Our household supports Kamala Harris for president.

We believe she is the most qualified person to lead our country for the next four years and beyond.

Kamala Harris is also the person best suited — thanks to her character and experience — to forge a new era of political partnership with Republicans. We believe that character matters.

*****

If elected, Donald Trump would continue his quest to diminish the role of the government in regulating business and enforcing environmental protections.

Kamala Harris will protect the institutions that safeguard Americans.

Donald Trump’s economic policies would enrich the rich alone.

Kamala Harris will make America a better place to live for a greater number of Americans.

Donald Trump would continue to vacillate in his support for reproductive rights.

Kamala Harris is committed to bolstering and broadening those rights.

Donald Trump would, at best, attenuate our support for Ukraine.

Kamala Harris will continue our unflinching support.

With Donald Trump, I believe there will be little chance for a two-state solution for Palestinians and Israelis.

Kamala Harris is the right person to craft a new U.S. approach to achieving long-term peace.

Donald Trump believes that immigration is the greatest problem our nation currently faces.

I believe that immigration is a vital element in our country’s long-term prosperity. And I believe in the American dream that any citizen of the world should feel welcome here and be given a chance to achieve that dream.

All human beings, no matter their national or economic status, should be treated with dignity and compassion. This is the ethos of the Kamala Harris ticket.

That said, Democrats must stop denigrating Trump supporters. The menacing Trump supporter is out there, for sure, spouting misinformation and hateful rhetoric. But the overwhelming majority of them are people just like me, trying to figure out their place in the world and to do what’s best for their families. I see that every day during my travels in America.

I am voting for Kamala Harris. She is the person best prepared to work for all Americans.

Friends are like good wine
And I’ve had the best…

So drink up.

Man, what a great night last night at Rossoblu where I presented a packed Abruzzo consortium dinner!

I have to give a shout out to my friends Chef Steve Samson (above, center) and his wife and business partner Dina Samson (above, left).

For seven years, I wrote the wine list at their epic southern Italian restaurant Sotto. It’s one of the chapters of my career that I’m most proud of.

Chef Steve and I met on our junior year abroad in Italy when we were both 19 years old. We became fast friends and it didn’t take long before I was heading down to Bologna with him to play a ton of music and hang with his group of childhood friends. His mom was from Bologna and he spent his summers there as a kid. I was so lucky to connect with him fresh off the boat! And I’m still very close to our Bologna crew.

After college, I headed to grad school and chef began working with the legendary Los Angeles restaurateur Piero Selvaggio.

One of Piero’s best friends was Charles Speroni, one of the major benefactors of the Italian department at UCLA where I did my doctorate. And through that connection, Steve and I were reunited again.

Somehow we both managed to move to New York at the same time. And again, our paths connected over great food and wine and a long history together. In New York, Steve would introduce me to another musician with whom I would play countless shows on the Lower East Side scene.

It just seemed to be destiny that one day we would work together. That moment came in 2009 when he and Dina opened Sotto. Chef’s cooking was praised glowingly by Jonathan Gold in the Weekly and Irene Virbila in the Times. She loved our origin story and retold it multiple times in her column. Los Angeles magazine called our list one of the best programs in the city.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve been presenting wine dinners at their downtown restaurant Rossoblu. And they’re going to be seeing a lot more of me in LA as we launch a couple of exciting new projects. Stay tuned.

Thank you, Steve and Dina! Friends are like good wine and I’ve had the best!

Photo by Jeffrey Chan.

There are a lot of high-end and high-concept Italian restaurants in Houston these days and I will always have a soft spot for the hand-extruded spaghetti al pomodoro at Tony’s.

But when people ask me what our favorite Italian restaurant in Houston is, there is only one answer: Davanti, where chef Roberto Crescini makes his own pasta and grinds his own meat for his ragù.

Chef and I have been talking about doing a wine dinner series for a few years now and now, we’ve finally gotten around to putting the first one together.

He, manager Oliver Calza (super cool guy btw), and I worked really hard to make this reasonably priced at $120 inclusive; see menu below. And for those who like the wines and want to take some home, there will also be a retail offering that evening.

The coolest thing is that Roberto is from Brescia! That city has become my home base in Italy over the last 10 years or so. Let’s just say that when Roberto and I connect, we speak each other’s language.

The seating will be limited to 12 people. Please email/DM me if you’d like me to hold you a spot (jparzen@gmail.com).

This is going to be good one, folks! Thank you for the support. I hope to see you then.

