Buffalo Gap Wine and Food Summit - Fried Chicken, Sabered Champagne and Jaques Pepin

From the "I wonder what the rich folks are eating?" dept.

Right off the plane from France and Italy I was whisked through a veritable Inferno on a scale only Dante could aptly describe. It seems there have been some hellacious wind and fire storms in West Texas and we drove through them to get to Abilene, where Tom and Lisa Perini host the Buffalo Gap Wine and Food Summit, now in their 7th year.

The Meaning of Hospitality

From the Bolognese, Branzino and Grignolino files

Tonight. My last night. Two weeks away from home. France. Italy. Everyday, somewhere to be. Wine to be tasted. Ten hour days. Driving. Weak eyes. Sore feet. And then finally the last hotel. Near the airport. So close.

One more meal. Near the hotel. 50 feet away. Why not? After a wonderful day in Barolo, with Anna and Emanuela and nine wonderful wines going back to 1990. Dolcetto. Cortese. Barbera. Nebbiolo. Moscato. Great chef. Amazing lunch. Wonderful company.

And then the drive to the last hotel room. And the last meal.

Castiglione Falletto: What a difference 27 years makes

Luca Currado is very animated about this land. And with good cause. From a family heritage dating back before the unification of Italy, Luca's family was really out in front of the evolution of modern day Barolo. That's not to say modern Barolo, though. In fact, this second time around, the wines have steered forward in a timeless manner.

The last (and first) time I was here, in 1984, Luca's father, Alfredo, was at the helm. And it was heady times. All of Castiglione Falletto was this vibrating bee hive. Cavalotto, Scavino, any number of people I visited in those days, there was building and barriques. Rotating fermenters, technology gone wild, modernity in full swing.

Happily, my inner Rip Van Winkle, upon awakening and returning, has found that this land has found a few stewards to take the course back due North and maintain the ascendancy of these great wines and terroir.

Room With a View and the Best Pizzeria Wine List on Earth

from the Nebbiolo in Neive chronicles...

Finally, I can get into the vineyards! After nine straight days of tasting, usually from 9:00AM until 6:00PM, followed by lengthy dinners and a long drive back to a room, I am in the Langa. Two quick days to make a few rounds, visit some friends. I am staying with a long-time friend and man, if that isn't the sweetest view outside a window I don't know what is.

After visiting Lageder and the Summa alternate conference, where I tasted Giacosa, deGresy (in anticipation of today) and a whole range of Lageder, Marco Felluga, some amazing Rieslings and some wacky Austrian wines, I am calibrated. A four hour drive got me into Valdivilla just in time to catch the magic bus to Neive to have, what else, pizza and Nebbiolo in Neive.

"The Hottest Vinitaly in 40 Years"

A bit of a mixed bag regarding Vinitaly 2011. First off, there are a lot of amazing people here (see pictures after the post). Some of them I got to talk with and taste their wines. There never is enough time. Seems like next year there will be even less.

For those who care to know, Vinitaly 2012 will be held in Verona, again, but this time the wine fair will start on Sunday April 1 and go through Wednesday April 4. (Thank you, Luca Zaia). The thinking was that it needed to be open more during business days so that the restaurant owners could come on their off days. It means one less day of the fair.

However in 2012 Easter falls on that following Sunday, April 8. So it will be Holy Week in Italy. As well it will be the week of the en primeurs 2012 tastings in Bordeaux. Which makes it impossible for journalists and folks who try to cover both events.

Margaritas and Montecristos in the Medoc with Monsieur Lapin

Totally on the wine trail, albeit a ways from Italy. It has been three days non stop in Bordeaux with the 2010 en primeurs. And what a packed three days on the Left Bank in the Medoc it has been. From Lafite to Latour, Margaux, Mouton and many more, tasting the new vintage and assessing the pageant that emanates from one of the centers of the wine world.

Natty Wine and Nasty Cops: April in Paris

A short one day layover in Paris en route to Bordeaux for the annual En Primeurs pageant. In this case one day is enough. But more about that later.

