A trip to the land of Prosecco in early December was an opportunity to taste at a couple of my favorite houses.

Over the last 10 years or so, as more and more small-scale Prosecco has come to the U.S., many Italian wine lovers and trade observers have shifted their focus away from some of the bigger producers.

But they forget that Prosecco DOCG, even when produced in large volume, is almost always a “family grower” wine. That’s because the appellation, one of the most parcelized in the wine world, is made up of a vast patchwork of small farms. The best winemakers, even among the most commercial, rely on a network of generational relationships for their fruit.

Producers opened a lot of great wines for me during my stay earlier this month. These two were stand-outs.

It was such a thrill for me to get to taste with Francesco Drusian, a legacy producer and appellation pioneer. His insights into the evolution of Prosecco and its extraordinary arc — literally from rags to riches — were fascinating to hear.

I loved the winery’s 30th anniversary release, 30 Raccolti, a dosage zero produced exclusively from 40+ year old vines from 30 different farms. No apples or bananas here, as the Prosecco old timers like to say. Just salty, minerality-driven Glera with gorgeous, juicy grapefruit notes. Very classic in style and very varietally expressive.

Like the man and winemaker, Francesco’s wines are among the most soulful in Prosecco today imho.

The Ruggeri Vecchie Viti was another highlight.

This historic estate, founded after the Second World War, is owned today by a German multi-national. But the Bisol family, whose winemaking and distilling roots run deep in Proseccoland, still manages the winery on a day-to-day and wine-by-wine basis. And the quality of their labels, across the board, really shined through during my visit there.

There were a number of wines that I really liked in the flight that afternoon but the Vecchie Viti (Old Vine) bottling was the showstopper.

The fruit is sourced from some of the oldest farms and vines in the DOCG, including 80+ year old plants.

The other really cool thing about this label is that it’s not 100 percent Glera: it’s an old school cuvée of Glera (around 90 percent) and Verdiso, Bianchetta, and Perera — the classic Prosecco field blend (no Chardonnay or Pinot Noir here, folks; and yes, both are also allowed by the DOCG).

The wine reminded of the Prosecco I used to drink from caraffe with my friends back in the late 1980s before the Prosecco revolution. Its rich balance of savory and fruity notes would have been ideal for washing down the economically priced rotisserie-fired chicken and French fries we used to gobble down in the hills outside of Padua.

It’s a pity that the wine hasn’t made it to the U.S. yet. It’s got eno-hipster written all over it.

More news from Proseccoland forthcoming. Are you drinking/serving Prosecco this New Year’s? Which one?

Happy holidays, everyone! Merry Christmas!

Love, the Parzen family

One of the biggest thrills of my year in wine was my first taste of the newly released 2015 Produttori del Barbaresco (classic) Barbaresco with one of Barbaresco’s coolest homeboys, Luca Cravanzola.

Although we’ve corresponded over the years on numerous occasions and we follow each other on social media, Luca and I had never met in person until this spring when we both attended the same raucous, blow-out party in Franciacorta.

Luca’s grandfather Riccardo was the first president of the storied cooperative and he’s worked in the marketing and sales department for some time now.

(Read about the winery’s history on Ken Vastola’s excellent Nebbiolo portal, Fine Wine Geek.)

And how else to put it? Luca is uno dei nostri, one of us as they say in Italian.

People who work in the wine business get asked the same question by laypeople all the time: what’s your favorite wine?

It’s only natural that we answer: well, it depends on where I am, what I’m eating, and with whom I’m eating it.

But when pressed for a more specific response to the inquiry, I always tell them that I have bought and own more Produttori del Barbaresco than any other wine.

In terms of price-quality ratio, there is no more value-driven wine in the world imho. And the generally reasonable pricing makes it affordable for average punters like me.

Especially when it comes to the classic, blended cuvée (as opposed to the single-vineyard designated bottlings), the wine can be spectacular even in its youth. But it can also be cellared with stunning results for decades, depending on the vintage.

I’ve never tasted a bad wine from them and apart from the occasionally corked bottle or a bottle that’s been mishandled or mistreated, my experience in drinking and collecting these wines has always been overarchingly and wonderfully positive.

It’s the wine we drink on special occasions at our house. And it’s the wine that enjoy especially when sharing with my friends.

Just in case you’re shopping for great but affordable red wine for the holidays (or in the off-chance you’re shopping for a gift for me), you can’t go wrong with Produttori del Barbaresco.

Luca, it was so fun to meet you in person for the first time and it was a truly moving experience to taste the new vintage with you — my first kiss from the harvest!

Above, from left: Nico Danesi and Giovanni Arcari are among my best friends in the world and they produce one of my favorite expressions of Franciacorta (image via the Arcari + Danesi Facebook).

Please click here to check out my “Capitalist’s Guide to Wine Gifts for Christmas,” published today by the Houston Press.

In case you’re thinking of getting me something wine-related for Christmas, it’s a great place to glean gift ideas!