In other news, my Abruzzo trade dinner at Rossoblu in LA tomorrow night is full. I’m sorry that we weren’t able to accommodate everyone but I’m so glad to be beating the drum for Abruzzo.

I believe that our Abruzzo food and wine lover dinner on Wednesday night, also at Rossoblu, is almost sold out. But for those who want to grab the last few spots, here’s the link.

Wine Dinner October 28

Aperitivo

Crostino Con Baccalà Mantecato
Raina Umbria Bianco Grechetto 2023

Antipasto

Manhattan Clam Chowder
Marotti Campi Verdicchio
Castelli di Jesi Riserva Salmariano 2020

Primo Piatto

Large Rigatoni Al Cinghiale
Chianti Classico Riecine 2021

Secondo Piatto

Agnello alla Napoletana
Scuotto Taurasi 2019

$120

Wine pairing, tax, and gratuity included.

One of the most compelling experiences of my year was walking down the Appia Antica, the original Via Appia. Construction of this road began in the fourth century B.C.E. and when it was completed, nearly a century later, it led from Rome all the way to Capua (just north of Naples).

The section where the above photo was taken is one of the most beautiful stretches and is immaculately maintained.

If you look carefully at the photo above, you’ll note that the photo was snapped at the corner Via Fioranello and Via Appia Antica. Literally a stone’s throw to the right (west) of where I was standing lies the legendary Fiorano farm, where some of Italy’s most compelling wines have been grown since the end of WWII by the Boncompagni family. It’s also the site where some of Italy’s earliest experiments in organic farming and spontaneous fermentation were conducted by Alberico Boncompagni Ludovisi, a winemaker who had an out-sized influence on Italian viticulture (although his name is not familiar to most Italian wine-focused professionals today).

The Antinori’s Alberico estate, named after Alberico Boncompagni Ludovisi, a grandparent to the current generation of the Florentine family, lies across the road from Fiorano.

One of the things that makes this wine growing area so unique is the richly volcanic soils. As I discovered traveling down the Via Appia (the modern version of the road, which runs parallel to the ancient one), the volcano that formed Lake Albano spread volcanic ash for miles and miles to the north and the south. As a result, these lands have been coveted by wine growers since antiquity.

This July, I did a short trip along the Via Appia to visit a number of wineries there. It was a fascinating, inspiring experience. And one of the best moments came when I was given access to part of the less traveled and less tourist-friendly section.

This is the first in a series of posts where I’ll recount my journey. But it had to begin with the breathtaking moment that I first viewed the Appia Antica, the Ancient Appia. As cliché as it sounds, I could feel history and viticultural legacy pulse through my blood. It was exhilarating. Stay tuned and thanks for being here.

And for the thrifty traveler, I recommend a wonderful little hotel in Ciampino (to the left or east of where I took the above photo). It’s called Plaza Rooms Ciampino and had no services. But it was super clean and had the best wifi I’ve ever seen in Italy. It was affordable and for those wanting to go in the Rome center, it’s a 30-minute commuter train ride away. Ciampino, a small town where one of Rome’s domestic airports is located, had some fun pizzerias, too.

If I had a 1,000 lira note for every time someone quotes the “first-ever mention of Nebbiolo” without ever having read the original text beyond an off-hand paraphrasis in another writer’s periphrasis.

The following passage comes from Pietro de’ Crescenzi’s early 14th-century Latin treatise on agriculture, a work scholars agree is the most important book on Medieval farming practices. Crescenzi came from a noble Bolognese family and worked as an itinerant lawyer. His career took him to different parts of Italy where he observed farming and viticulture. I’m currently completing a translation for a university press.

“And there is another species of black grape that is called Nubiolum. It is delicious to eat. And it is wonderfully juicy and has slightly long berries. It does best in nutrient-rich soil that has been well manured. It does not perform well without direct sunlight and it buds early. It makes for excellent age-worthy, especially strong wine. Its berries should not be left on the clusters for more than one or two days. And this grape is highly prized in the city of Asti and surroundings.”

Thanks to a CMO grant, I’ve also been working on a translation of a work on the Tenuta Carretta winery for my friend Giovanni Minetti, the winery’s CEO.

The author offers a deep dive into feudal Piedmont in the 14th century, including a compelling narrative of the city of Asti’s power over the region at the time. Crescenzi worked for a time at the Asti court and he drank wines from “Nubiolum” there.

