Category Archives: de hustonia

Mouton Rothschild 1999 for my 57th birthday. Thanks for all the wishes and so happy to be back home!

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Heartfelt thanks to everyone who reached out yesterday for my birthday! I finally made it home from Italy and had a wonderful day with Tracie and the girls.

And for dinner, we opened a very special bottle: the 1999 Mouton Rothschild, featuring art by Raymond Savignac (1907-2002).

Wow, what an incredible wine! It was fresh and vibrant on the nose and rich with slightly underripe red fruit on the palate. Tannin was very smooth but this wine could have aged many more years, no doubt. Extraordinary.

The bottle had been given to us earlier this year by the husband of a colleague of Tracie’s with whom we have become close.

When Hurricane Beryl made landfall a week ago, Tracie wrapped this beauty up and took her to her parents’ house in Orange, Texas, where they never lost power.

She then carefully kept it cool but not too cold in a cooler where she had to constantly monitor the ice. It was a heroic effort. We had planned to open it for the holidays with family but after it had traveled under stress, we felt like it was a better bet to open it for my birthday. It was my birthday, after all! I’m so glad we did. Paired beautifully with our favorite Texas BBQ. It had been stored impeccably. It would have been a pity for it to be damaged. But it was glorious! Thank you again, from our hearts, Richard and Elaine! A wine we’ll never forget, a memory we will cherish.

Our neighborhood still looks like a war zone, with fences blown out, felled vegetation lining the streets, and main stop light still out of order seven days after the storm. Nearly 260k people without power still.

Coming home to the girls on my birthday after an arduous journey (stuck overnight at Dulles!) was so sweet for me. For all the challenges we face, it feels pretty good to be 57. I’m so proud of the girls and love them and Tracie so much. So much about our life now heals my soul. Too many blessings to count. Poo poo poo!

Thanks again for all the wishes. And G-d bless former president Trump and his family. I’m glad he’s okay. Maybe this terrible episode will help us all to to tone down the rhetoric.

Stay tuned for notes from my trip. Thanks again! It was a very special birthday for me.

Happy Juneteenth! Browse the Portal to Texas History to see how the holiday has been celebrated over generations in Texas.

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Happy Juneteenth, everyone!

The main street of Houston’s historic Third Ward is known today as Emancipation Avenue. The name is inspired by the Emancipation Proclamation. But it is also owed to the fact that some of the earliest organized celebrations of Juneteenth were held in the Third Ward’s Emancipation Park, a public space created there by local business leaders in the late 19th century. It was intended to give residents a place to honor the date and occasion.

Extreme weather will be keeping most Houston residents indoors today. But our family will be celebrating the national holiday today by reading about its origins and how it was celebrated over the years since its inception.

Juneteenth became a national holiday in 2021 after members of congress from Houston lobbied for its recognition.

This morning, as we browsed the Portal to Texas History, we came across a number of TV news reporting on local gatherings, including one from Fort Worth dated 1989 (we noticed that the balloons in the video read “1987”; it’s possible that the archive date is incorrect). Use the link below to view.

KXAS-TV (Television station : Fort Worth, Tex.). [News Clip: Juneteenth], video, June 19, 1989, 5:00 p.m.; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc903774/m1/?q=juneteenth: accessed June 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.

Until recently, most Americans had no idea that such a celebration was regularly observed by communities across our nation.

Our family was thrilled when President Biden made it a national holiday (we are fortunate enough to live in the city represented in congress by the two congresspeople who proposed the legislation, including our district’s congressperson at the time).

Happy Juneteenth! Check out the Portal to Texas History here. And just enter the search term “Juneteenth.” I bet you’ll enjoy discovering how the holiday was celebrated in the state long before it became a national holiday.

Calling all Houston food and wine lovers: Taste of Italy (3/6) registration now open. BBQ/Italian Wine seminar tickets going fast.

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Above: developed by the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce in Houston, the Taste of Italy trade fair and festival, the largest in the U.S. devoted exclusively to Italian food and wine, now has “chapters” in Dallas and Vancouver.