After a very bumpy ride across the Atlantic, we finally arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport, CDG. I had a short text from a couple of buddies, Master Sommeliers Drew Hendricks and James Tidwell, both from Texas. So I hauled my stuff over to their terminal for a little coffee clatch. Drew and James were on their way to Lebanon, ostensibly to spend time with the Musar bunch. We made short work of it in the time it took to drink two espressos and a tea. And then it was time for us to go our separate ways.

About 10 minutes after I left them, I felt a lightness in my bags. Before I got on the train into Paris I checked for my coat. It had gone missing. I thought I had probably left it in the cafe when I had reached in a pack to get a camera for the photo of James and Drew. So I sprinted back to see if it were still there. You've heard stories of the city and how people don't care (more about that later). In this case I was in luck, my warm and needed coat was right where I left it. On to Paris.

Farewell, Marco

Vinu vecchiu ed ogghiu novu.

I never knew Marco DeBartoli. I loved his wines. In 2005 I visited his winery. But it was in 2001 on Pantelleria that I came across the magical place, Bukkuram, not far from where I was staying. And that was my introduction to DeBartoli and his wines.

He wasn’t but a few years older than me, but it seemed his time here on earth was done. I really felt his wines. Truth be told, I tried to sell them here in Texas and was unsuccessful. Not for any reason that the wines were lacking. But they are wines for a particular kind of person. Having Sicilian blood coursing through my veins, I fully understood. I drank more of them than I sold. They were liquid lust.

If you cant stand the the heat

More pix from a fabulous (and needed) dinner last night at Stephan Pyles. Yesterday was a challenging day; let’s just leave it at that. So when I was invited to sup @ Stephan Pyles, and a wine dinner that I didn’t have to talk at, I jumped! Hudson Ranch and Vineyards – Carneros, California – I knew nothing about them – they brought their own pork, which owner Lee Hudson had butchered a few days before and schlepped to Texas via American Airlines. Having just been to Friuli and watched a couple of brother pigs receive a similar fate; I knew this was food we should eat with reverence and slowly. The wine was fab, the crowd was lively. We sat next to the accomplished cardiologist, Harold Urschel (and his lovely wife Betsy) who worked on Gov. John Connolly on that fateful day in Dallas in 1963. He had many things to say about that day – history passing right before our eyes and ears.

Anyway, I have tons to do. Monday Sharon Hage, Tuesday Stephan Pyles, wonder how I can top that? Stay tuned. American Airlines, do ya feel me?

Palmento dinner with Robert Camuto and Sharon Hage at Jimmy's in Dallas

...with a little Sicilian photo lagniappe for dessert at the end

Palmento author, Robert Camuto with chef Sharon Hage under the Sicilian trinacria

Short and sweet. Last night in Dallas at Jimmy’s in old east Dallas, there was a confluence, lets say a trinacria, of wine and food. And we were all the richer and happier for it. Robert Camuto was in town to talk about his new book on Sicily, Palmento. Sharon Hage was in town back for a spell from New York. And Paul Di Carlo and the Jimmy’s family were in ‘da house. And the place was filled with book lovers, Sicilian romantics, great wine great words and the food – out of this world!

Pictures – captions – self-guided tour – with a little lagniappe, the Alfonso “way-back machine” going back to 1971 and Sicily when it really was feral. If you live long enough all these things become historical. Anyway, talk amongst yourselves: eat drink, love, write - breathe.

A huge thanks to Michael Sutton for pressing for this event – without you Michael it wouldn’t have happened

Thanks to everyone: Robert, Sharon, Matt, Paul Mike, Mary, Rebecca, Jeff, Joe, Tom and anyone else I have nor mentioned. Oh, and sorry again to the gent that I dropped that bottle of Delila on.

Rummaging Around the Wine Trail

I’m obsessed with cameras. I keep looking for the one that will help me solve the little puzzles that are put before me. With a camera, I can capture a moment, 1/100th of a second, take it home and give it a real long look. I can take memories into custody, run my fingers past them, go over them one more time- the Christmas dinner 30 years ago, the wine tasting 30 days ago, the meal 30 minutes ago. All to myself. No explaining to the skeptics, the all-inclusive faithful ones, truth be damned. Inside-out turned within, to gaze upon, to savor, to be free from the master and the misanthrope. My own little world, even if it is just rummaging around other folks debris.

