Do Americans love and drink Italian wines more than Italians?

There is a pattern I have noticed lately when talking to Italian winemakers about their production and where they send their wine. That is, the domestic market for selling Italian wine (in Italy) is a mangled mess.

How to bring your Italian wine to the American market

No matter which party is dominant in Washington, no matter if the Dow is 26,000 or 1,600, no matter if we are in an unpopular war somewhere in the world, no matter if it all seems like the earth is a big fat match getting ready to be struck on the side of the matchbox, no matter – people want to sell their Italian wine to America. The dream of America is still alive in Italy. Let’s take a look at some of the routes to market.

When Wine Experts Aren’t Always Right

I’m sitting at my table with a dear old friend. We’ve traveled around Italy, France, California. You name it, we’ve been there. If you live long enough, it can happen.

Tonight, though, we’re at home. Or rather, I am. He’s still 250 miles from his bed and his pillow and he has a 10PM appointment with a bunch of young sommeliers to talk about and taste Bordeaux wines. Yes, we’re lifers.

So, I talk to him about something that we witnessed last week in California. Long story short- we were judges at the state fair in California and to warm up our palates, our hosts sent us ( all 73 of us) a glass of something and asked us to identify it. No clue as to where it came from. Nothing.

California Wine Report ~ 1st Rosé of the Season ~ Everything Starts Over @ 100

Celebrating 100 years, before flying to Dallas, with a glass of Provence Rosé

This past week, the wine trail had me in home state of California judging State Fair Wine Competition. When the week ended I flew down to Newport Beach to pick up my mom, who just turned 100, and we headed back to Dallas for another round of celebrations. Wine bloggers have their weaknesses - @HawkWakaWaka has Jr, @Steve! has his Gus and @Hosemaster has his Lo Hai Qu. I have a centenarian mom who walks faster than me and as I write this, I’m trying to figure out how to tire her out so I can take a nap! Good luck with that. Wine blogging might be dead, but wine blogger’s moms, at least this one; she isn’t showing any signs of slowing down.

At the airport we had an hour or so, and we shared some of the new rosé of the season, the 2013 Domaines Ott from Provence. I had just found out from a DNA report that my mom is related to Marie Antoinette (and my dad is related to Napoleon Bonaparte!) so we celebrated 100 years with a glass of French wine before we got on the plane to Dallas. Mom says she doesn't remember having rosé wine recently. "Everything starts over @100", I once heard.

In Praise of Funky Wine

or, 7 ways to keep squirrels from drinking your wine

Sacramento, California – I am sequestered these past two days with 70+ wine experts for the annual California State Fair Wine Competition. My Italian connection has given me wines from California made with Pinot Grigio, Sangiovese, Barbera, along with Zinfandel, red Italian-esque blends (SuperTuscans), Carignan and white Rhone varietal blends.

A couple of things right up front. While I learned to drink wine growing up in California, my palate has migrated towards Italian (and European) wines. That said, I am not against California wines. Far from it. But I believe I do pass wine through the filters of my preconceptions (as we all do, all of us, except maybe Dan Berger).

Merlot, the most hated grape 10 years running, finds a home in Italy (and in my heart)

It doesn’t seem that long, but in 2004 the movie Sideways was released. In the film, Pinot Noir was lionized, and to this day, the sales of Pinot Noir are still roaring. Merlot, on the other hand, was excoriated. The character Miles had a famous line in which he said, “If anyone orders Merlot, I'm leaving. I am NOT drinking any f***ing Merlot!” Ironically, the last wine he was seen drinking at the end of the movie was a Cheval Blanc 1961, which is a blend, predominantly, of Cabernet Franc and Merlot.

I am one of those people who disavowed any allegiance to Merlot. I shunned it; I avoided it at all costs. I refrained from drinking it. I loathed it. Or so I thought.

My (Oh, So Superior) Wine vs. Your (So-So) Wine

Three weeks on the road, driving across Texas - Dallas to Houston to San Antonio to Austin to Dallas - there has been time to talk in the car with my travel mates. We go into a city and see clients, and then get in the car and head to another city. In and out. Over time patterns emerge. Here is what I have seen in these days.

Whether the person you are going to see is a seasoned veteran or a new-on-the-scene wine buyer, they all have opinions. If they are older, they often have a punch list of preferences by which they evaluate the Italian wines we are setting in front of them. If they are the new crop, they too have their list. How the two different types fill out their list is quite different.

7 Questions about Italy, Wine and Passion

A few months ago on Antonio Galloni’s Vinous “Your Say” site, there was some lively conversation when Monica Larner showed up. She peeked in and said hello and some of the folks were off to find their pitchforks and machetes, whereby she ducked back out, never to be heard from again in that chat room. Pity, because I think highly of Monica. But I definitely understand when one is made to feel unwelcome by some of the members. Organizations, families and the like aren’t always comprised of people who play nice. Sometimes they hurt.

Italian White Wines for Collectors – Aging with Honor

Recently, there has been a thread that is developing on these posts. One post, Old Wines for Young Sommeliers, looked into a world the younger generation might consider for their future enjoyment. Another one, White Wine for Red Wine Lovers, focused on white wines from Italy that might be enjoyable to folks with a disposition for red wine. Along the way folks asked me about white wines from Italy that age well. Then another friend sent me a column from Kerin O’Keefe of the Wine Enthusiast, entitle Aging Gracefully, about Italian wines that counter the notion of pronto bevere. It was a short piece, and though the wines written about were definitely age-worthy, the piece wasn’t long enough (probably by design) to get into other specific wines that I find (or want to find) in my wine closet. Let’s talk about some of those wines.