What do you get when you put a bunch of Italians, a bunch of great Italian foods and wines, and a bunch of hungry and thirsty gastronomes in a room together in Southeast Texas?

Now in its ninth year, Taste of Italy is back in full swing on Monday, March 6 in Houston. I’ve been involved as one of the organizers and the event’s emcee for eight years now. And the work I’ve done together with the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce, the gathering’s host, is something I am the most proud of. The chamber, which is ranked in the top ten worldwide and the number-one chamber office in North America, genuinely connects Italian and American businesses (see the event’s “Success Stories” here).

On Monday, March 6, we are returning to the swank Omni hotel where more than 50 Italian food and wine companies will be showing their products.

Click here to register for the grand tasting.

And click here to register for the BBQ and Italian wine seminar that I will be leading with Spec’s Italian wine buyer Tom Dobson and celebrity pit master Ara Malekian (this event is close to selling out so please be sure to sign up to ensure availability; see the link for the super cool flight of wines that Tom has chosen).

I’ll also be leading a seminar on Calabrian gastronomy. I’ll share that link as soon as it becomes available.

Thank you for loving Italian food and wine and thank you for supporting the work I do with the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce here in Houston. I hope to see you on Monday, March 6 at the Omni!

The Sporty Wine Guy podcast with sports writing legend Dale Robertson keeps on keepin on.

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One of the coolest things about working in wine is the awesome people you get to meet. After all, famous and otherwise super groovy people love wine just like the rest of us.

One of the biggest rewards of my career in wine has been getting to spend time with Dale Robertson, Houston’s legendary sports writer.

Legendary, you ask? Just ask him about the time that Oilers quarterback Dan Pastorini punched him out. Don’t believe me? Dale has the goods and the bruises to prove it.

The funny thing about our friendship is that I’m not into sports at all. I know, that’s weird. But beyond the Olympics and the occasional soccer game, it’s just not my thing.

The thing we do have in common is great food and wine.

Dale always says that he first got into haute dining when he covered the Tour de France. Back then, when print media was still queen, sports writers had fat cat expense accounts that allowed them to hobnob with the rich and famous. For a kid from El Paso with a degree in journalism from the University of Houston, it was like Dorothy stumbling upon the Golden Brick Road.

Somewhere along the way, he also became the wine writer for Houston’s paper of record.

And the tales he tells from those years, both gastronomic and Pindaric (how’s that for a 75-cent word?), are ripe with some damn good eating and drinking and some bigger-than-life colorful characters. I’ll never forget a crestfallen Dale eulogizing Bum Phillips over a bottle of 2006 Quintarelli Amarone after the football great passed away in 2013.

It must have been in late 2019 that he and I first started talking about launching a podcast. But it wasn’t until January of last year that we finally took the plunge.

We’re now in the second “season” of our show, with more than 20 episodes in the can.

It’s always a thrill when someone comes up to us a trade tasting and mentions that they’ve been listening. But I think that Dale would agree when I say that we really just keep doing it because we like hanging out and chewing the proverbial fat. It could also be that he loves our little Chihuahua, Paco. That’s Paco in his lap during a recent session.

Check out our podcast, “The Sport Wine Guy,” here. Thanks for listening!

City of Houston declares June 2 “Italian National Day.”

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Above from left, Italian Consul General Federico Ciattaglia, Italian MP for North and Central America Fuscia Nissoli, and Houston Councilwoman Mary Nan Huffman.

At yesterday’s celebration of Italian Republic Day (June 2), the City of Houston proclaimed the day “Italian National Day” in the city. The proclamation was delivered on behalf of Mayor Sylvester Turner by Houston Councilwoman Mary Nan Huffman.

Hosted at the beautiful Cohen House on the campus of Rice University, the event included addresses by Ciattaglia, Nissoli, and Huffman, as well as a performance of “Fratelli d’Italia” (“Brothers of Italy”), the Italian national anthem, followed by the “Star Spangled Banner.”

