Looking back on the last two decades of my career, it’s crazy to think about how much I owe to being in the right place at the right time.

One of those moments was hanging out with Cory Cartwright at Terroir in San Francisco in the first decade of this century. It was there that he and a band of likewise forward-looking cats were forging a new wine language.

Many industry folks will remember those years. Those pre-social media days marked the advent of “natural” wine and the explosion of the eno-blogosphere.

Cory and I met because we started reading each others’ blog. He was one of the most prolific writers of the early blogging days as he deciphered the new (old) wines that were finally reaching our shores.

When he and I reconnected yesterday in New Orleans at wonderful The Tell Me Bar, we reminisced about what a magical and exciting time it was. We were part of a burgeoning and swiftly expanding enoical dialectic. Those were the years of the new wine and the new wine language.

Hanging out at his popular spot in the city’s warehouse district, I was inspired by his business partner Uznea Bauer’s approach and interaction with their guests. Her voice is so genuine and her chops so spot on. Gone are the pretension and the one-up-personship that have plagued our industry for too long. Is this the authenticity that we have been hoping and waiting for? I believe it is. Spending time in their joint, wine felt like pure unadulterated pleasure unbound from the superciliousness of pseudo-connoisseurship. Man, it was good.

But as much as I was looking to the future last night at their bar in New Orleans, I couldn’t help but order a wine from the past. I remember drinking wines like that, so many years ago, with Tracie by my side, on my way to one of the best gigs of my life. It was the legendary night of Guillaume and the baseball bat at Terroir!

Uznea and Cory, thank you for putting together our Abruzzo event yesterday. It was off the charts!

Uznea, I quite literally couldn’t have done it without you. And it was such a treat to get to work by your side!

Cory, dude, how will I ever forget those years and how exciting it was to be part of a movement that would change the wine world forever and for better. Thank you for everything — then and now.

I’m one lucky son of a bitch. Just happened to walk into the right wine bar at just the right time — then and now.

Love you guys.

The whole idea was inspired by the kinda wild house parties we used to throw at our first home in Houston.

The girls, still in elementary school, were just getting started with their classic music training. We would open our home around 2 p.m. on a weekend day and I would set up a stage and sound system. The kids would do “open mic” performances for a few hours or so and then the adults would “jam out” using my backline (my amps, PA, drum kit, etc.).

Those were some legendary shindigs… and our house got a proper trashing along the way!

Earlier this year, I approached our best neighborhood dive bar, Emmit’s Place, where many members of our very musical and musician-rich community perform regularly. I asked the owners if they would let me take over one Sunday afternoon a month for an open mic featuring local musicians, including kids from the elementary and middle school music magnet programs (where our kids study as well).

The first one was such a success that it even merited a write-up in the Houston Press (our once weekly rag, now digital only).

This Sunday, from 2-6pm, I’ll be returning to Emmit’s Place in southwest Houston where I will be emceeing the open mic and then performing a set with my band, The Bio Dynamic Band featuring Katie White, during the last hour.

This is a family-friendly event, with comfort food (burgers, fries, nachos) and mocktails for the kids (the kids LOVE the mocktails).

I hope you can join me for an afternoon of great music. Some of our community’s leading adult players (some of the best in Texas, btw) have been known to sit in!

Thanks for supporting local music, local musicians, and local independent businesses!

And btw, happy Italian Liberation Day!

Anecdotally, I’m hearing that many E.U. producers are choosing to skip major wine events in the U.S. this year.

A medium-sized importer in the U.S. recently sent me the following note:

The next big threat is the weakening of the dollar vs. the Euro by 13% since January. If it keeps going this way for another six months at the speed it has been devaluing, then it won’t be the tariffs that put us out of business but the weak dollar. When I started importing in 2009 it was $1.53 to €1 and it has been $1.10 or lower for many years now. If it goes back up to even $1.35, I am going to have to significantly raise all of my prices and sales will slowly be strangled.

When you consider that the wine industry was already facing menacing headwinds before the tariffs and the sinking dollar, it becomes clear that the current crisis is existential for many operators. With no end to the tariffs in sight and growing economic uncertainty, the U.S. wine community is going to look starkly different by the end of this year.

