Above: I really loved the Bibbiano entry-tier Chianti Classico, which I tasted for the first time at the Gambero Rosso Road Show tasting in Mexico City. This is my kind of Chianti… superbly grown Sangiovese with a touch of Colorino, vinified in cement. Utterly delicious.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Pier Paolo Pasolini wrote famously in verse and in essays about Italy’s disenfranchised youth.

As the much of the country basked in the “economic miracle” that emerged nearly two decades after the Second World War, many southerners were left behind by the country’s newfound prosperity.

In his unforgettable poem “Il PCI ai giovani” (“The Italian Communist Party [belongs] to youth”), published in the wake of the 1968 Battle of Valle Giulia, he wrote of the “police, children of the poor.” These were the economically challenged young people of southern Italy who escaped their depressed regions by joining Italy’s paramilitary police force, the Carabinieri.

I was reminded of this poem and Pasolini’s myriad essays on the widening economic inequality in 1960s and 1970s Italy by something that a young Italian wine professional said to me in Mexico City last week.

Originally from Abruzzo, he has an import company there and works primarily with Italian estates.

When I asked him if he liked living in Mexico, he looked at me squarely.

L’Italia non fa impresa, he said flatly, Italy doesn’t do business. In other words, there isn’t a business-friendly culture in Italy that allows motivated young people like him (he was in his early thirties, I gauged) to embrace an entrepreneurial spirit.

Mexico — not a country that many would count among the world’s most prosperous — is a better place for him to do business, it seems.

Above: another wine I really loved was the Baglio di Pianetto entry-tier Nero d’Avola. The winemaker told me that the consulting enologist is Marco Bernabei, the son of the legendary Franco Bernabei. It’s made from organically farmed fruit and is vinified in temperature controlled stainless steel. “It’s actually a very simply made wine,” he said. And its transparency and focus were delicious and refreshing on the palate. A great by-the-glass.

After he left my stand, I turned to the Tuscan winemaker pouring next to me and we talked about the bleak job horizon for young people today in Italy, where there is a nearly 50 percent unemployment rate for people under 25.

Grape growing and agriculture in general are one of Italy’s greatest resources and exports. Yet the country’s current economic stagnation and its burdensome and behemoth bureaucracy leave little room for economic mobility for the new generation of wine professionals there — like my new friend from Abruzzo.

Everywhere you turn in Italy, wine appreciation is less and less popular among young people and the wine trade is increasingly sustained and supported not by domestic consumption but by exports.

It struck me that day in Mexico City that the wines are the children of the poor. They must abandon their birthright and travel far from their villages to sustain themselves — just like the young man from Abruzzo.

Sadly — tragically, really — this is the reality faced by a legion of young wine professionals in Italy today.

Thanks for reading…

As I prepare to leave next week for my May trip to Italy, I wanted to share details on a couple of tastings and events that I’m really looking forward to attending.

The first is the Asolo and Montello consortium tasting on Sunday May 10 in the historic center of Asolo.

Unfortunately, the Consortium hasn’t published any more details than the image above. But as far as I know, you can just show up and taste without registering.

Even today, many U.S. wine professionals are aware that Asolo — one of my favorite places in Italy — is part of the Prosecco DOCG. They don’t make as much wine there as they do in Valdobbiadene, Conegliano, and the valley floor of Treviso province. But they make some of the best expressions of Glera imho. The wines tend to be saltier than their cousins to the east and that’s the way I like it.

I’ll post more details as they become available.

The first ever TerroirMarche event on May 16-17 in Ascoli Piceno is going to be a game-changer.

Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi and Verdicchio di Matelica are among the most promising appellations in Italy right now.

Italian wine writers have been raving about Verdicchio and its much deserved place among the great whites of the world.

The only thing that’s been lacking has been proper visibility of the wines and the people who make them.

And the newly formed TerroirMarche group is working to change that.

I’ll be in Ascoli Piceno as an observer and taster and I’m looking forward to the five seminars, one of which will be lead by Walter Speller among other Italian wine luminaries.

Hope to see you there!

One of the most vivid memories of the summer I turned 16 living in Mexico City resides in Plaza de Garibaldi, where the Mariachis gather nightly to connect with people in need of their services.

It’s an incredible sight: scores of groups performing and milling around waiting for would-be clients.

I visited last night on the early side before things really picked up. But it was a blast for me to revisit this magical place and shoot the video below.

Thanks for tagging along. See you next week.

¡Viva el México! Thank you to all the Mexico City wine professionals who came out to taste with me yesterday!

A note to wine professionals: If you ever want to be the most popular table at a wine tasting, make sure you’re pouring Franciacorta!

Yesterday found me in Mexico City, pouring wine at the Gambero Rosso Top Italian Wines Road Show tasting for a Franciacorta Consortium member winery.

I was really impressed by the positive reception for the wines and the high caliber of wine professionals who tasted with me.