Members of the Italian Air Force, stationed at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, were also in attendance.

In one bittersweet note during the festivities, Italian Consul General Federico Ciattaglia shared the news that his mandate will end this fall and that he will be leaving Houston.

Please consider giving to Unicef’s Ukraine child refugee fund. This link takes you straight to the donation page.

We won’t forget Uvalde. Now is the time for action. Please vote, mobilize, speak out, donate, support, and believe that change is possible.

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Houston’s light rail seemed the wisest way to get to downtown for Friday’s Black Lives Matter Houston, Fiel, Moms Demand Action rally for gun sense and protest of the National Rifle Association’s trade show.

On the train siting one row ahead of me were a woman and a man — she in her late 60s, he in his 70s. There ages became apparent over the course of their conversation. They were long-time acquaintances, Houston natives who happened to run into each other on the way to the event. Children, grandchildren, retirement, and milestone birthdays were among their topics for catching up.

It was also evident that they were both heading to the rally. At one point, the woman mentioned to the man that this was her first experience in activism. To this he responded that he had protested only one another time in his life… during the Vietnam war.

These first timers weren’t sure where they needed to get off the train. That’s when their fellow rider spoke up and assured them that Main Street Square was the right stop.

After I spent about an hour and a half at the main protest, I headed over to the protests across the street from the convention center where the NRA was holding the first day of its trade show. The two Houstonians who rode the light rail with me were already leaving. The sun was hot and they had arrived without water or a good hydration plan.

I hope they’ll come back the next time. Maybe with some extra water, sun screen, and some snacks this time (top provisions for activists).

Tracie and I have been protesting with Moms Demand Action for years now. We’ve also block-walked for candidates that support expanded gun restrictions. We were part of a historic wave of activists who flipped our historically GOP-controlled district after decades of a Republican rule that dates back to Bush senior who was once our district’s congressperson.

The only way we are going to affect change in our nation’s and state’s gun laws is by voting and raising voter awareness. We have already been active in the Beto campaign and you can bet that we will be out there block-walking for him as the campaign ratchets up.

People, if you care about reducing gun violence in our country, now is the time for action: please vote, mobilize, speak out, donate, support, and believe that change is possible. It may not come during this political cycle. But as a famous winemaker once said, sometimes the battles most important to fight are the ones you know you are going to lose.

If you live in Southeast Texas, please reach out to us to find out how to get involved. It’s going to be a long hot summer and we’ll bring the water, sunscreen, and snacks (for real).

Please don’t forget Uvalde. Please don’t forget Buffalo. Please don’t forget Pittsburgh. Please don’t forget Columbia. Please don’t forget the 1979 Cleveland School shooting, which happened in San Diego where I grew up (I was 12 at the time). The list goes on and on and on and on…

Tracie and I will be out there at the next rally for gun sense in this country. We hope you’ll join us.

Image via Wikipedia Creative Commons.

Addio Roma. You really broke my heart.

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Please consider giving to Unicef’s Ukraine child refugee fund. This link takes you straight to the donation page. G-d bless our Ukrainian sisters and brothers. Thank you.

Above: in November of last year, I presented a sold-out dinner at Roma in Houston featuring the wines of Alicia Lini (standing).

It’s with deep sadness that I share the news: Roma, the Houston restaurant where I ran the website, e-letter, and social media for nearly five years; where I helped the owner rebrand his business; where I ran weekly virtual wine dinners during the lockdowns; and where I wrote the wine list since May of last year, is no longer my client.

The reason? The new chef, Kevin Bryant, doesn’t believe my marketing skills are up to snuff. Evidently he and his wife are marketing geniuses. Five years down the drain. Just like that. All because of a pig-headed chef who thinks that chicken liver mousse passes for a bona fide topping on crostini toscani.

It was clear from the start that he wanted me out and he wanted his wife in. She’s a high-powered publicist with a who’s who of leading Houston restaurateurs in her portfolio. At least that’s what she and her husband think.