In related news, the U.S. Wine Trade Alliance is soliciting comments on how tariffs and the value of the dollar are affecting small businesses:

We need your immediate feedback on how the current trade environment is affecting your business. As the 10% tariff on imported wines continues, and with the real possibility of escalations to 20% or more in the coming months, your voice is critical in helping us convey the stakes to policymakers.

Please take a moment to respond to the following questions:

How is the current 10% tariff impacting your business?
(Consider effects on hiring, investment, expansion plans, sales volumes, pricing, customer relationships, etc.)

If the 10% tariff remains in place long term, what will the ongoing impact be on your operations?
(Feel free to include the currency devaluation.)

In 2.5 months, if EU–U.S. trade negotiations go poorly and tariffs rise to 20% or more, how would your business be affected?
(We’re especially interested in how this would impact your viability, supplier relationships, and workforce.)

Responses can be e-mailed to ESarnor@akingump.com. You may copy me as well. We are compiling member input to share with trade officials and congressional staff in the coming days. If you are able, a response on company letter head would be helpful.

Please send responses by Monday, April 28th. Your feedback is essential to making the case that these tariffs are doing more harm than good to American businesses like yours.

Tariffs, schmariffs, it is the season again…

Please join me this Sunday 4/27 as we rock out Emmit’s Place in southwest Houston where we live. We’ll be doing open mic for kids and adults from 2-4; at 4 local middle schooler jazz outfit Rhytmix will perform (children of some of the top musicians in Houston, some of whom have been known to sit it!); and then at 5 my band, The Bio Dynamic Band featuring Katie White, will do a set.

This is a family-friendly event with comfort food and mocktails, adult beverages for the grownups… something for everyone.

Then on Monday 4/28, I’ll be presenting an Abruzzo seminar, tasting, and lunch in Austin. Click here for details and registration.

On Tuesday 4/29, I’ll be presenting an Abruzzo lunch at The Tell Me Bar in New Orleans, my old friend Cory’s super cool wine bar. I am so geeked about this. It’s free to trade. Please message me to RSVP. So geeked for this!

On Thursday 5/1, I’ll be presenting another Abruzzo seminar, tasting, and lunch in Charleston. Click here for details and registration.

Finally, on Wednesday 5/7, I’m heading back to DTLA for a wine dinner at Rossoblu, my old stomping grounds. I love these events and we run a retail pop-up for guests who would like to purchase the wines after tasting them. Click here for details and registration.

Thank you for the support and solidarity. People in our industry are struggling, with many just hanging on a thread. Please check out this excellent article on the trade blog Seven Fifty: leading importers of family-grown wines from Europe are teetering on an existential tightrope. As one importer said, “we live six months to a year ahead — that’s our present. So the complete lack of ability to plan is crushing us.”

Better get used to drinking Arneis from Napa and grating “Parmesan” from Wisconsin. Nothing wrong with those products. But that’s what we are looking at six months down the road at this point. #ItalianWineStrong #thankyouforyoursupport

Above: a natural wine dog at a natural winery in January.

The day after I posted about the new wave of wine education and perception (“I have seen the future of wine education and Their name is Luca”), I received the following press release (translation mine):

“The ‘Wine of Memory’ is a wine from the heart. It melds together the values of connection and true hospitality,” says [the winemaker]. “I made it the way wine used to be made, the way my grandfather and father made it. They were faithful to the ancient farming traditions of the area… It’s a symbolic wine that seeks to evoke the values of a time in an era which seems to have few values available, a time when we struggle to give even something small to others.”

Only “111” bottles were produced, according to the release.

The timing was uncanny: I had just watched this brilliant reel by one of the leading voices of the new wine speak. I have translated Luca’s Socratic dialog below. It’s a conversation between “NATURAL” and “ITALIAN.”

NATURAL: I make wine the way that my grandfather used to make it.

ITALIAN: Worst case scenario, you’ll use it to dress your salad. I really love salad.

Do you really want to drink a “symbolic wine”? Much too say but no space permitting. Stay tuned.