But the thing that really surprised me was how many of the attendees knew Franciacorta and its place in the panorama of sparkling wines from around the world.

Repeatedly, I had people come to my table and tell me that they loved Franciacorta and the overwhelming majority of wine professionals who tasted with me knew where and how the wines are made.

Oscar, the gentleman in the photo above, works as the wine director at the St. Regis Hotel on the Paseo de la Reforma — one of the city’s swankest neighborhoods.

He told me that as a rule, the St. Regis wine list features only Champagne and Franciacorta in its sparkling section. No Prosecco, for example, he told me.

Click here to continue reading my post today for Franciacorta, the Real Story.

¡Vamos a los tacos! was what my Mexican friends used to say back when we were in high school together in San Diego. Just like the midnight spaghettata in Italy, a late-night taquería after an evening of drinking was and is a cherished ritual.

It’s hard to imagine — at least in my life — a dish that inspires greater nostalgia than tacos al pastor.

On our friend Mai Pham’s recommendation, I visited the classic Borrego Viudo last night on the earlier side of the evening (after all, I’m not 17 anymore!).

There’s really no other way to say it: this place was simply awesome. From the way the parking attendants cheerfully greet you to the polite, dutiful service of the tidy waiters who carry literally ten plates at a time, this joint is one that continues to stand the test of all time.

Those are the tacos al pastor above (see the carver in the video below).

This was a taco de cabeza, two tortilas de maíz filled with head.

It’s not hard to understand why Mai insisted that I visit this place. It was joyful and brimming with all kinds of people, young and old, families and friends.

I was there on the early side, around 7:45. But by the time I left, there were so many people that the parking lot was full of people eating in their cars (the servers will wait on you in the parking lot as well).

I adored this place. Go there…

Heading out today for Mexico City where I’ll be pouring Franciacorta and Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi tomorrow for my client Barone Pizzini (click here for event details).

It’s never easy to say goodbye to my girls but I have to admit that I am really looking forward to this trip. I haven’t been to Mexico City since I was a teenager and am really excited about my eating itinerary there (thanks again, Mai!).

See you on the other side…

Image via Alejandro.

Above: a view of the Galleria in the historic center of Milan. The city is so much more than just “art and amazing churches.”

“Should I spend an extra day in Milan after a wine trip?” asked Houston-based sommelier Vanessa Treviño-Boyd on her Facebook the other day. “So far the savvy say ‘not worth it.'”

A number of wine tradespeople weighed in, with varied responses.

“If you like art and amazing churches, yes,” wrote venerated Italian wine critic Levi Dalton. “If not, no.” (Please accept my apologies in advance for the Google alert, Levi.)

It’s disheartening to see exchanges like this. But it happens all the time: wine professionals head to Italy for winery-funded trips and they head straight to wine country and then back to the airport without experiencing Italy’s immeasurable cultural treasure.

In many cases, especially for young people, it’s their first trip to the country.
Continue reading →

As European Union ministers prepare to gather in Riga on Monday for meetings on Health and Consumer Affairs, including a discussion of EU alcohol policy, Matilde Poggi (above, president of the Italian Federation of Independent Grape Growers [FIVI]) has previewed a brief she plans to send to send to Italian health minister Beatrice Lorenzin.

According to a post published today on the Slowine blog, which paraphrases but does not quote the document directly, there are three major points covered in Poggi’s letter to the minister and her colleagues:

1) Paraphrasing Poggi’s brief, the author of the post writes that restrictions on interstate sale of alcohol would counter current agreements between member states.

2) In a document published by the European Commission’s Committee on National Alcohol Policy and Action, there is a proposal for minimum pricing requirements for wine. Minimum pricing regulation would give large producers of commercial wine an unfair advantage, the author writes.

3) A proposition to reduce alcohol levels should not be applied to wine. While it can be applied to industrial products like beer and liquor, wine should be exempt because it is an artisanal product that “depends on climate, grape ripeness, and grape health, etc.”

The “Informal Meeting of the Ministers for Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs” is to be held in Riga next week because Latvia currently holds the EU presidency (the author of the Slowine post reports erroneously that the gathering is to be held in Lithuania and that Lithuania is the current EU president).

According to a post on website of the Lativian Presidency of the Council of the European Union:

“Every year around 70-80% of healthcare costs in the European Union are spent on non-infectious diseases. At the same time, by limiting the main risk factors – smoking, unhealthy diets, lack of physical activity, and alcohol abuse – it is possible to improve quality of life and increase the number of healthy life years, thus making considerable financial savings.”

“The Health Ministers will discuss current alcohol and nutrition policies and future challenges.”

As EU policy on alcohol and Common Market Organization regulation (known as OCM in Italy) continue to evolve, there are growing concerns among Italian winemakers that European wine culture will be stifled by over-regulation and disregard for local tradition.

