Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Radikon family…

Above: Stanko Radikon at the Radikon winery in Oslavia, Friuli. He is pointing to “hill 188.”

His work and wines did so much to shape and inform a generation of grape growers, winemakers, and wine lovers — in Italy and beyond.

He was one of the founders of the Vini Veri movement and he was one of the visionaries who knew that it was only a matter of time before “natural” wine and chemical-free grape growing practices would ultimately be embraced by the mainstream.

He was one of the pioneers of macerated white wines (“orange wines”) and one of the first to recognize and realize the immense potential of Ribolla Gialla.

He was born in a land virtually destroyed by world conflict, a borderland where east and west meet. And he helped to revitalize its economy by creating a sustainable model for viticulture and a sui generis wine category.

I had the great fortune to meet and interact with Stanko on a number of occasions and I shared the joy of walking through his family’s vineyards and tasting at their winery.

I’ll never forget the 1997 Radikon Merlot that I tasted in 2010 in Oslavia. It was and still is one of the greatest wines I’ve ever drawn to my lips.

I’ll never forget him showing me the unexploded bomb still lodged in one of the winery’s walls. To this day, the estate lies in the shadow of one of World War I’s most deadly and senseless battles (the Italian army’s 24th division’s attack on Austrian positions on “hill 188” in Oslavia).

That he could build what he did from (literally) scorched earth is testament to the moral fiber and true grit of one of the world’s greatest winemakers. If ever there were a grape grower who showed how viticulture could make the world a better place, it was Stanko.

Sit tibi terra levis, Stanko. Thanks for everything you gave us.

*****

Excerpts from a couple of remembrances I’d like to share here…

Hank Beckmeyer: [his legacy shaped] “not just Italian wines. The whole wine world. One of the true greats.”

Paola Aieri: “Before organic, biodynamic, and ‘orange’ wines were buzz words, he was among the early pioneers of the natural wine world. Known for his white (orange) wines, his Merlot is probably the most powerfully, elegant meditation red I’ve ever tasted.”

Matthew Fioretti: “To an extraordinary degree, he recognized that same, innate absence of control in viticulture and winemaking. The extent to which Stanko challenged conventional methods and endured adversity, required an enormous courage and imagination. His acceptance of these risks was dumbfounding. In climbing terms (Lionel Terray), I often saw Stanko as a ‘conquistador of the useless.’ With his passing, we have lost a legend and hero of the highest degree.”

I’ve just learned via Intravino that pioneering natural winemaker Stanko Radikon has died. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family. His work in the vineyard and cellar shaped and informed a generation of winemakers. 

From the department of “daddy’s got to pay the bills” or “nice work if you can get it”…

Above: my good friend and client Dino Tantawi and his buddy Roger Waters in New York City (image via the Vignaioli Facebook).

Monday, September 12 – Nostrana, Portland (Oregon)

The lovely folks at Nostrana in Portland have put together a fabulous Franciacorta-inspired and informed tasting menu to follow our Franciacorta Real Story tasting on Monday. It’s $95 per person including wine pairings and it features their famous prawn ravioli (sounds awesome if you ask me).

“Everyone needs to drink more sparkling wine,” they wrote in their newsletter yesterday. “As devoted Italophiles, we suggest Franciacorta.”

I can’t wait to check out their restaurant. They are some of the nicest and coolest people I’ve ever dealt with in our business. Please join me if you’re in town on Monday. I’ll be pouring and chatting with guests all evening. And my walk-around tasting starts at 6 p.m. (free).

Tuesday, September 13 – Vignaioli Selection, New York City

My good friend and client Dino Tantawi (pictured above with his buddy — no joke — Roger Waters) is holding his 17th annual portfolio tasting at Cork Buzz.

I’m not going to be there but if you happen to be in town, I highly recommend it to you.

I knew Dino way-back-when he founded his importing company Vignaioli Selection in 1999 and I had already been living in the city for a few years.

