Above: Prosecco discounted 40 percent at a roadside retailer in Italy. Photo taken earlier this month.

“I have to delete two SKUs before I can add a new one,” said an Italian buyer for one of the largest wine retailers and distributors in the country.

He was part of a panel of leading food and wine buyers and decision-makers who were asked to address a group of visiting Italian food and wine producers. They were in Houston for the Taste of Italy trade fair, an event organized each year by the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce. (The chamber is my longtime client and I was the panel moderator.)

The theme of the conference was how to make your products relevant in the U.S. market during a time of industry crisis.

The question I posed to the panelists was how does a producer get your attention when they are pitching a product?

If you want to get in front of me, said the buyer, you need to know the market and you need to be willing to help me do my job by visiting frequently.

His words were echoed by his counterpart at a mid-sized Italian-focused food and wine importer.

You need to have all your paperwork in order, she said, noting that the time of pitching products to importers without prior FDA approval is over. She pointed out that FDA regulations have changed radically and the new requirements will go into effect in under a month’s time.

This news took a number of producers by surprise. (I attended a seminar on the new regulations in Dallas late last year. The new requirements are broad and aggressive in scope. There will be a grace period, I was told. But the new normal is going to be a harsh wake-up call for many industry veterans.)

All the panelists agreed that marketing and boots on the ground are going to be key in a saturated market that is becoming increasingly competitive because of higher costs and diminished demand.

As one of the panelists noted, it’s time to snap to!

*****

Thank you to everyone who attended our seminars and walk-around tasting yesterday. I had a blast presenting and moderating and I feel blessed to be part of such a vibrant food and wine community. Thanks to the chamber for making me part of such a great event each year.

Now, let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work!

Just in case you have been living under a wine industry rock and haven’t heard about The Hue Society and its founder Tahiirah Habibi, check out this profile of Tahiirah and her game-changing work, published this week by Imbibe.

Houstonians, Tracie and I are thrilled to invite you to meet Tahiirah and learn more about her work at two events we are organizing here.

They are coming to our city for the launch of the new Houston chapter of The Hue Society.

On Wednesday, March 13, Tracie and I will be hosting a party in our home for Tahiirah and The Hue Society national program manager Natasha Hall.

Please DM or email me for details.

And let’s please show The Hue Society what Houston is made of! I hope you can join us.

As a wine blogger rode across central and northern Italy the second week of February, drivers could spot protest signs from the freeway:

“No to insect flour. No to lab-grown meat.”

These were just two of the urgent slogans of opposition that appeared repeatedly along the autostrada.

Flour made from bugs and meat manufactured in a lab make for eye-catching calls to action.

But the “major tractor protests” that are being staged across Europe right now are a reflection of deep-seated problems in the way the EU administers subsidies and creates regulations for health, fairness, and — imagined — sustainability.

This week, the Marche grape growers association Terroir Marche published this post on their social media where one of its members, winemaker Giacomo Rossi of Col di Corte, describes the issues European farmers, including grape growers, are facing.

“We are farmers,” he writes, “and that’s why we stand with the farmers. We stand with everyone who practices their sacrosanct right to protest.”

I’ve translated a few salient passages from their manifesto. I hope it will help people to contextualize what’s going on with EU farmers right now and why they are protesting.

As Giacomo points out, it’s not just insect flour and lab-grown meat that has European farmers worried.

To give you a sense of the scale of the protests, the Seattle Times just published the following title earlier this morning: “Thousands of farmers advance on Madrid for a major tractor protest over EU policies.”

*****

When it comes to the European [Economic] Community [EEC], the [farmers’] true struggle is to get the EEC to simplify the bureaucracy and to revise the laws that individual countries pass in order to comply with EEC directives. There is no association of farmers that opposes these laws because to do so would be counter to their reason to exist and would reduce their profit. They live off of and thrive thanks to the senseless bureaucratization [of agriculture]…

The never-ending call to increase production derives principally from the poor management of the enormous amount of subsidies that the EEC doles out to farms. These resources tend to burden small and medium-sized farms with debt and disproportionate aid. It also compels them to spend on prohibitively expensive farming products that were created and are sold by just a handful of the big multinationals…

There is a complete disconnect between the reality of those who speculate [financially] on farmers… The banks and investment groups place bets on “weather derivatives”… It’s absurd to categorize food [products] as common commodities.

If you have ever visited Abruzzo wine country, then the above photo, from one of Masciarelli’s top parcels, should be no mystery to you.

