Above: venerated Italian wine writer, blogger, and winery consultant Maurizio Gily (right) was toasted by members of the Italian Federation of Independent Grape Growers at Vinitaly last month.

In the days leading up to Vinitaly, Italy’s annual wine trade fair Verona, Maurizio Gily — one of the country’s most respected wine writers — announced that an appeals court had overturned a December 2013 ruling that required him to pay a €5,000 fine in a defamation suit brought against him.

The case stretches back to Vinitaly 2008, when Espresso contributor Paolo Tessardi published his sensationalist feature on “Velenitaly” or “poisoned Italy” (a play on Vinitaly). In it, he implicitly admonished Italian wine lovers to avoid consumption of Italian wines. And he implied that many commercially produced Italian wines contained life-threatening toxins.

Not long after, Gily — one of the country’s most respected wine writers — published a blog post on his Mille Vigne blog in which he contested Tessardi’s claims. Ultimately, none of Tessardi’s claims proved to be true.

In the judge’s ruling in 2013, he noted that although Gily’s facts were correct, he had damaged Tessardi’s reputation.

Gily ascribed the urgency and vehemence of his blog post (subsequently removed) to the fact that Tessardi’s inaccurate reporting caused inestimable damage to consumers’ perceptions of Italian wine.

Tessardi only discovered Gily’s post three years after its publication (thanks to an internet search). And he filed his complaint against Gily in the wake of his discovery, long after any memory of the Velenitaly story or Gily’s editorial had faded from public discourse.

After the initial ruling had been handed down — I remember well — Gily wondered if it would be easier to simply pay the fine and move on.

Instead, he decided to crowd-fund the financial resources needed to fight the judgement. Ultimately, he raised €15,000.

Just a few days before thousands of Italian wine professionals gathered in Verona for the fair this year, Gily made the announcement on his blog: “We have won and Italian wine as won.”

“I am happy and I don’t want to hide it,” he wrote. “At least today, at least here, in a tiny part of the world, justice has been served.”

Maurizio, thank you for standing up for all of us. Thank you for standing up for Italian wine!

Today’s post is just the first — and perhaps the most urgent — in my Vinitaly 2015 highlights. Stay tuned for my top tastes and other juicy nuggets!

Think how different the world was in 1965 when my friend and client Tony Vallone (above, right, with Tracie P) opened his first restaurant, Tony’s, in Houston.

President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law that year.

It was the year of the Watts Riots.

The British Invasion was in full swing and the Beatles played their historic Shea Stadium concert that year.

And it was two years before Shell Oil hired Houston developer Gerald Hines to construct its new downtown headquarters.

I wasn’t born yet.

But that was the year that Tony headed down to the bait shops to buy calamari because no Houston fish mongers sold them.

It was the year that Tony fed his rented refrigerators with $7 in quarters every day (because he had no established credit).

I love that picture, above, taken in December 2010, a few years after I moved to Texas and a month shy of our first wedding anniversary.

It reminds me of all that I cherish in my relationship with Tony: he loves to talk about Italy, he loves to talk about food, he loves to talk about history… and he loves to talk about all the things that make us human.

Today marks the 50th anniversary of his restaurant and Houston Mayor Annise Parker has declared April 1 “Tony Vallone Day” (click here for the proclamation; guess who wrote it!).

Tony, you’ve cooked for eight presidents… you’ve cooked for nearly every celebrity or luminary who’s visited Houston.

And you’ve also cooked some of the most thoughtful and wonderful meals that my family and I have ever enjoyed.

You’re a gastronomic pioneer and a true mensch who’s always ready to lend support in times of need.

It’s been nearly four years that we’ve been working together and I’ve loved every minute of it — every taste, every meal, every anecdote, and every insight into the world of the culinary arts.

You’re an original, you’re a classic, and you’re a visionary.

Happy anniversary! I love you…

California wine isn’t my thing.

But I have to admit that I was geeked to attend the In Pursuit of Balance tasting yesterday in Houston — the first time the event was held outside San Francisco or New York.

There were a number of iconic wineries there that I had never taste before.

One discovery was Drew. That’s Jason Drew, above. A number of Houston sommeliers mentioned that his wines were among their favorites and I liked them a lot.

Check out my write-up of the event for the Houston Press today.

If ever I would leave you,
How could it be in spring-time?
Knowing how in spring I’m bewitched by you so?

The stars came out for the In Pursuit of Balance preview dinner last night at Paulie’s, one of Houston’s most popular casual restaurants and the other half of its favorite wine bar, Camerata.

Above, from left, that’s winemaker Sashi Moorman, winemaker Pax Mahle, Houston energy exec (and investor in Sashi and Raj Parr’s Domaine de la Côte) Mark Stevenson, winemaker Steve Matthiasson and his son Kai, winemaker John Faulkner who works with Sashi, and San Francisco Chronicle wine columnist Jon Bonné.

Holy California wine celebrity, right, Batman?

It was great to see such a impressive wine brain trust gathered here: today, they’re pouring their wines for trade and consumers at the IPOB tasting and seminars. It’s the first time the event has been held in a U.S. city outside of San Francisco and New York.