Dino is the coolest cat and his book includes so many iconic Italian wines as well as Italian hometown favorites like Hilberg Pasquero (Piedmont) who have yet to be discovered by greater America.

I’ve been blogging for Dino since the spring of this year and I just love working with him. Shine on you crazy diamond!

Wednesday, October 5 – Ciao Bello, Houston

My friend and client Tony Vallone will be hosting the next event in his Italian Regional Italian Cuisine series, featuring Maremma this time around.

I’ll never forget the first time I had lunch with Tony and cousin uncle Marty nearly 7 years ago and Tony quizzed me on my knowledge of Italian cuisine by serving me classic dishes and asking me to identify and describe them.

One of the dishes was gnudi, the “naked” Tuscan ravioli that they serve along the coast there.

I haven’t seen the final menu but I know it will be a show-stopper. I’ll be there talking about the wines and visiting with guests. Please join us if you are in town ($95 with generously poured wine pairings).

Monday, October 17 – Franciacorta Real Story, Las Vegas

I’ll be holding the second-to-last tasting in my Franciacorta Real Story campaign (now in its second year) at Ferraro’s in Las Vegas.

My work with the Franciacorta Consortium has taken me across the U.S. over the last two years and it’s been an amazing experience connecting with all kinds of different wine lovers and watching them discover Franciacorta and its wines.

Thanks again to the incomparable Jaime Smith for connecting me with Gino Ferraro!

Thursday, October 20 – Sunday, October 23 – Boulder Burgundy Festival

I’ll be attending and blogging from the 6th annual Boulder Burgundy Festival (image below via the BBF blog), hosted by the Boulder Wine Merchant and festival founder Brett Zimmerman MS.

This year’s featured guests are Jancis Robinson MW and Étienne de Montille. And as in years past, top sommeliers from all over the country will be flying in to pour and mingle.

I’m really looking forward to it and hope you can join me…

Buon weekend a tutti! Have a great weekend, everyone!

Above: Nebbiolo grapes ripening this week in an appellation that lies outside the hallowed Langhe Hills. If approved, new Piedmont appellation regulations would allow growers across the region to label their Nebbiolo as “Piemonte Nebbiolo DOC.” Currently, only growers in select townships can use the grape name in labeling.

According to a person familiar with their discussions, the Barolo-Barbaresco-Alba-Langhe-Dogliani Consortium and the Barbera d’Asti-Wines of Monferrato Consortium have agreed this week to move forward with the creation of a Piemonte Nebbiolo DOC.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the agreement have not yet been made public.

After the Asti-Monferrato Consortium circulated proposed language for a new Piemonte Nebbiolo DOC among its members in August, vice presidents of the Barolo-Barbaresco-Alba-Langhe-Dogliani Consortium Pietro Ratti and Aldo Vacca publicly shared their opposition.

“It’s obvious that the big producers have caught a whiff of a good bargain,” said Vacca in an interview published in La Stampa on August 24. “But if the goal is that of releasing great quantities of low-priced wines into the market, we run the risk of compromising the entire of balance of Nebbiolo” produced in Piedmont.

Current Barolo-Barbaresco-Alba-Langhe-Dogliani Consortium president Orlando Pecchenino and his predecessor Pietro Ratti had to concede their efforts to block creation of the new DOC had no foundation, said the person familiar with their discussions.

When the proposed language for the new DOC became public last month, many industry observers, including leading Italian wine writers, predicted that a Piemonte Nebbiolo DOC would cloud consumers’ perceptions of Nebbiolo. They fear that its creation could lead to overly aggressive expansion of Nebbiolo plantings in the region and subsequent degradation of the Nebbiolo “brand.”

Such an appellation “is simply unacceptable and depressing for a grape variety like Nebbiolo,” wrote Slow Wine Guide editor Giarcarlo Gariglio.

Other trade observers pointed out that the proposed language mirrored existing appellation regulations that already allow certain Piemonte DOC growers to write Nebbiolo on the labels of their wines even though they use grapes from vineyards outside the hallowed Langhe Hills, considered by many to be Nebbiolo’s spiritual home.