In the 1980s, Gianni Masciarelli revolutionized Abruzzo viticulture when he became one of the first Abruzzo growers to use Guyot training in the place of tendone (pergola continua); high-density plantings intended to encourage competition among the vines; and organic growing practices. Everyone thought he was crazy. But today, some 40 years later, his legacy and the extraordinary wines are witness to his vision and brilliance.

Earlier this month, Masciarelli’s now longtime enologist Attilio Alfino took me on a tour of one of the winery’s top parcels. Attilio, who worked directly with Gianni before his passing, is a sort of living memory of the winery and arguably one of the best raconteurs of his vision and life’s work.

I can remember so clearly now: two decades ago, Masciarelli was the first “fine wine” I had ever tasted from Abruzzo when a leading NYC wine professional encouraged me to explore the extraordinary labels from this estate.

There’s no doubt in my mind that many Italian-focused wine professionals would tell you the same thing: Masciarelli and a handful of his contemporaries changed the way our generation thought of Abruzzo viticulture — and its potential.

One thing that I didn’t know about Masciarelli was that part of Gianni’s vision was to diversify his vineyards. As the amazing Attilio explained to me, Masciarelli owns literally scores of growing sites (more than 60, spread across Abruzzo’s four provinces, according to the estate’s website).

This was a truly revolutionary concept in Abruzzo, where, historically, a small group of families owned the majority of vineyard sites. Gianni upended that hegemony. And the diversity gave him a broader palette for his wines.

Gianni was also among the first to use barrique aging for his wines. I was blown away by the winery’s riserva Trebbiano d’Abruzzo, which is fermented and aged in barrique.

But it was the winery’s Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo that made me fall in love again.

I’ll be pouring and speaking about Abruzzo wines at three of the stops along the Slow Wine Guide tour in mid-March. See details here.

So much time and so little to do!

I have a ton of great tastings coming up and would be thrilled if you could join me for any or all. So here goes!

February 26: Taste of Italy Houston, where I’m leading I don’t know how many seminars, including Texas BBQ and Italian Wine Pairing. Reserve for the grand tasting and seminars here.

February 29: James Suckling Great Wines of the World in Miami, where I’ll be pouring Nizza DOCG by Amistà, my client and my friends. It’s not a cheap date but it’s an amazing lineup of top wines. Click here to reserve. I’m only pouring on the first day, fyi.

March 13-14: Hue Society in Houston, where Tracie and I will be hosting a reception at our home in Houston for Tahiirah Habibi and her team on Wednesday, March 13. It’s open to anyone in the wine business. And on Thursday, March 14, we’ll be doing a happy hour for them somewhere TBD. DM me to RSVP to either.

March 19: Slow Wine in NYC, where I’ll be doing an Abruzzo seminar and pouring Abruzzo wines at a dedicated stand. This will be super fun and I’m doing repeats in Austin on March 21 and Denver on March 25. Click here to reserve for any of the Slow Wine Tour dates, including the ones where I won’t be presenting. The night before the Austin event, the Slow Wine crew and I always do a honky tonk crawl. Open to all. Super fun.

April 10-12: I’ll be hosting anyone who wants to come taste and hang with me at the Amistà farm in Nizza, Piedmont. My friends at Amistà have an awesome farm house bed and breakfast, a great party house. I’ll be staying there those dates and all are welcome to stop by for a glass of Amistà Nizza and Amistà Vermouth di Torino. If you’re on your way to Langa or Monferrato before Vinitaly, please stop by! DM me.

April 14-17: Vinitaly, where I would love to connect with anyone who wants to taste and hang. For real, hit me up if you’re going. I’m working on a time and place for a big hang. Hue Society will be there, too, and we’re working on putting an event together.

In other news…

I’m looking forward to posting about my Abruzzo visits next week. That’s the one and only Chiara Pepe taking a break with her vineyard team. Chiara is one of the most inspirational figures in the wine trade I’ve ever met. Our chat was literally mind-blowing. I can’t wait to share my notes here. But I needed to get this technical info out first. Stay tuned and thank you for your support and solidarity.

Don’t forget that February is Black History Month. A great thread to follow: Black History Unlocked on Instagram. I highly recommend it. Happy Black History Month!

A seven-day trip to Italy began last week with spaghetti alla chitarra in Ortona, Abruzzo. The seafood there is ridiculously good.

Case in point: cuttlefish crudo. So simple, so perfect.

The first night I was in Pescara, I saw all these Carabinieri (Italian paramilitary police) filing into this forgettable seafood takeaway shop. The joint had a few tables where I enjoyed lightly breaded and delicately grilled cuttlefish and shrimp. The cuttlefish were wonderfully tender, the shrimp so sweet they tasted like candy.

