Austinites! Please don’t miss my band’s first appearance in the River City, this Saturday, Feb. 9, at the Parish Underground, 9 p.m. sharp. Click this link for details. FREE SHOW!

If you follow the wide world of Italian wine blogging, you have probably noticed that our wine blogging colleague Franco Ziliani experienced something of a funk last year. We all stood by him as the vicissitudes of life handed him some tough times.

The good news is that Franco is back, blogging again with the same verve — as mutual friend Francesco likes to put it — that gave him one of the biggest followings in the Italian enoblogosphere.

That’s Franco in the photo above (right) with my bromance Giovanni (to whom I was introduced by Franco back in 2008). We had dinner together over Thanksgiving weekend at Giovanni’s apartment in Brescia when I visited Italy for a new client in Franciacorta, the Barone Pizzini-Pievalta winery group.

This morning, I published a translation of Franco’s review of some of Barone Pizzini’s Franciacorta for the winery’s blog.

And it’s without hesitation that I recommend the wine… and the wine writing.

Here’s the link.

Welcome back, Franco!