The Carretta translation has been extremely useful in preparing my critical apparatus for my Crescenzi book. Ultimately, the background provided will also be meaningful in an essay I’ve been writing for nearly a decade now: notes on wine in Boccaccio and in particular the tale of the Marchioness of Monferrato (where Asti is located).

Stay tuned and thank you Giovanni!

“The common anthocyanidins found in grapes are cyanidin, delphinidin, peonidin, petunidin, and malvidin,” write the editors of the U.C. Davis Waterhouse Laboratory’s blog. “In red grape varieties, Malvidin-3-glucoside is the most populous representing about 40% of the anthocyanins and makes up the majority of the red pigments that are acylated.”

The word anthocyanin comes from the Greek antho- for flower and cyan- for blue. It’s pronounced: antho-SIGH-a-nin.

Malvidin, from the Latin malva for mallow, is what makes red wines red.

The Montepulciano grape, which is used to make Montepulciano d’Abruzzo and Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo, is one of the varieties with the highest levels of malvidin.

As a result, during maceration, Abruzzo winemakers can obtain the color they want without “over-extracting” the wine. In other words, they can achieve the rich color for which Montepulciano d’Abruzzo and Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo are so famous for without making the wines excessively tannic and bitter. It’s part of the magic of this extraordinary grape.

On Tuesday, October 15, I’ll be leading a trade dinner hosted by the Abruzzo consortium at Rossoblu. If you work in any capacity in the food and beverage industry, you are invited! Please send me an email (jparzen@gmail.com) to snag your spot. It’s completely free to any and all trade who would like to attend.

And the next night, Wednesday, October 16, I’ll be presenting a food and wine lover dinner, again featuring the wines and cuisine of Abruzzo.

Here’s the link to sign up. The dinner cost is $95, the wine pairing is $45. It’s a great deal and we’ll be doing a retail offering at the event as well.

I hope to see you in LA! Any support from trade for the Tuesday night dinner is greatly appreciated. Thanks to everyone. Happy new year and have a great weekend!

Here’s a little preview of some of the wines we’ll be pouring at the trade event. Thanks for the support and solidarity!

Shanah tovah! Happy new year, everyone! May your year to come be filled with health, fulfillment, and joy.

Tracie, Georgia, and Lila and I will be celebrating the new year this week with some of our close family friends.

Georgia, soon to be 13, is enjoying her second year of middle school. She plays in the magnet program’s top orchestra and continues to take private lessons with the same teacher who has mentored her since she was 5! Her violin chops are so good at this point that she often plays music with me and plays on some of my recordings. She’s also playing in our neighborhood’s newly formed tennis club. So proud of her and it’s wonderful to watch her become a teenager.

Lila Jane, 11, is now in 6th grade at the same middle school. She also snagged a spot in our middle school’s top orchestra. She’s with a wonderful new teacher now (her previous teacher was also fantastic but one of her daughters is Lila’s best friend and our families have grown very close; so the mom felt it was time for a new teacher). The biggest news is that Lila is now playing electric bass and has started a band! They practice using my backline, which is now set up permanently in our music room.

Both girls are getting straight A’s and they love their school.

Tracie’s career in real estate continues to grow. She’s currently working on her biggest deal yet and with the interest rates coming down, well, she’s getting really busy. As my travel season gets going, we’re not sure how we’re going to be able to balance it all. But we have a lot of support from our family and community. Tracie has already achieved so much and she continues to build her business. She is simply one of the most amazing human beings I have ever known. I love her so much and we are both looking forward to celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary in January.

Wishing you and your loved ones a happy and healthy new year. May your year ahead be sweet like the apples and honey that the girls and I enjoy each year as the holiday approaches.

A good friend and blogging colleague reached out to me over the weekend for wine shopping advice. She had been disappointed by the attenuated food friendliness in the wines she had recently purchased. Here’s what I shared with her. Thanks for being here everyone and thanks for the support. Buon weekend a tutti.

Hey Renia, sounds like I need to do some personal wine shopping for you! I’d be happy to. Here is what I recommend in the meantime.

1) is look at the alcohol levels on the wine. The lower the better. 11 percent is a good rule of thumb for white. 13 for red. Low or restrained alcohol tells you a lot about the style of the wine. Low alcohol is always more food friendly.

