Please join me and Houston sports and wine writing legend Dale Robertson as we present the annual Texas BBQ & Italian Wine seminar at the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce Taste of Italy trade fair, Monday, February 26.

Click here to reserve your spot.

Click here to see the complete list of events, including the Prosecco seminar I’ll be leading (filling up fast btw) and the grand tasting.

The smoked meat component of our tasting will be led by the inimitable pitmaster Ara Malekian (above), owner of Harlem Rd. Texas BBQ just outside of Houston proper.

It’s hard to imagine now but when I first moved to Texas there wasn’t a lot of hipster bbq available in the urban centers. Yes, there were a few legacy places that still served lackluster smoked meats. But you had too drive out to the country to find the really great stuff (does anyone remember the mania created by Snow’s back in the late 2000s?).

Today, that’s all changed and there more smokers in Austin and Houston than I can count.

And as cliché and passé as it may sound to pair Texas BBQ with Italian wine (been there, done that?), it just works really well and the foodies seem to come back gladly. It’s a special event and I love doing it.

This seminar sells out every year so please reserve asap to ensure availability. We have some great wines lined up, including some Aglianico, Sangiovese, and a couple of surprises.

Thanks for the support and I hope to see you there!

In other news…

I’m just wrapping up a crazy week of media meetings in NYC. It’s been great to be back in the city, my first visit this year. The energy is coming back. It’s not quite all there but it’s getting there. I’m looking forward to visting later this year (in March I’ll be doing an Abruzzo seminar there at the Slow Wine tasting).

No big discoveries on this round (too many meetings and client visits) but I did find an amazing dive bar in the subway! That end-of-the-night beer made it really feel like home again.