Others contended that a grape variety and its name cannot be claimed exclusively by a single appellation or group of associated appellations.

“International law does not allow for the simple name of a cultivar to be reserved and protected by an exclusive geographic designation,” wrote legal expert and professor Michele Antonio Fino, director of the Master in Italian Wine Culture at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo (Piedmont).

I mean, just look at this photo I lifted from the Nostrana Facebook this afternoon! What Italian enogastronome wouldn’t want to go to that restaurant???!!!

That dude is wearing a t-shirt that says “I heart Teroldego!”

I love it!

Response to our Monday, September 12 Franciacorta Real Tasting at Nostrana in Portland, Oregon has been so robust that the lovely folks at the restaurant have decided to create a micro-pairing menu for guests who dine with them that evening. A handful of the wines I’ll be pouring will be available by-the-glass and I’ll be visiting with guests throughout dinner service. Details to follow.

The 6:00 p.m. tasting is looking pretty full at this point. So if we can’t fit you in then, please come for dinner following and let’s taste together!

Franciacorta Real Story Tasting
Nostrana
on the patio
FREE
Monday, September 12
6:00 p.m.
1401 SE Morrison St.
Portland OR 97214
(503) 234-2427
Google map

Happy end of summer, everyone! Please come out and taste with me this fall!

My Franciacorta Real Story Tour 2016 is winding down with three events in three different cities, each a wine destination in its own right.

The response to my events over the last 18 months has been nothing short of wonderful. But no city has responded with as much gusto as Portland, Oregon, a city believed by many tradesfolk to be the number-one destination for Italian wine in the U.S.

Heartfelt thanks to the lovely people at Nostrana for making this happen (Monday, September 12) and please stay tuned for updates on Las Vegas (October 17) and Atlanta (November, date to be determined).

A note to distributors and suppliers: please feel free to contact me if you’d to show your Franciacorta wines at any of my tastings. As long as the producer is an active consortium member (nearly all those imported to the U.S. are) and is a participant in the CMO promotion for north American, I would love to show the wines. The more the merrier!

RSVP is not required but encouraged so we can get a headcount. Please email me at jparzen@gmail.com to let me know you’ll be joining us. Thanks!

Franciacorta Real Story Tasting
Nostrana
on the patio
FREE
Monday, September 12
6:00 p.m.
1401 SE Morrison St.
Portland OR 97214
(503) 234-2427
Google map

Image via GoodFreePhotos.

Above: Nebbiolo grapes in Piedmont.

Italian wine writers and bloggers have been up in arms this week and last over two controversial proposals for major changes in appellation rules.

The first, which is to be voted on today by growers, is the creation of a new Pinot Grigio delle Venezie DOC modeled after the current Delle Venezie IGT, which includes wines grown in regions of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Veneto, and Trentino-Alto Adige.

If approved, the new appellation would allow growers to produce Pinot Grigio with yields of up to 21.6 metric tons per hectare “in good vintages.” That’s more than 9.6 U.S. tons per acre, a high yield by any measure. (To put this figure in perspective, “the U.S. has one of the highest national average yields, at 6.5 tons/acre,” according to the Oxford Companion to Wine.)

“Before [the creation of] this new appellation that applies to all three regions,” said Luciano Moretto, president of the Pramaggiore Wine Exhibition, earlier this year, “every region had its own [Pinot Grigio]. This will change everything. With this single mode of production, we can really take off in certain markets. I’m thinking of the United States, Russia, and China, nations where we need to compete with many behemoth producers and where counterfeits cause damage to us. This will be a source of considerable profit.”

In an op-ed published on Friday, the editors of the Slow Wine Guide wrote: “Who is the winner in this case? Industrial agriculture: producers of chemical fertilizers, fungicides, herbicides, etc. Because [with the creation of this DOC] vineyards will be transformed into assembly lines, where everything is pumped and everything needs to be perfectly clean, without even the smallest trace of disease.”