What Do I Need to Learn About Italian Wine?

Wow! How does one answer that one in 1000 words or less? Fortunately I have been asked that question a lot more lately. A new crop of wine salespeople is rushing towards Italian wines. And most of them are women under 30.

I see it all now. The bearded sage is leading hundreds of beautiful, intelligent young women from the summit of Mount Nebo and showing them the path to the river Jordan, where they will pass into the Promised Land.

All of a sudden I get a tap on my shoulder, from a young woman in spandex workout clothes. “Hello? I asked you: What do I need to learn about Italian wines?” Her impatience was implacable.

The Resistance Report - The Return of the Wine Snob?

Status quo is a tricky thing. If you fight to get your position to dominate, someone will come up from behind and try to make their position superior. We see it all the time in the rarified wine world. Some folks will make a particular wine or wine style popular. Ten minutes later and 180 degrees in the other direction, another group will make their plea for relevance. Chardonnay, with oak. Chardonnay, without oak. White wine, with acid. White wine, with fruit. Red wine with power. Red wine with buoyancy. And on and on. Everyone is looking to discover something no one has unearthed. We see it all the time in young wine buyers; they want to find it themselves. Problem is, it isn’t lost. It just has not been revealed to them.

With an old-timer yesterday, talking about this. His take was, “These snotty somms, what kind of life experience have they had, compared to you, to me?” I was shoveling in scrambled eggs, trying to fill up the hole in my stomach from the night before, where a lump of undigested onions was still seething. Last thing on my mind was the future as run by the current cadre of millennials.

From Italy to Argentina to Texas – A Buffalo Gap Sagra

You see it often in Italy. A celebration. Of pasta, of tomatoes, of zucchini flowers. Especially during harvest season, as one drives along the roads of Italy, there are signs of local celebrations, or Sagras, as they are known. Deep in the heart of West Texas, it isn’t harvest season. But our friends from Argentina are in the midst of gathering grapes to make wine. A few of them took a long weekend off to join us in our annual celebration at Perini Ranch, the Buffalo Gap Wine and Food Summit, in its 10th year.

This post will be short on words and long on images. One of the great festivals in Texas for food and wine, Buffalo Gap has retained its “aw shucks” style of simplicity. Lisa and Tom Perini, are on their way to New York to accept a James Beard Foundation 2014 America’s Classics Award, given to restaurants “that have timeless appeal and are beloved for quality food that reflects the character of their community.” Our little ‘ol national treasure, just a hop, skip and a jump from Abilene, is bringing home the medallion. But what makes Perini Ranch and the Buffalo Gap Summit great is that everybody hangs out, talks, drinks, eats and even dances together. No long queues, no Madison Avenue hype, just great weather, wine and food. It’s pretty wonderful. Thank you Lisa and Tom, and all the wonderful folks that make it happen.

White Wine for Red Wine Lovers

and a couple for white wine lovers too

This past trip to Italy, some of my favorite red wine makers showed me their white wines. Italians aren’t as regimented in their allegiance to red wine as we seem to be in America. In America the sign of having arrived as real wine aficionados is to embrace all that is red. Medical news stories hawk the health benefits of resveratrol, never mind that if you drank enough red wine to take advantage of the benefits of resveratrol, you’d probably first die of liver poisoning.

The British wine experts also made red wine a priority. Harry Waugh was reported to have said “The first duty of wine is to be red.” For anyone who wanted to be considered a serious wine person, one had to know their red wine.

Over time, I’ve come to think, like my Italian cousins, that red wine isn’t always the best choice for a meal. Many of the dishes we have require something more delicate. Weather conditions also taken into account, sometimes a beefy Super Tuscan or a high acid, tannic Nebbiolo is just too much for summers in Texas. Or many places in the Northern Hemisphere these days.

The reality is, I love white wine. And many of my wine expert friends do too. It’s not that we don’t love red wine; we just don’t love it exclusively. But walking the aisles of a wine store and asking people what they are looking for, by and large, most of them think they need a red wine. And so it goes.

The following wines are selections I tasted from the last trip. These are wines that red wine lovers can learn to love. And there are a couple of wines just for the white wine fanatics that I call my friends. Here they are.

Old Wines for Young Sommeliers

From the “what would I put away?” dept.

There’s some chatter lately about the young and the old in the wine world. Not having totally destroyed all my memory cells from earlier days, I’d like to share some thoughts about which wines I would buy if I were 30 years younger. Keep in mind; 30 years ago I started to put away wine. Those wines are now like tattoos to me. Some of them have become great friends; some of them I wonder just how they got there. The good news about a poorly chosen wine for collecting, you don’t have to wear it on your chest for the rest of your life. You pop the cork and send it on its way.

Why We Root for Godzilla

Human beings fear the monster. But we also love the monster. The monster, personified by Godzilla, has an enduring magnetism for many of us. Why do we love the monster so?

In between tastings of Lamole Chianti Classico and Bonny Doon’s Vin Gris de Cigare and over a period of days, the image and idea of Godzilla has been slowly resurfacing, much like the monster does in the movies when he comes back up from the depths of the sea. Lurking, seething, totally unfiltered and unrestrained, Godzilla is the ultimate badass. Moreover, Godzilla is old-school, and Godzilla gives each and every one of us tacit permission to embrace old-school ways.