How could I not share the photo of the pizza (above) that I devoured joyfully last night at Bufalina in Austin.

My friend Steven Dilley, owner and founder of the concept (which now has two locations in Austin), continues to serve some of the best pizza I’ve ever had and the cured anchovies on this marinara really took it over the top.

And the pie paired exquisitely with a bottle of Abbatucci’s Rouge Frais Impérial from Steven’s ever-natural-minded list.

My date with the pie came on the heels of tasting with Cinzia Travaglini at another Austin restaurant where she was hosting a wine dinner.

Revisiting her wines, I realized that the first time I ever tasted Nebbiolo, it was from Travaglini. Long (very long) before the Italian wine renaissance began to emerge in the late 1990s in the U.S., her family’s wines were already widely available. I remember seeing them in gourmet food shops on the Sunset Strip when I was a grad student at U.C.L.A. And I remember tasting them with my private Italian language students when they treated me to dinner in their homes.

Her 2008 Tre Vigne was still very young and rich in the glass. She talked about how the 08 is going to be a top vintage for the winery and how the wines will age for even up to 30 years. A fantastic wine but it was the 2010 Riserva (below) that really blew me away with its focus and its lithe character and its nuanced layers of red and berry fruit. What a wonderful wine… and what a thrill to get to taste it with her after all these years (she was super nice).

Thanks for being here, everyone, and have a great weekend. I hope you’re drinking something lovely. Buon weekend…