By the time I became a teenager in La Jolla, California, my family was in severe crisis. My home was fractured and I was drifting, taking a lot of drugs, and drinking heavily.

When a family of Mexican immigrants, who had only recently arrived in San Diego, invited me to spend the summer with them in Mexico, I thought it was because their kids, with whom I had become friendly, had asked their parents to take me along.

Many years later, I realized that this family — who was deeply religious and had a profound sense of charity — was trying to help me get through one of the worst times in my life. I did go to Mexico with them that summer and when we got back, I started spending more time at their house than my own.

The mom never mentioned that she was trying to help me. I only realized it years later. She never made that weigh on me. She just let me live my life in a safe and secure environment. Ultimately, I got my head back on straight, got my grades up again, got into UCLA, and got as far away from La Jolla as I could.

I’ve been thinking a lot about that family these days as we watch families in our own community being torn apart by the U.S. government. The stories I’m hearing from Southern California (where I grew up) and Southeast Texas (where I’ve lived for a decade and a half) are horrifying and heartbreaking.

I honestly don’t know where I’d be today without that family so many years ago in San Diego.

In other news, the Trump administration is using a classic Ku Klux Klan and Sons of Confederate Veterans tactic to re-institutionalize the names of military bases. As I read in the paper today, they are re-naming Fort Gregg-Adams as “Fort Lee,” but they are claiming the Lee in question was a Black soldier. No offense to the Black Lee but this move is as insulting as it is offensive.

In other other news, I also read that Trump is destroying the Fulbright scholarship program. I was a Fulbright scholar. I can only wonder how my life would be different today had I not had that opportunity.

This is not American greatness. It’s American rot.

Tracie, the girls, and I won’t be going to Italy this summer. That’s partly due to the fact that Tra is so busy with work right now (which is great).

But our absence from our spiritual homeland this season is owed mostly to the fact that we want to spend some extended time in California with my mom.

And… one of my bestest friends and brother by another mother, Jeremy (we even share a name!), is getting married. We are all so excited for him and his bride and we’re also looking forward to the party (Jeremy is part of a well known food-and-wine family and so we know the wedding celebration is going to be off the charts).

One of the things that I’m going to miss about Italy this summer is the perfectly draft beer.

Italians take immense pride in drafting beer properly. The photo of the beer above was taken in Piazza Vittoria in downtown Brescia, at a respectable but hardly noteworthy bar (what we in America would call a café). Despite the anonymity and convenience of the venue, the young person behind the bar delivered the perfectly draft beer.

I first experienced the burgeoning new beer culture and the second coming of unpasteurized beer back in the early 90s when I was playing in a cover band in Veneto.

Today, many of my Italian friends won’t even look at a beer that’s not unpasteurized. And all of them expect and take a good foam for granted.

In my experience (which is vast at this point), the foam enhances the flavor of the beer by making its aromas more prominent. I love drinking beer wherever I am. But a good head on the beer really makes the difference in my humble opinion.

It’s just one of those little things, like a good coffee or expertly sliced prosciutto, that I’m really going to miss.

What are you missing about Italy this summer?

Man, the tariff thing has really put a stranglehold on our industry.

And when times get tough — we all know the drill — people show their true colors.

Sometimes that means working together to find solutions.

Other times it means callously casting off people who have helped you for years and who genuinely believed you were an honest operator.

But there’s a golden truth in the world that keeps me going. As a good wine industry friend wrote me yesterday, “the great thing about being a real mutha fker and sticking to who you are is you never have to worry about changing the story. The wine world is filled with lazy ass posers. That’s why people who do the work seem like champions.”

Sometimes people really suck. But the show must go on!

Italian Wine & Pizza Party
Emmit’s Place
Houston
Saturday, June 7, 5-7pm
no cover

Please join me this Saturday, 5-7pm, at Emmit’s Place in southwest Houston where I will be hosting a kid-friendly Italian wine and pizza party. There will be house-fired pies, mocktails for the kids, and four different Italian wines to taste and enjoy.

And I’ll be your personal sommelier!

The best news is that this is a FREE event. You just have to cover the cost of the wines (moderately priced for the occasion), mocktails, and pizza.

Email me for more details (jparzen at gmail dot com) or just show up and enjoy some great wine and pizza!

Abruzzo Consortium Tasting
Il Fornaio
Beverly Hills
Wednesday, June 18, 12-3pm
open to trade

Then, week after next, I’ll be speaking at an Abruzzo consortium-Charming Taste of Europe event in Los Angeles, Wednesday, June 18, 12-1pm, seminar followed by lunch.

Click here to register.

I hope I’ll get to taste with you this weekend or later this month! Thanks for the support and solidarity. I need it now more than ever.

As it just so happened, a best friend of Marty’s showed up to his party in Chicago last Saturday night with a bottle of 2009 Colgin Cariad.

