ice caps melt, we will continue to ferry folks around in SUV’s or Minivans. It’s all part of the heritage of the covered wagon culture. Heck of a job, Biondi.

Word to Mimi – you have enough money – now stop.

The List
3) Re: Knowing when to get out- before the cab starts rolling.


Vinitaly is in 82 days – Do you have a room?
Every year, on the day after Vinitaly, I go to a hotel I saw along the way, to reserve for the next year. And every time they tell me they have no room. That is the Italian Funk to me, and that is why Italians will be the last to know that they have collectively been complicit in the funkification of a great country.

Word to Verona – Vegas is watching - and waiting.

The List
4) Re: Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue – or lofty expectations?


Speaking of a blue funk
Lately, everyone I ask, Italian or American living in Italy, have all resoundingly opined that Italy is in deep donkey-doo. A young Sicilian, living in Texas, says it’s because they went off the lire. A Texan-now-Tuscan confirms, even though Bella Italia is wonderful, trying to get things done, without “cheating”, is impossible.

34-year-olds from Italy write me, telling me they want to move to South America. American youth write to me, telling me they want to go work for free in Italy. Who’s on first?

Word to 30-somethings everywhere- even though your parents raised you, in Italy and California, that they loved you just-the-way-you-are, the rest of the world didn’t sign off on that.

The List
5) Re: Having it your way – unless you’re a genius or your family has gazillions – You’re going to have to do it the old-fashioned way: You’re gonna hafta earn it – just like the rest of the folks on earth.


Did someone say donkey?
Whatever happened to the secret Italian wine project, Three Girls and a Donkey? Well the girls are still around, but the donkey got fired. Seems he didn’t want to carry wood down the hill. Thought he was a real estate mogul.

Word to donkeys who buy homes in Brooklyn and stop going to work- The bubble burst. And don’t you look ridiculous walking around your home town in a robe? What would your mother say?

The List
6) Re: Making money without working – It’s like those vibrating exercise machines from the 1950’s. If you don’t sweat you probably won’t last – not in this business.


Fun Tina
“When the legs go, I’ll stop wearing those short skirts”, was the word heard on the street. Well, the old man is gone, and the estrogen is running out. So drink your drink and dance your dance, 'cause it’s 1:50 in the morning and time for last call.

Word to young men looking to bag a cougar at the bar – Get back in your cage. Your nets are out of their range.

The List
6) Re: The End – it’s closer than you think.

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