Why the camera? For the moments we never seem to remember. So many of us are hustling about for the next great wine, the best little hilltop village in Southern Italy, the prettiest gal at the dance, that those little details escape our gaze. We are looking for something. And in the ensuing hunt, we miss out on the stuff of life.

Italian Wine DOCG News - Now up to "60"

...the latest news from "The Other Side"

Carnac the Magnificent. by Victor McCay

There is not enough coffee or amaro to make sense of the Byzantine arrangement that the Italian government has devised to anoint the latest DOCG wines in Italy. Back rooms, mind reading, herding cats, I have tried all techniques, and I know this will be an incomplete task. Someone will find something under a rock, in a river, inside a plastic bag at the bottom of the ocean. If you do, send it along and we will check it out, find a way to make sense of an ordering that has pretty must lost any significance. But like fantasy baseball, it does keep me off the streets in the darkest hours. So I guess one could say this quest to discern all the known DOCG wines of Italy has saved my life. That said, your guess is as good as mine, or Carnac the Magnificent’s. The envelope please:

The Newly Anointed "10"

CAMPANIA

*DOCG Aglianico del Taburno

MARCHE

*DOCG Offida

VENETO

DOCG “Piave Malanotte” o “Malanotte del Piave”

DOCG "Lison", (a name derived from the historical DOC Lison-Pramaggiore)

DOCG “Colli Euganei Fior d’Arancio”

PIEDMONT

DOCG- Erbaluce di Caluso

DOCG - Ruché di Castagnole Monferrato

DOCG – Alta Langa

DOCG - Dolcetto Diano d'Alba

PUGLIA

DOCG - Primitivo di Manduria Dolce Naturale

Still waiting at the altar
· Montepulciano d' Abruzzo Casauria (or “Terre di Casauria”)
· Prosecco di Prosecco (political appointment for the town of Prosecco in Friuli)

So with ten (10) cats a herded, that would make the magic number, at this point in time and space a total of 59 (*with the proviso that the two in asterisks have not yet been published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale, so they are awaiting their "official" notification, which is somewhere down in the "administrative" queue) ...listing after the break

Pour Decisions

I have looked at a lot of wine lists lately, in regards to Italian places, but not exclusively. One wine director recently bragged to folks at the bar, ”I tried to find things no one would recognize”. Really? Is that what I, as an owner, would like a beverage director to do to my wine program? Find things no one would recognize? What am I missing here?

If the consultant, director, whatever we call the person who designs a wine program, is at the restaurant all the working hours, it shouldn’t be a problem. But as it was, in the case of the place where the consultant put together a list of “unrecognizables”, two out of three times I was there, said consultant wasn’t there. So what good was this program?

A good friend recently told me, over lunch, "If you ain’t selling, you aren't here for long.”

Yιαγιά's Afghan

Last Monday I was at my computer at work and a message from my sister Tina popped up from Facebook. It was breviloquent. 10 words. 42 characters. “Just to let you know that Nick's mother passed away.” The funeral was to be the next day.

I later found out from my mother that Nick’s mother, Arianthi, passed away on the previous Thursday, before the earthquake in Japan. I probably would have gone if I had found out earlier, but as often happens, it was not to be. Just like when my wife Liz passed away, my mom came out. I told all the rest of the family to stay home; we’d have a memorial service for Liz in California. But as often happens, it was also not to be.

My brother in law, Nick, his family is Greek. His mother, Arianthi, whom we all called Yia-Yia (Yιαγιά), was a wonderful person. As was her husband, Demetri. But first, the afghan.

Thissur Pooram and Italy at 150 years: Something Worth Celebrating

My dear friends at Querciavalle celebrated the 150 years of Italian unity over a classic plate of pasta that mamma made. I have watched this winery pass from generation to generation (three now) in my short time knowing and loving these people.

Valeria writes, "Per celebrare i 150 anni, la famiglia Losi ha pranzato con delle belle tagliatelle fatte in casa,basilico, ricotta e pomodorini e ha brindato con un buon Chianti Classico Querciavalle 2007."

Valeria Losi sent me these pictures via Facebook. To me this is one of the triumphs of unity, something I would like to see more in America. Beautiful, traditional food, with beautiful, traditional wine made by beautiful, traditional people.