And click here to read Walter Speller’s (unsurprisingly) controversial article and tasting notes on Giovanni Arcari and Nico Danesi’s Franciacorta, published earlier this week by JancisRobinson.com.

The article is available only to subscribers (and out of respect for Walter and his publisher, I can’t share the content in its entirety here).

But I will offer this passage:

“We are 1,200 km from Champagne and the phenolic ripeness of our grapes is completely different. Therefore we cannot use champagne methods and ways of working,” Giovanni Arcari, who runs the estate with winemaker Nico Danesi, explained. “In Italy we must not think of producing ‘champagne,’ especially because we actually can produce something radically different. Our style is based on the most banal of premises: Wine is made of ripe grapes.” It seems so logical, but hardly anybody in Franciacorta dares to go this way.

Disclosure (in case you hadn’t already figured it out): Giovanni and Nico are among my best friends of all time.

In May of this year, I attended a tasting very similar to the one that Walter describes in his piece (Walter is also a good friend; he was supposed to be at the tasting in May but was called away at the last minute).

Check out the interview and tasting notes here.

And btw, a gift subscription to JancisRobinson.com makes for a great Christmas present!

Buona lettura… enjoy the posts!

Whenever people ask for recommendations on where to eat in Bologna, my answer is always the same: there’s great food in Bologna but the best expressions of true Emilia cuisine are found in the countryside.

I stand by my position on this issue.

But I’d like to amend it: I enjoyed a bunch of great meals this year in Emilia but one of the best — one of the best meals I had in Italy this year — was at Caminetto d’Oro in downtown Bologna.

Those are the tagliatelle al ragù, above. (In Bologna they’re not called tagliatelle alla bolognese; they’re just called tagliatelle al ragù).

One of my best friends and clients, Paolo Cantele, and I had carved out time for a “working dinner,” so to speak. And he suggested we go there.

I’d actually been there once before, many years ago, with my dissertation advisor and the leading food studies scholar in Italy today, Massimo Montanari. But that was back in the days when I parsed hendecasyllables for a living and only gave a second thought to salumi and giardiniera (above).

I can’t think of a friend in Bologna (and I have many) who would opt to take you out to a restaurant for dinner instead of inviting you to her/his home for tagliatelle fatte in casa (and at the risk of sounding sexist and chauvinist, I have to point out that it’s always tagliatelle fatte dalla mamma).

But, man, the meal at the Caminetto d’Oro (the golden fireplace) was phenomenally good. And the white tablecloth setting didn’t detract one bit from the experience.

But the thing that really took it over the top for me personally was the wine list.

And here’s where the experts will disagree: most would contend that the true Emilian meal is paired exclusively with Lambrusco. And I mostly agree with that supposition.

But when sommelier Francesca Gori appeared with a bottle of Vigne di San Lorenzo macerated Albana (above), I thought I had died and gone to heaven. We opened a number of bottles that night (including a 2012 Bartolo Mascarello, thank you, Paolo!). But the stars of the meal where the Albana and Vigne di San Lorenzo’s stunning Sangiovese (one of the most original and most enjoyable wines I tasted this year in Italy).

Man, why is no one bringing these wines to the U.S. yet? Importers, please get on it!

Francesca also runs the wine and beverage program at storied restaurant’s newish wine bar next door, Twinside.

If I lived in Bologna, I’d be there every night (and Saturday nights in the main dining room).

What a great restaurant and what a great evening in Bologna! Francesca, thank you so much for sharing so many groovy wines.

And of course, no evening in Bologna is complete without a stroll sotto i portici, a walk under the porticoes, one of the city’s defining architectonic features.

When in Bologna, check it out. I highly recommend it (but be sure to reserve, especially for the main dining room).

From the department of “inner light”…

The mosaic of Italian wine is never-ending.

Just when you think you’ve wrapped your mind around all the classics (even after more than 20 years in the trade), another stunning wine seems to pop up out of nowhere as if to remind you that Italy is a fount of endless joy and pleasure.

To borrow a lyric from George Harrison, “The farther one travels/The less one knows/The less one really knows…”

Those lines dances through my brain a few weeks ago when my Italian bromance Giovanni poured me a glass of 2001 Barbaresco by Cascina Baricchi (above).

A bottle or two of the farm’s Timorasso had come my way (thank you, Chambers Street Wines). But this gem from the land of Nebbiolo had eluded my palate… until then.

Man, what a wine! Old school as it gets but with elegance, purity, and none of the rough edges that the old-line prophets of submerged cap once inscribed in their wines (I’m thinking of Roagna, for example, one of my all-time favorites, before Luca started making the wines).

It was no surprise to read, on the farm’s website, that its Barbaresco is raised (mostly) in large-format “un-toasted” cask. And it was equally unsurprising to learn that the winemaker views its wines as an expression of “Langa… the sensations, warmth, wildness, and class that only these wines, from these areas, can convey.”

According to the site, the estate is represented in the U.S. by Bliss Wines in Napa, an importer specialized in organically farmed and non-interventionist wines.

