From the department of “some how, some way, I get to drink funky-assed wines like every single day”…

Tracie P and I are so fortunate to belong to such a wonderfully collegial and unabashedly generous community of wine writers and professionals.

Knowing that we are diehard fans of Joly and his Coulée de Serrant and ever thirsty to taste older vintages, a colleague and client of mine recently set me a six-bottle vertical of the wine stretching back to 1991.

We had let the wine rest for a few weeks and decided to open a bottle last night for Mother’s Day (at 32 weeks into our pregnancy, Tracie P drinks one glass of wine a couple of times a week).

Sadly, the 2000 (opened first) was maderized… Drinkable but lacking the electricity we had hoped for.

The cork on the 1991 broke as I pulled it but after straining and decanting to remove a few crumbs that had fallen into the bottle, the wine showed beautifully, with intense freshness (after about 20 minutes of aeration). The wine had layer upon layer of ripe and dried stone fruit and zinging acidity in perfect harmony with the wine’s unctuousness. We loved it (paired with a late spring Texas basil pesto).

It was a very special and unforgettable Mother’s Day for us. :)

I spent the day offline yesterday but this morning was thrilled to discover a review of our wine list at Sotto in Los Angeles (which I curate together with Rory Harrington) by Master of Wine Tim Atkin for The Economist online magazine Intelligent Life.

“If you want to drink Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon, the default choices of too many American diners,” he writes, “you will be disappointed. But if you’re interested in Greco di Tufo, Nerello Mascalese, Aglianico and Negroamaro – or prepared to give them a try – Harrington is a very enthusiastic advocate of these and other native varieties.”

Click here for the complete review.

What a thrill to know that Tim enjoyed our list! And how great to be connected to such a brilliant wine writer and authority through our virtual community!

And thanks to that very same community, I had the immense fortune to taste drink 1958 Bartolo Mascarello on Friday. I had been invited to lunch with a group of NYC-based collectors who happen to read my wine blog (do people still read wine blogs?).

It was one of the most memorable wines I’ve ever tasted in my life. And I thank my lucky stars for the generosity of the friends who shared it with me. It was just one in a remarkable flight of wines that I’ll post about tomorrow (80 B. Mascarello, 70 Pora, 85 Rinaldi etc.). Stay tuned…

some how, some way, I get to drink funky-assed wines like every single day…

Happy Mother’s Day, Tracie P! :)

Georgia P and I love you so much. You are so sweet to us and you make us feel loved each and every minute of every day.

Every time I look at Georgia P or hear you say that little Baby P is moving around inside your belly, my heart feels like it will burst with the love we feel for you.

Thank you for giving us these precious little girls, who bring so much joy into the world.

You are the best mommy ever and we love you.

Cake by our friend Olga at Polkadot Cupcake Factory.

From the department of “who said that Texas was flyover country?”…

What a week Wednesday last week Wednesday was!

In the course of twenty-four hours on the ground in Texas, I ate lunch with my buddy Ray (as in Isle, executive wine editor for Food & Wine), tasted with a Master Sommelier and one of my favorite Valpolicella producers, photographed the owner of Tenuta Sette Ponti for a client, and had dinner with one of the Italian wine importers I admire most, David Weitzenhoffer (above), owner of A.I. Selections, “the little Italian wine importer who could” (more on that later).

When I first moved to Texas, my friends in New York and California used to ask me alarmedly, what will you drink there? I even heard a few call it “flyover country.”

Nearly five years later, I’m happy to report that I’ve been drinking well, in part thanks to David’s superb portfolio which is now available in Texas (I’ll post my notes from the excellent tasting David organized for me as soon as I can catch my breath).

Today, I head back to New York for one last and thankfully short trip before Baby P 2013 arrives in July.

I’ll be pouring wine at some fancy tastings and I’ll be attending a few incredible tastings myself while in the city. In the meantime, I’m missing Franco Bernabei and my friend Anthony Giglio who are both visiting Texas this week (did someone say flyover?).

Here’s a taste of what I’ll be pining for while in New York… see you on the other side…

Above: Winemaker Donato D’Angelo and his wife Filena Ruppi at Vinitaly 2013.

Last summer, as Rory Harrington and I were preparing what we believe was the largest offering of Aglianico del Vulture by-the-glass in the U.S. (for our fall 2012 list at Sotto in Los Angeles where we co-curate the wine program), one of our favorite wine salespeople brought in an Aglianico del Vulture that reported “D’Angelo” on the label.

“I know the wine in the bottle,” I told him, “but I’m terribly sorry that we can’t sell it here at Sotto.”

“But you love the wine!” he protested. “Why can’t you carry it?”

“Because this wine was stolen out from under the people who made it,” I said.

And then I recounted the story of how Donato D’Angelo’s winery and brand was wrested away from him by his crooked sister-in-law and her children.

When Donato’s brother and partner in the winery died prematurely a few years ago, his clan used its majority ownership to force Donato and his wife Filena out of the picture, even though Donato was the founder and winemaker and even though he single-handedly revived the Aglianico del Vulture appellation after returning to Basilicata from Conegliano where he studied enology as a young man.

Above: I am very pleased to share the news that we now offer Donato D’Angelo by the glass and by the bottle at Sotto.

It’s one of those sad Italian stories of a family fractured by greed, deceit, and betrayal.

The good news is that Donato and Filena have launched a new label, “Donato D’Angelo,” and the wines are now imported to the U.S.

We had to special order them for California and Sotto is the only venue on the west coast where they are available.

And I am extremely proud to share these wines with our guests.

There are many expressions of Aglianico del Vulture that I love: Carbone and Musto Carmelitano are among my favorites and have both appeared on our list at the restaurant.

But Donato’s wines achieve an unrivaled elegance and delicacy.

I first met Donato and Filena in New York in 2005 and I have followed the wines ever since. And when I tasted with them at Vinitaly this year and stuck my nose into the “Donato D’Angelo” signature wine, I was thrilled to find that unmistakable floral note that he so masterfully attains.

As far as I am concerned, no Aglianico del Vulture is “D’Angelo” unless it’s “Donato D’Angelo.”

I’m currently on paternity leave from my monthly visits to Sotto (I’ll be back again in September once we’ve settled into life with our new baby, due in July). But if you happen to dine with us, please ask Rory to pour you a taste.

Buon weekend, yall…

Above: Winemaker Armando Castagnedi (right) of Tenuta Sant’Antonio, one of my favorite Valpolicella producers, was in Austin, Texas yesterday. That’s him tasting with top Austin sommelier Mark Sayre.

I always try to make myself available when Italian winemakers come to town and I was happy to carve out an hour of my day yesterday to taste and chat with Armando Castagnedi of Tenuta Sant’Antonio, who was in town “working the market” as they say in the wine trade.

When we met, he gave me a wonderful little book on how Ripasso is made and I wanted to share it here on the blog. So I called up the winery this morning and asked the export director Elena Verzini to send it to me in electronic format. She also sent me their Amarone book.

Click here for the Ripasso book and here for the Amarone book.

Both have great illustrations and solid English translations explaining the process behind these wines — unique in the panorama of European winemaking and among my favorites.

Click here for my Vinitaly tasting notes from my Tenuta Sant’Antonio visit.

Yesterday, I caught up with one of my favorite wine writers, Ray Isle, in Houston for lunch.

Ray and I know each other from my NYC days and it was super fun to connect in Houston, his hometown.

Here’s my post today for the Houston Press.