2) go to your local independent wine shop and talk to the sales persons about your preferences. You might find someone to help you at HEB or Kroger but they just don’t have the bandwidth to sit down with you and say, hey, what kind of wine do you want/need? What do you and your family regularly eat? Special occasion or glass of wine with dinner? A great wine sales person will help you find the balance you are looking for (it’s expensive but Tracie and I still like Houston Wine Merchant as a full-service shop but there are so many cool new shops now with folks who are excited to share their wine knowledge).

Lastly, 3) sometimes it’s worth it to spend a little extra. I have a friend who only drinks one glass of wine a night with dinner. He buys a mid-tier bottle of Barolo ($50?) but the wine stays good for more than a week. In the end, he’s paying less than $10 per glass for a top wine (drinking one glass a night, 6 glasses per 750ml bottle).

For reds, right now Tracie and I are enjoying Selvapiana Chianti Rufina (under $20), Calera Pinot Noir (under $25). Both stay good for at least a week. For whites, Erste Neue Pinot Bianco (under $15 at Wholefoods) and Pieropan Soave Classico ($18 at HEB if you do the six or more mix and match discount).

Hoping this is helpful. Hit me up if you want to go wine shopping together. I would love that.

Hope you guys are well. Abbraccione

From the department of “so much time and so little to do”…

The tasting season has just begun and I’ve got a ton of fun things lined up.

Top on my list is the two Abruzzo dinners I’ll be leading in Los Angeles at Rossoblu, my old stomping grounds.

Tuesday, October 15
Abruzzo Trade Dinner at Rossoblu
Downtown Los Angeles

I’ll be hosting an Abruzzo trade dinner. Please email me (here) if you’d like to attend. It’s open to ANYONE who works in the food and beverage industry. Chefs, servers, front of house… Anyone who would like to learn more about Abruzzo wines in a convivial setting.

Wednesday, October 16
Abruzzo food and wine lover dinner at Rossoblu
Downtown Los Angeles

The restaurant doesn’t have a registration link up yet but please save the date. This is open to anyone and costs just $140. These are super fun and the crowd is always amazing.

Monday, October 28
Do Bianchi Supper Club at Davanti
Houston

I’m super stoked about this new series that I will be doing with Oliver Calza and Chef Roberto Crescini at Davanti. I don’t have the theme for our first event but I can tell you that it will be limited to 12 persons. We’re planning to keep it moderately priced. Can’t wait for this! Email me (here) if you’d like me to hold a spot for you.

Thanks for your support and solidarity! Abruzzo and I need your tastebuds!

Other events to have on your radar…

I’m presenting an Abruzzo seminar for trade October 2 in Boston.

I won’t be in town for this but my buddy Jeff Porter is doing an Umbria event in Houston on October 8. Email him (here) to snag your spot. Jeff is an amazing presenter and wines look great.

I’ll be presenting at Taste of Italy in Dallas and El Paso, October 8 and October 10.

I just added an Abruzzo event in Denver on October 31.

And my vermouth event in Tulsa on November 18 has been confirmed.

From the department of “the wine is on the water!”…

It’s a project that I hold dear: Amistà, an organic farm in the Nizza DOCG, producer of top wines grown and vinified by Luca D’Attoma and producer of an organic red wine-based Vermouth di Torino, also made by Luca.

It’s been a wonderful experience working with the vermouth, wines, and people behind the estate. And the best news is that Amistà is now imported to the U.S. by one of my best friends in the wine business, Dino Tantawi, who together with his son Adam, runs Vignaioli Selections in NYC.

One thing that sets the Amistà Vermouth di Torino apart from the crowd is the base wine. Most vermouth — including higher end Vermouth di Torino — is made from lower quality wine whereas the Amistà is made from organically farmed Nizza — the same wine that goes into the Nizza DOCG. The quality really shows in the final product.

The Amistà Vermouth di Torino is also unusual because it’s made from red — not white — wine. This means that no caramel is added, something that makes a huge difference in the aromatized wine’s flavors and texture.

The other thing that makes it a star among vermouth is that is blended by Luca who has been having a lot of fun delving into a world that he usually doesn’t inhabit.

It’s a remarkable product and I can’t wait to pour it for you.

I’ll be working the market with Dino and Adam the week of October 21. Please let me know if you’d like to taste with us.

And with our relaunch, we are also looking for regional partners. Texas is already in the works and California is next. But please reach out if you’d like to try the vermouth and/or chat with me about it.

I’m super geeked about this next chapter and I’m looking forward to connecting with like-minded souls. Even if you are just curious to taste, please let me know.

The wine — and the Vermouth di Torino — are on the water!