If you’ve never tasted Baricchi, look out for the wines. I know I’ll be snatching up every bottle I can lay my hands on.

Happy birthday sweet, sweet Georgia! You are seven years old today!

Last night, before we put you and your sister to bed, mommy and I remembered the day — the week — you were born. I can still see it all in my mind like it was yesterday.

Georgia, you are such a bright and joyful girl.

You love going to museums, whether the art museum, the dinosaur museum, or the real astronauts (your favorite).

You love reading and you love using fancy words and figures of speech (you have a way with words, I always tell you).

You love drawing and you love art projects.

You love your little dog Rusty (and he loves you, too).

You love going to school and you love playing violin. This week you earned another badge for another song you learned to play. Watching you enjoy music and play music has been such a joy for mommy and me.

And sweet, sweet Georgia Ann, you love your family.

Just the other day, mommy dropped one of her favorite mixing bowls and it broke into a thousand pieces.

“Oh no!” she cried, “I loved that bowl!”

You told her you would try to put it back together for her. But when she explained that it wouldn’t work, you still wanted to help.

“What can I do to make you feel better, mommy?” you asked. And that was all it took.

Georgia, we all love you so much — mommy, Lila Jane, and me. We’re so happy it’s your birthday and we are looking forward to celebrating with you today and this weekend when your grandparents and cousins will come in for your party.

Happy birthday, sweet girl. You bring so much joy into the world.

I love you…

My research on the origins of the expression “Champagne socialist” led me this week to the man above, George Cary Eggleston, a Confederate memoirist and self-described “rebel” apologist.

It’s not clear whether or not he coined the expression. But he was among the first — if not the first — to use it in print.

The phrase appeared in his 1906 novel Blind Alleys, a parody of pseudo-intellectual society in America at the time.

“The Champagne socialist,” says one of the characters in the book, “wants everybody to be equal upon the higher plane that suits him, utterly ignoring the fact that there are not enough [C]hampagne, green turtle, and truffles to go round.”

After World War II, the expression evolved and acquired a slightly different meaning — the one we know today in the figure of the hypocritical elitist-socialist.

But in the first decade of the twentieth century, as the socialist movements in Europe and America were beginning to take shape, his character drew a distinction between the “beer socialist” and the “champagne [sic] socialist,” two equally misguided idealists in her view.

It makes for great reading, in part but no less because the author details some of the gastronomic mores of the day.

You can also read his account of his time as a Confederate soldier on The Atlantic website (his highly popular memoir was first published by the magazine in the late 19th century).

And you can read my holiday sparkling wine guide for Houston Press here. I had a lot of fun with it this morning and hope you enjoy it.

Happy sparkling shopping, everyone!

Image via Wikipedia.

Beloved Houston sommelier Steven McDonald became a Master Sommelier for the second time last week.

That’s Steven (above), wine director for one of the city’s leading steakhouses, with his wife Adria in St. Louis where he retook the tasting exam after being stripped of his title in the wake of a cheating scandal (photo via Steven’s Facebook).

Steven wasn’t involved with the malfeasance in any way. But he was one of 23 erstwhile Master Sommeliers whose newly earned titles were “invalidated” by the Court of Master Sommeliers more than a month after the group’s coveted pins had been conferred.

Houston Chronicle wine columnist Dale Robertson reported the story here.

And for more background, information on steps the Court has taken to rectify the situation, and updates on some of the candidates who didn’t pass the “reset” (as its called), see this excellent reporting by Seven Fifty Daily contributor Courtney Schiessl.

Tracie and I live in the same neighborhood as Steven and Adria. Our kids go to the same school. We eat breakfast at the same diner. They are among the nicest people we know in Houston’s wine community. A great family and great people, all around.

We couldn’t be happier for them that this stressful ordeal is now over.

In other Houston wine news…

Celebrity sommelier Jeff Porter and celebrated Italian ampelographer Ian D’Agata will be leading two days of seminars and tastings tomorrow and Wednesday at the Houstonian hotel and resort.

Click here for details and registration info.

Jeff tells me that all sessions are wait-listed but he encourages local wine professionals to sign-up regardless because spots will surely become available.

Ian’s book on the Native Wine Grapes of Italy (University of California Press 2014) has become required reading for Italian wine-focused tradespeople. I use the online version (Google Play) nearly every day.

It’s so cool that Jeff is bringing him to our city.

And in other other Houston wine and music news…

Houston-based journalist and author Gwendolyn Knapp (above, right) and I will be playing a set of her music as The GoAways this Sunday at one of the city’s favorite wine bars, 13 Celsius.

Weather permitting we’ll be do roughly 45 minutes of music in the venue’s beautiful courtyard (above) at 3 p.m. Two other bands are slated to play and it should be a great time and a great way to get together before year’s end.

I hope you can join us!

So much time and so little to say: I have so much material to post from my last trip to Italy, including some really juicy good stuff. Please stay tuned!