Today’s vote comes on the heels of another controversial proposal for changes in the Piemonte DOC. In a draft of new appellation rules circulated this month among members of the Asti Monferrato Consortium, the authors call for the creation of a Piemonte Nebbiolo DOC that would give growers greater freedom in using the word Nebbiolo in labeling wines grown across the region (and not just in Langhe and Roero).

If approved, these would include, among other categories: wines made from only 85 percent Nebbiolo grapes; rosé from Nebbiolo; and even sweet and sparkling wines. (Source: Slow Wine.)

Piedmont’s Regional Commission will consider the proposed changes in an assembly in September.

Pointing to the creation of the Prosecco DOC in 2009, some industry observers fear that the creation of a Piemonte Nebbiolo DOC as proposed by the Asti Monferrato Consortium would lead to overly aggressive expansion of Nebbiolo plantings in the region and subsequent degradation of the Nebbiolo “brand.”

“We oppose this request,” said Produttori del Barbaresco cooperative director Aldo Vacca in an interview published by La Stampa last week. “Langhe Nebbiolo is the appellation that has seen the biggest growth in the entire region. It’s obvious that the big producers have caught a whiff of a good bargain. But if the goal is that of releasing great quantities of low-priced wines into the market, we run the risk of compromising the entire of balance of Nebbiolo” produced in Piedmont.

His concern was echoed by that of Pietro Ratti of Renato Ratti, a legacy producer of Barolo.

“Nobody wants to stop people from growing a successful variety like Nebbiolo,” he told La Stampa, “But it’s one thing to plant a grape variety and another to manage an appellation. Today, there’s no denying that the Piemonte appellation represents a second-tier category while Nebbiolo is a first-class wine. It’s a delicate issue because it affects the economy, the region, and consumer perceptions.”

Ammado is the official micro-donation platform for the Italian Red Cross.

Here’s the link for donations to the Italian Red Cross and earthquake relief efforts. Donations can be made using a credit card and don’t require an Italian social security number (Italian micro-donation channels require one).

Here’s a link to information on what the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is doing on the ground in central Italy to aid recovery.

I’m currently working on a couple of micro-donation campaigns here in Houston. More on those shortly…

Image via press_and_kitchen.

Above: a 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck central Italy early this morning (image via the United States Geological Survey website).

Across social media this morning, I’ve been reading accounts of this morning’s devastating 6.2 magnitude earthquake in central Italy, which occurred at 3:36 a.m. local time.

The epicenter was 10 kilometers southeast of Norcia in Perugia province (Umbria).

But the most extensive damage seems to have occurred in small hill towns in Latium and the Marches. According to all reports I can find, Accumoli (Rieti province, Latium), Amatrice (Rieti), and Arquata del Tronto (Ascoli Piceno province, Marches) were among the hardest hit.

In a statement this morning, the mayor of Amatrice reported that the entire historic center was destroyed (New York Times).

Click here for La Repubblica coverage and images of the devastation. As of this posting, 63 lives have been claimed. Updated, Thursday, August 25: at least 241 lives have been claimed (La Repubblica).

From Rome to the Marches and even as far north as Parma, social media users I follow have been checking in and posting dispatches on relatives and friends living in the affected areas.

One of the most moving was by my friend Fabio Ciarla who lives and works in the wine industry outside of Rome.

“You wake up in the middle of nightmare and head back down the Via Salaria,” he wrote this morning, “the same road you would take when you were little with your family on a drive to Ascoli Piceno where [brother] Valentino studied enology. Not just through Amatrice but also towns like Posta, Sigillo, and Accumoli… Those were happy trips. Today it’s a Calvary.”*

Our hearts and prayers go out to our Italian sisters and brothers this morning. G-d bless them, G-d bless us all.

*Calvary: “the proper name of the place where Christ was crucified” (Oxford English Dictionary) and by extension a site of doom.