Honestly, I wasn’t really interested in working with a chef who believes “steak tartare” is an Italian dish. (All the previous chefs I worked with there were Italian and had cooked and trained in Italy.)

The thing I’ll miss is the incredible community we built through the weekly virtual wine dinners I ran for nearly two years. It’s hard to believe now but we must have presented roughly 100 Zoom events, often with an Italian winemaker participating on the other side of the Atlantic. It was one of the most compelling and rewarding experiences in my career in wine. So many of my now ex-guests have told me that those events were what kept them sane during isolation. It was a virtual supper club where people forged connections and friendships. I’ll never forget the night that a prominent Houston doctor, the wife of a noted Houston wine blogger, began helping people get vaccine appointments in the early days of availability.

No regrets, coyote. The restaurant business is always full of drama and microcephalic players like “the Kevin,” our family’s apt nickname for him. And this wasn’t my first rodeo, as we say in Texas.

Addio Roma. You really broke my heart.

A Coravin experiment: comparing newly opened Villa Sandi Prosecco with the same wines “accessed” two weeks prior. Just one of the tastings at Taste of Italy in Houston (March 13-14).

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The new Coravin sparkling wine closure system came to my attention late last year at the Boulder Burgundy Festival (disclosure: I’ve been a media consultant to the festival for more than 10 years).

As soon as our group tasted top-line Champagnes that had been accessed three and four weeks prior, it was clear that this new closure would be a game-changing for sparkling wine programs at restaurants and wine bars.

Sparkling wine, arguably more than any other category, needs to stay fresh and vibrant in by-the-glass programs. And it can be a huge headache for a beverage director who’s trying to manage costs when sparkling wine loses its verve after just one day/night of service.

The fitness of the accessed wines was so impressive that it immediately hit me: why not try a similar experiment with Prosecco?

And what better occasion than the Taste of Italy trade fair and festival in Houston where my friend (and former client) Flavio Geretto would be presenting the Villa Sandi Houston Sommelier Competition?

Villa Sandi’s wines are known for their extreme freshness and shelf life. Their reputation is owed in great part to a one-tank system of sparkling wine production developed by their winemaker Stefano Gava (one of the most brilliant figures working in Prosecco today imho). The idea was born when the winery started shipping its wines across the world. They needed, the owner realized, to extend the shelf life so that the wines would still be fresh on the nose and the palate when they reached far-flung destinations.

On Sunday, March 13, when candidates in the Villa Sandi Houston Sommelier Competition take a break for lunch, Flavio and I will be pouring the above bottles — accessed on Sunday, March 27, two weeks prior to the event — side by side with bottles of the same wine opened the same day.

What better way to test the Coravin closure than with a wine whose signature is freshness and extended shelf life?

In the video below, I documented the opening and sealing of the bottles (thanks to Georgia Parzen for her handy camerawork btw!).

Registration for the competition and the festival, including trade and consumer seminars and tastings, is now open. Please visit the fair’s website for details etc.

The competition is open to all active sommeliers, from anywhere in the world. The first prize includes a $750 stipend and all-paid trip to Vinitaly, the annual Italian wine trade fair (back on this year!) next month. I highly encourage you to compete.

Thanks for checking it out and thanks for the support! And here’s to Villa Sandi for their sponsorship of the festival!

A Super Tuscan Super Hero: taste virtually with Cinzia Merli and me this Thursday in Houston.

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I couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome Cinzia Merli (above, center), the owner of Le Macchiole in Bolgheri for this week’s virtual winemaker dinner at Roma restaurant in Houston where I run the wine program.

Cinzia, producer of some of Tuscany’s most highly rated and expensive wines, is a true Super Tuscan Super Hero.