Oven-fired sea bass with roast potatoes. May I have another glass of Cerasuolo di Abruzzo, please? So good. Continue reading →

Now is the season when I make the round of my clients in Italy and we sit down and look at our market and media strategies for the year ahead.

And this time around, I have an urgent message for all my clients: Americans need your partnership more than ever and now is the time to step it up. BIG TIME!

The news from across the Italian wine spectrum is bad.

Western governments are publishing more and more warnings and guidelines about the dangers of alcohol consumption; the new generation of would-be wine drinkers is focused on cocktails and is avoiding alcohol in general; the American restaurateurs and retailers who made it through the pandemic and ensuing financial crisis are barely hanging on.

Anecdotally, distributors reps have been telling me that 2023 was their toughest year ever since the historic financial crisis of the aughts.

As boring it is to read a bunch of blowhards complaining about the good old days, I highly recommend that everyone in our industry read this interview published Tuesday by WineBusiness.com, “Wholesalers Discuss Biggest Changes in the Industry.” Weak title but worth the read.

Italians, we are facing a now-or-never moment in our industry when those who have the right attitude will thrive; those who don’t will flounder.

The Italian wineries who are going to make it through to the other side of American wine sales are going to be those who: 1) invest wisely in marketing; and 2) spend time working, physically present, in the market.

Please keep in mind that the challenges are not insurmountable. Think of Angelo Gaia, Piero Antinori, and Piero Mastroberardino who came to the U.S. in the early 1980s when Italian wine was considered a benchwarmer. Those dudes rolled up their sleeves, heard “no” for an answer more than once, and they turned the world on to the magic of great Italian fine wine. Think of their legacy today. Think of Michele Chiarlo sending his importer a container of Moscato d’Asti on spec!

Let those visionaries and risk takers be our Virgil! In the case of each, they physically came and they invested heavily — with time and money.

That’s what we’re going to need moving forward.

Super shout out today to @thehuesociety for hosting me on one of their virtual tastings last night. That was a blast.

And heartfelt thanks to @marcofantinel for hooking up super wines. The Pinot Grigio RocciaPonca was a standout for me. And perfect for showing the range of #Friuli wines.

My week got turned upside down when German transportation workers negotiations sent everyone scrambling to find alternate routes for destinations in Europe.

Lufthansa strike aside, I’m on a flight eastbound still hoping to make my first appointment in Abruzzo early on Thursday morning.

Travel to and from that part of Italy can have its challenges. It just takes a little bit of time to get there. Maybe that’s part of what makes it so cool. I’m really looking forward to getting back.

In other and more important news… I felt compelled to share this screenshot today from the Corriere Vinicolo, one of the institutional voices of the Italian wine industry.

“The Prosecco rush comes to a stop,” reads the headline. Allusion is to the “Corsa all’Oro,” the “Gold Rush” in Italian.

“For cru-designated wines,” it continues, “it will be a trench war,” with the implication that only the strongest will survive the mano-a-mano fight for market share.

When Prosecco is in trouble, people of the Italian wine trade, we all need to take time out and have some serious conversations.

I’ll be traveling across central and northern Italy for the next seven days and I’ll be talking to a wide variety of people, trade and lay. I’m looking forward to sharing our chats and their notes here. I’m optimistic for a clear path forward in Italian wine. But I’m also realistic in recognizing the immense obstacles that lay ahead.

Thanks for being here and please wish me speed!

The picture above says it all, doesn’t it?

Diluvial and limestone soils at the foot of the Carnic Alps in Italy’s far northeast. Mountains protecting the growing area from the cold winds from the north but marittime influence from the Adriatic arrives from coast (in the form of clouds in the image).

There’s so much to decipher in this photo sent to the Hue Society by my longtime friend, Friulian grower Marco Fantinel.

On Monday, February 5, at 8 p.m. EST, members of the Hue Society and I will be joining a Zoom where we’ll discuss Friuli and other appellations that should be on wine professionals’ radars these days.

Only Hue Society members will receive the wines, but anyone is welcome to join.

This is a group of seasoned pros. So I’m not going to do Italian wine 101 or anything like that. Throughout conversation, we’ll keep the focus on what’s new and exciting in Italian viticulture.

My partnership with Hue Society is part of the group’s campaign to build up their chapter in Houston. And founder and president Tahiirah Habibi and her crew will be joining Tracie and me for a party we’re hosting for them at our house in mid-March (stay tuned for details). We’re also planning a happy hour that week.

In the meantime, please join us on Monday for our Zoom call. If you don’t have wines from Marco, open some Friuli… or open whatever you have handy… and let’s talk Italian wine!

Here’s the link. Call starts at 8 p.m. EST on Monday. Hope to see you then! Buon weekend a tutti!