The ever affable Raj Parr (left), IPOB co-founder, had been delayed by a travel glitch but he managed to make it in time for an excellent dinner prepared especially for the occasion by Houston Chef (and our good friend) Felipe Riccio.

And, of course, IPOB co-founder Jasmine Hirsch was there. She has such a great energy about her. She just lights up the room when she walks in.

It’s always interesting to be around wine superstars like these folks. And it was fascinating to talk to Steve about the ideological differences between European and American approaches to chemical-free grape growing.

He jumped right in when I asked him if organic farmers in California see their work as a “civic duty” like their counterparts in Italy and France, for example.

“The price of land is so high in California,” he said, “organic farming is really only happening at the highest end of winemaking there.”

“Except for the Sierra Foothills, there’s really nowhere you can make a $22 bottle of organically farmed wine. And so there’s really no one who’s saying f*%$ you to big commercial wine the way European wineries are doing.”

He said that he’s working on releasing an under-$25 organically farmed wine soon.

It was really interesting to talk to him and he’s a super cool guy (I really love his wines, btw; they should be available in Texas for the first time soon, he told me).

Chef Felipe’s food was outstanding and Pax, in his remarks, had high and well deserved praise for the wonderful and thoughtful pairings.

But the dish that really blew me away was the angel hair pasta, served cold with roast lemon, bottarga, and cured clams.

What a fantastic dish! It paired beautifully with a macerated but not oxidative Sauvignon Blanc by Piedrasassi. A very “geeky” wine as Sashi remarked.

All in all, it was a pretty great evening and happy crowd last night here in Houston, where, more and more, we’re seeing marquee-name winemakers roll through town.

Bring it on, California!

A lot of people commented on these photos last night on my Instagram and Facebook and so I thought it would be fun to share the recipe here.

Believe it or not, it was taught to me by none other than Mario Batali.

It was the spring of 1998 and I was living in Park Slope, Brooklyn. I was broke but a friend with an expense account had suggested that we check out a new restaurant on West 4th St. called Babbo. It was a time before Ruth Reichl published her New York Times review of the place, “A Radical Departure with Sure Footing,” and it was still easy to get a table there.

After dinner, I saw Mario at the bar and went up to him and told him how much I loved the fennel.

“How did you make it?” I asked.

“It’s easy,” he said.

Jimi Hendrix was playing on the restaurant sound system and he was drinking a beer.

“Just sautée some garlic in olive oil and then add the fennel and season with salt and pepper. After you’ve browned the fennel, deglaze with white wine. That’s it,” he said as “The Wind Cried Mary” caressed our ears.

Every time I make the dish, I remember that time before the time before the Italian wine and food renaissance when I was living, broke, in Brooklyn.

Buona domenica a tutti! Happy Sunday everyone…

My goodness, what a wonderful feeling to be reunited with Tracie and the girls again!

I’m so lucky to have so many great friends in Italy who take marvelous care of me when I’m there (Giovanni, thanks again, man. You’re the best friend that anyone could ever ask for!).

But there’s nothing like our daughters’ kisses, hugs, and snuggles… Hello Kitty blankets and “real” astronauts and polka dot dresses…

Georgia P and Lila Jane had fun wearing my laminates from the fairs this morning. Future fair-goers?

I have many photos, tasting notes, and impressions to share here on the blog.

But today, I just had to share the joy of being reunited with my girls in Texas.

Stay tuned for more notes from the road in Italy next week… Now it’s time to squeeze those girls tight!

If you read my blog, you probably also read Alfonso’s.

But in case you missed it, his f*&%-you letter to the Vinitaly management was a much-talked-about post during the last day of the fair, which ended yesterday in Verona.

I was there all four days of the event and I also attended the second day of Vini Veri in Cerea (also in Verona province).

No matter where you stand or which side of the aisle you sit, you really can’t argue with any of Alfonso’s grievances with the Vinitaly organizers.

This year’s fair wasn’t really any worse or better than previous.

The cellular service actually worked a lot better than it usually does (which made it a lot easier to coordinate visits with colleagues etc.).

But the thing that really got to me this year was the availability of the restrooms.

Maybe it’s because I spent more time this year in the Franciacorta pavilion. It’s such a popular destination for consumers that they have to post security guards and velvet ropes to control the influx of laypeople.

The women’s bathrooms there were so crowded that a lot of women opted to use the men’s bathroom. I’m not so shy about urinating in public but I felt terrible for the women, most of whom were dressed in business attire.

It was degrading, to say the least. And to those who argue that Italian women aren’t as squeamish about sharing an open bathroom as American women, I’d like to point out that there are also many American wine professionals who attend the fair.

Has the dysfunction of Vinitaly reached a point where we all have to queue up — women and man — and piss, fart, and shit together?

It made me feel like we were all being de-humanized.

Despite all the challenges of the fair, I had a really positive experience and some great meetings and tastings.

I’m looking forward to sharing my tastes and my highlights next week.

Right now, I just can’t wait to get back to Houston and squeeze those Parzen girls as tightly as I can.

Thanks for tagging along for the ride. See you on the other side…