One of the most compelling data points I’ve heard all year is that alcohol sales in the U.S., including fine wine, have continued to grow at a steady rate since 2015.

Despite all the claims to the contrary, people in the U.S. have been increasing their wine consumption consistently over the last ten years.

I first heard this when a top Texas buyer and a leading Texas chef told a group of Italian food and wine producers that they are both seeing this 10-year trend in their Excel sheets.

The week after our Taste of Italy trade fair in Houston, where the buyer and chef spoke, the Times published the following graft that shows that, yes, even though there have been peaks and valleys, the growth is steady.

Screenshot via NYTimes.com.

In the light of the above, why are European wineries having so much trouble connecting with U.S. consumers (beyond all the current tariff madness)?

In my view, the disconnect is the fact that we are still talking about wine as if it were 2001. More than two decades after the advent of wine blogging, the advent of wine-focused social media, “natural” wine, and the whole “innovating while respecting tradition” movement, isn’t time to drop the suggested serving temperatures and food pairings from the tech sheets? I cite those two banal examples because they reflect anachronistic traces of how we perceive and market wine. Haven’t we moved past the “white with fish, red with meat” era? “Goest great with roast meat and aged cheeses…,” in case you happen to have those dishes handy.

As my own work is pivoting to the new era of wine culture in the U.S., I’ve been thinking a lot of the above.

And I have many thoughts to share about one of the most exciting wine communicators in a long while. His name is Luca and he lives on the second floor (Gen Xers, you know what I’m talking about).

Seriously, I met this dude in Brescia thanks to my friend Giovanni (of Franciacorta fame) and I was blown away by his approach.

Check out his Instagram here. Stay tuned for more inspirations…

From the department of “tariffs, schmariffs… the show must go on!”

It’s that time of year again and I’m super geeked to hit the open road: Abruzzo and I are going on tour the last week of April.

Monday, April 28
Austin
Il Brutto
click here to register

Thursday, May 1
Charleston
TBD
stay tuned for details

I’m especially psyched for New Orleans where I have a special venue lined up (stay tuned for the reveal).

Giving a huge shout-out and sending warm thanks to my hardworking and fast-driving colleagues Gloria Paris, executor of the Charming Taste of Europe campaign, and Davide Acerra, communications director for the Abruzzo wine growers association. This project wouldn’t have been possible without their devotion, dedication, and professionalism.

Please join us as we taste through the south! Really excited for this trip.

In other news…

This morning’s WineBusiness.com e-blast delivered the news of a small distributor in Texas closing because of tariff pressure. It’s worth hearing what he has to say (it’s a clip from the local TV news). Small and mid-sized distributors were already disadvantaged by the three-tier love in my state. I imagine that states like Texas (Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas, stay strong!) are going to see the earliest instances of operators like him being forced to close.

One can only imagine what the U.S. wine scene is going to look like by the end of this year. Will enough of the small folks be able to hunker through and make it to the other side?

Better get used to drinking Zonin instead of Biancara.

But, hey, tariffs, schmariffs! Stay strong Italian wine! #ItalianWineStrong

In other, other news…

Stay tuned for more music and tastings/seminars:

April 25: Sweet Bordeaux in Houston
April 27: Open mic and 80s jams with my band in Houston
May 7: Puglia wine dinner at Rossoblu in Los Angeles

And if all goes well, we’ll be going back out on the road with Abruzzo in June.

Thanks for the support and solidarity!

“It was an emotional interview,” wrote my longtime friend and colleague Filippo Larganà (above), editor of the widely read Sapori del Piemonte blog.

My heartfelt thanks goes out to him for letting me appear on his vlog series about Vinitaly, our industry’s biggest annual fair, which closes today in Verona.

At nearly every meeting during the fair, the first question from my Italian colleagues was “what’s going to happen with the tariffs???!!!”

I’m no expert on economics but I was happy to share my reading of the moment. Please see the video below (in Italian).

Thank you, Filippo!

I have lots to tell about my time on the ground in Italy this week. I’m on my way back stateside right now but I hope to get a solid post up tomorrow. Thanks for being here and thanks for supporting Italian wine. #ItalianWineStrong