It goes without saying that the wine lovers among the guests were impressed by the generosity of the gift and eager to taste the wine!

The next day, as we reconvened for a family stroll and a pizza send-off for the out-of-towners, we gathered the wine glasses at our cousins’ Hyde Park apartment and mounted a semi-formal and super fun tasting for 10 of the adults — a proper minyan!

The wine had rich, opulent but elegant fruit, with wonderfully balanced acidity that kept it fresh on the palate and lithe in the glass. The finish was also fresh, with lingering notes of berry and earth. Tannin was still going strong but didn’t attenuate the vibrant flavors.

There was more than a bit of sediment in the wine and we would have been better served by letting the bottle stand upright for a few days before opening.

But the verve of the moment called for it to be opened à la volée! (Excuse the paronomasia.)

I’ve come to reconsider the iconic wines of Napa in the autumn of my oenophilic career. This bottle reminded me of how Napa has reshaped the world of wine, in so many ways.

The wine was delicious and a wonderful way to bring our family together over something truly special and unique, a benchmark for an American wine legacy. Chapeau bas to its producer.

Happy 80th birthday Marty Levy! How wonderful to see you surrounded by people who love you and what a great party! We wouldn’t have missed it for the world. We love you. Thanks for sharing the celebration with us.

A good family friend recently asked me if I thought their activism for the people of Gaza was an expression of anti-semitism.

My answer was an unequivocal “no, it is not.”

As someone who grew up in a country where they were frequently menaced with racist epithets and threats, they found it hard to understand, they said, that people level accusations of anti-semitism at them for their advocacy.

It’s still hard to wrap my mind around the fact that we need to be having conversations like that… that we need to have the courage to have conversations like that. But there’s no doubt that we do. And I understand the historical and present reasons why.

There is no “but…” in answering these questions. The Israeli aggression in Gaza is a horrific and morally indefensible human tragedy. And the Israeli military’s efforts to “destroy” Hamas have not achieved the two purported goals of the country’s government: hostages are still in Hamas’ control and Israelis don’t feel more safe. From everything I read, it seems that most Israelis, including high-ranking officials, disagree with their government’s war policies. In fact, the Israeli government’s policies have made Jews across the world less safe, just as we saw in Colorado this week, in Washington just a week or so ago, and in Pennsylvania during the Passover.

It was heart-wrenching for our family to read the news about the attack in Boulder. I have a longtime client there and Tracie and I have spent a lot of time walking the Pearl St. Mall where the violence took place. We know scores of Jews in that community. We are praying for them.

The people who were attacked in Colorado were merely expressing their solidarity with the hostages and their families. The couple slain in D.C. was simply attended a “mixer” with no political agenda. The family in Pennsylvania had innocently sat down to a holiday meal.

Pro-Palestinian advocacy is not wrong. And it’s not anti-semitism. Violence is wrong. We all must stand up to protect one another from violence both verbal and physical. The attacks on Jews will stop only when we rise up as a community against them.

Hank Van Slyke, the lifelong Orange, Texas, resident who manages the neo-Confederate memorial erected by the Sons of Confederate Veterans goes to the same church as my in-laws. I just saw him and his wife at Easter like I do every year.

His wife always makes a point to smile and say hello. Church in Orange, Texas is generally a friendly and warm affair. But not for good ol’ Hank: he pretends like he doesn’t know who I am even though every red-blooded male over 40 at that service knows who both of us are. Tracie and I have been protesting at the site for nearly a decade. (See an archive of our efforts here.)

I wonder how he reconciles his outward display of spirituality with his racist activism. What would Jesus say about a neo-Confederate monument newly raised in a community that is half Black? I guess his “Jesus” is cool with that. Still scratching my head on that one, Hank.

I couldn’t have been more thrilled to learn that my friends at Southeast Texas Impact Initiative, Adriana Smoak and Jennifer Clarke, are organizing a Juneteenth 2025 protest at the site.

You can bet that I’ll be there. Please visit and join the group’s public-facing group on Facebook (Southeast Texas Impact Initiative Outreach) and please visit their site at SETXimpact.org.

Here’s the Facebook link for the event.

You can contact the group at info [at] SETXimpact [dot] org. And please feel free to reach out to me directly for carpooling/promotion/media inquiries etc.

This is going to be a big one! Hope to see you there! Thanks for your support and solidarity.

We are never giving up this fight. Stay tuned for more details.

And to all of you neo-Confederate sons of bitches out there, why don’t you act like men instead of cowards and talk to us about how your monument is bad for your community and bad for your city. Oh yeah, I forgot, ya’ll are just a bunch of yellow-belly losers. That goes for you too, Granvel Block. If there were a man among you, I’d be happy to meet him any time.

In a social media post Friday, Trump wrote that he was imposing 50 percent tariffs on products from the E.U. By the end of the holiday weekend, he had stepped back from that threat and offered a new deadline for negotiations before industry-killing taxes are put into effect.