Poggi, who was recently elected as the vicepresident of the Confédération européenne des vignerons indépendants (European Confederation of Independent Grape Growers [CEVI]), has taken an active role in voicing concerns of independent grape farmers and winemakers.

She has served as the president of FIVI since 2013.

Click here for the Committee on National Alcohol Policy and Action’s “scooping paper” and its recommendations. Image via FIVI.

The following are just a few of my still wine highlights from my Vinitaly 2015 tastings. Still working on putting together my notes for the sparkling tastings…

It would be too easy to simply post a panegyric on Valter Fissore’s extraordinary expressions of Barolo. I was blown away by the focus and elegance of the wines he showed at the fair this year.

But the wine I can’t stop thinking about is the 2014 Elvio Cogno Langhe Nebbiolo Montegrilli.

Even in a challenging vintage, this wine delivered on every level. Great Nebbiolo with wonderful freshness and transparent fruit. I loved this wine.

In the days that led up to the fair, there was a lot of talk about the Veglio family and their Cascina Bruni’s new partnership with famed Italian enologist Riccardo Cotarella. Offline, a lot of people wondered if this meant a new “modern” approach to the wines (because Cotarella is known for his love of modernity in winemaking).

I was stoked to sit down with Cristiano Veglio and taste through the wines: the old school style hasn’t changed at all. The family has merely used Cotarella’s consulting to improve vineyard management and winemaking practices, he told me.

I really liked the 2009 Barolo Rivasotto, which is already starting to show nicely despite its youth.

The 2010 vintage in Brunello has received so much media attention, said Laura Brunelli, one of my favorite Montalcino producers, that she’s already sold-out of her wine. A lot of people told me that actually.

It’s always great to sell wine, she noted, but she fears that the 2010 will eclipse other solid vintages like the 2011.

The cask sample she shared was gorgeous.

I really liked Barbi’s Brunello 2009, which showed beautifully in the flight that they poured for me. The warm temperatures of that harvest made it a challenging vintage for many growers but Barbi delivered a great wine from that crop.

But my discovery wine from Barbi was its 2013 Morellino di Scansano. The 2013 vintage is going to be such a great one for Brunello and Tuscany (and many other regions and appellations, as well).

I loved the meatiness and texture of this wine and its fantastic, electric Sangiovese character. A great wine to pair with a piece of charred beef.

Another discovery was the Palazzo Vecchio Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. This youthful winery has the growing sites and the know-now to deliver vibrant, traditional-style expressions of Sangiovese.

So much crappy wine comes out of Montepulciano these days, which is sad because even I am old enough to remember when Montepulciano produced a lot of solid wine.

It was great to chat with them — however briefly — and taste these stellar wines. Welcome, new Mohicans!

Anyone who’s ever been to Vinitaly knows that the better winemakers always have something great to nosh on.

My friend and client Silvano Brescianini turned me on to a new — yes, new! — category from Emilian prosciuttoland: it’s a pancetta that’s cured like a prosciutto cotto.

It’s called “Giovanna” by the producer Capitelli (here’s the fact sheet; in Italian).

Man, a taste of the Giovanna and a glass of Silvano’s Barone Pizzini Franciacorta Rosato is pretty much all you need in life beyond love, sex, and rock ‘n’ roll…

Please stay tuned for my sparkling tasting notes next week. Thanks for being here!

Long before I ever dreamed of traveling to Italy to study, Mexico was a refuge from the trappings of my American dream.

I grew up in San Diego, California. Baja California (or “Baja” as it was known to me in my youth) and Tijuana were only a thirty-minute drive from our home.

It was the time of the devalued peso, when many believed that revolution was coming to the country. As a result, many affluent citizens resettled in Tijuana and San Diego. And with them came some extraordinary restaurants on the Mexican side of the border, including the legendary Puerta del Sol.

During those years — my teenage years — my family life was in turmoil. It wasn’t an easy time for an adolescent. Luckily, the year I turned 16, the family of some of my Mexican friends offered to take me to Mexico City for the summer.

“La Ciudad” changed my life forever. Xochimilco, the Plaza Garibaldi, and the many culinary adventures of that summer opened my eyes and cast my gaze far beyond the gilded prison — at least it felt like that to me — of La Jolla.

And so I was thrilled when my client Barone Pizzini asked me to pour their Tre Bicchieri-winning wine at the Gambero Rosso Tre Bicchieri World Tour tasting on Thursday, April 23.

As with everything run and managed by the Gambero Rosso, it’s nearly impossible to find the registration info online. And so I aggregated it here on the Barone Pizzini blog (Barone Pizzini CEO Silvano Brescianini will be in Houston on Tuesday of next week to pour the wine for the tour; he just couldn’t make the Mexico date and so he asked me to attend in his place.)

If you happen to be in Mexico City next week, please let me know. And if you have any recommendations on where to eat, I’d greatly appreciate your insights. Please just shoot me an email and/or leave a comment below.

Nos vemos la semana próxima en la ciudad de México!