In the late 1990s, her family owned a humble tavola calda, cafeteria-style restaurant in Bolgheri on the Tuscan coast. Like many Tuscan restaurateurs at the time, they made their own wine to sell to their guests. And when the Super Tuscan craze of that decade began to take shape, it was only natural that she and her husband would want to throw their hat into the ring. The couple bought land, planted vineyards, hired a top consulting enologist, and began making wine.

To their surprise, their first releases were met with critical and commercial success. The future looked bright.

But then tragedy struck: Cinzia’s still young husband passed away unexpectedly, leaving her a single mother and signatory to the loans they had procured as they expanded their production.

In an era where male chauvinism still dominated the wine world, most of her neighbors expected her to close the winery.

Instead, she rolled up her sleeves and set out to build her brand in Italy and beyond. And the rest is history. Fast forward to 2022: her current release Messorio sells for around $250 a bottle (retail).

I first met Cinzia in 2007 when her star was ascendant. I visited her winery the following year. She is simply one of the loveliest persons I’ve ever met in the wine industry and her wines are phenomenal.

I want to let her tell the whole story tomorrow night. So I’ll stop here.

But I hope you can join us as we taste her Bolgheri Rosso, a blend of international grape varieties, including her celebrated Merlot. Along the way, we are going to talk about the macchia mediterranea, the “maquis” or shrubland biome that makes the wines of Le Macchiole (named after the macchia) so special.

If ever there were a virtual winemaker dinner not to miss, this is it, folks. I hope to see you there.

And on a technical note, this is the last virtual winemaker dinner we’ll be doing for a while. Yesterday, we hosted our first in-person (private) wine dinner for the Houston chapter of the Accademia Italiana della Cucina. And next week, we’ll be relaunching our free pre-dinner wine tastings. On March 17, we’ll be hosting our first in-person winemaker dinner since late last year (details forthcoming).

Thank you for your support. And thank you for loving Italian wines as much as I do!

REGISTRATION OPEN: Taste of Italy, BBQ & Chianti, Houston Sommelier Competition 3/13-14.

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Above: the winners of the Houston Sommelier Competition in 2019, the first and only year of the event to date. At the time, it was known as the Houston Awesomm Sommelier Competition and was only open to Houston-based wine professionals. It’s now open to anyone who would like to compete (except for full-fledged members of the Court of Sommeliers).

Registration for the Taste of Italy, March 13-14 in Houston, the largest food and wine trade fair in the U.S. devoted exclusively to Italian products, is now open!

Click here to register for seminars, tastings, and grand tasting.

This year’s gathering includes: the Houston Sommelier Competition; a seminar on sustainable wine from Umbria with Steven McDonald MS and writer Dale Robertson (open to trade); a seminar on pairing Texas BBQ with Chianti (open to trade and consumers) featuring pit master Ara Malekian, Italian wine expert Tom Dobson (Spec’s), and food writer Eric Sandler (CultureMap); and the grand tasting all day on Monday, March 14 at the Hilton Houston Post Oak.

The winner of the Houston Sommelier Competition will receive a $750 stipend and a fully sponsored trip to Vinitaly, the annual Italian wine trade fair in Verona. The runner up will receive a stipend of $750. The second runner up will receive $500.

This year’s testing is open to any and all sommeliers, from anywhere in the world, except for full-fledged members of the Court of Sommeliers.

The Texas Wine School will also be offering to waive course fees for two candidates beyond the runners up. These awards will be made on the basis of testing results, the candidates’ resumés, and financial need.

Texas BBQ and Chianti is the one seminar open to consumers. It’s the fair’s most popular event and will sell out quickly. Be sure to register to ensure availability.

All the seminars will be moderated by me.

I’ve been working as a consultant with the Italy-American Chamber of Commerce since the second year of the fair. It’s been one of the most rewarding experiences of my professional career: connecting Italian food and wine producers with trade professionals in my adoptive hometown and state.

For many years now, our office of the chamber (South Central) has been rated the number one office in all of North America (sorry, New York!). I’m really proud of the great work we do.

I hope you can join us! Thanks for checking it out and thanks for loving Italian food and wine!