Everyone in our industry drew a sigh of relief after he withdrew his threat. As the U.S. Wine Trade Alliance wrote in its newsletter flash:

A 50 percent tariff would essentially be a trade embargo on goods from the European Union, which would do irreparable harm to hundreds of thousands of businesses here in the United States… The United States imports roughly $15,000,000 in wine each day from the European Union, from which American businesses make $67,000,000.

Were those taxes to take effect in July when the deadline for ongoing negotiations expires, it would be devastating for wine trade members. As the USWTA points out, it would mean a virtual “embargo.”

But the bigger and more immediate problem we are facing is the uncertainty and the continued “kicking the can down the road.” Our industry is completely deadlocked at this point. Across the board, U.S. importers — large and small — have delayed their orders. And the E.U.’s investment in the U.S. wine trade is also on hold.

I guess no one needs 30 different types of Brunello for Christmas anyway, right?

In other news…

After reading the umpteenth misunderstanding of “la dolce vita” in one of our nation’s leading daily papers, I wanted to clarify that Italian director Federico Fellini always pointed out that the expression did not denote, for him, the “carefree life of the wealthy Roman bourgeoisie,” as the expression has come to mean in pop culture.

Instead, it was an echo of the “sweetness of life” that even the most depraved character can find, like Marcello watching the little girl play on the beach after a night of debauchery and meaningless personal interactions at a celebrity-driven party. Even when you touch rock bottom, as it were, there is still a “sweetness to life.”

Oh, and the image above? It’s from the 1952 Neorealist classic, Umberto D, the story of a man fatefully trapped by the absurdities of an uncaring government. Sound familiar? Thanks for being here.

Jews across the world mourn for the families of the two young Jews slain by an American in the U.S. capital last night. Our family is among those who are praying for the couple and their loved ones.

This tragedy will be remembered for many years to come.

There have been a number of killings attempted or carried out by anti-semites in the U.S. over the last decade. But this act of wanton racist violence — because of the site of the murders in the heart of the nation’s capital; because of the youth and promise of the victims — has even more deeply burned its memory into the soul and psyche of Jews everywhere.

I write that because I know what my sisters and brothers are feeling right now. As much as we thought it would never come to this, we are now fearful of broadcasting our identity in public spaces.

Would Tracie and I let our children attend an event like the one in Washington last night? Would we ourselves attend? The answer for an increasing number of Jewish-identifying families in the U.S. is no.

Americans of all stripes need to start speaking out more loudly and more clearly against anti-semitism. We need to let our communities know that anti-semitism — even the offhanded “joke” about Jews and associated stereotypes — are not acceptable in our society.

And when it comes to this sort of abject violence, Jews and gentiles alike need to stand together in solidarity, just as we have stood together against historic racist violence aimed at other peoples.

The murderer reportedly yelled a pro-Palestinian refrain before taking the lives of his young victims. I have strong feelings about the war in Gaza and I have much to say on this topic. But here and now is not the place. Right now, the only thing to do is pray.

G-d bless the victims and their families. G-d bless us all.

Image via Adobe Stock.

Above: that’s me, right, with my bestest of friends, Gabriele “Elvis” Inglesi. When I was in my early 20s, we were a touring duo in northern Italy. Today, Elvis is one of the best “chicken picking” guitar players I’ve ever performed with.

After my family, there are two great passions in my life: music and wine. When they come together, it’s magic for me.

This Sunday, May 25, my 80s cover band, The Bio Dynamic Band featuring Katie White, will be performing at my monthly open mic at Emmit’s Place, my favorite local dive bar.

This will be the fourth music event I’ve done at Emmit’s. But now there’s an added twist: a few weeks ago I launched a wine program at Emmit’s.

Currently, we have just three wines on offer but they are all winners: a Friulian OG Pinot Grigio, a Sangiovese/Merlot Super Tuscan blend, and a wine I’m extra super stoked about, a killer Barbera d’Alba. All three wines will be available this Sunday. And Emmit’s just installed a new pizza oven!

This is a family-friendly event and the Open Mic is geared especially for kids, including classical musicians. And all the kids love the mocktail list that owner Susan Davis created just for us.

Please join me, my family, and some of the best musicians in Houston (no joke) for a great way to pass a Sunday afternoon. Last time, this amazing brass band showed up and took the house down. Word is getting out about our gig and you never know who is going to show up and play!

Open Mic at Emmit’s Place!
featuring The Bio Dynamic
featuring Katie White

Where: Emmit’s Place
4852 Benning Dr.
Houston TX 77035

When: Sunday, May 25
2-6pm (our band goes on at 4:30)

$5 cover (optional, not required)

Thank you for supporting local music, local musicians, and independently owned local businesses. Mention this blog post and I’ll buy you a glass of the Barbera myself!