Few in the U.S. know Abruzzo grower and winemaker Franco D’Eusanio (above) and his wines (Chiusa Grande). But in his native Abruzzo, his life and work are the stuff of legend.

He comes from a family of viticultural pioneers in Abruzzo. His father ran one of Italy’s most important wine grape nurseries and singlehanded helped the region to modernize its training methods.

Franco’s own work consulting with Abruzzo wineries has also reshaped grape growing practices in the region. But it is arguably his steadfast belief in organic viticulture and his vision for Abruzzo growers that will define his legacy as one of the region’s all-time greats.

I had tasted some of Franco’s wines over the summer during a dinner and tasting at the winery. But I had yet to spend time with him walking his vineyards and talking about viticulture.

He surprised me (and frankly blew my mind) when he started talking about unusual training methods he’s experimented in his quest to lower — yes, lower — acidity in the must. Tilling methods of his clay- and marl-rich soils is another key element, he explained, in his mission to create balance in his wines.

During my previous visit, I swooned over his stone-fermented Trebbiano “In petra” (vinified using a stone palmento, to borrow the Sicilian term). On this occasion, he poured me a macerated Trebbiano that I also loved and a grape I had never tasted: Maiolica, a rediscovered local variety, which delivered a light-colored but gently tannic and delicious red. It’s just another example of how he’s pushing the limits of Abruzzo viticulture.

After our tasting, I asked Franco what he studied at university. He started out with pure physics (!!!) but easily drifted toward agronomy and the family business.

I loved how an overarching vision forms his approach to growing and vinification. Producing wines with a perfect balance of acidity and phenolics is what guides him in every decision he makes.

I also loved his Abruzzo sheepdogs. Those are wounds from wolf bites on his head (below)! What a brave and loving dog. I didn’t think he was going to let me leave the property! He wanted to shepherd me!

The wines have some availability in the U.S. I highly recommend them.

Something extraordinary happened on my recent trip to Italy: I found myself immensely enjoying the act of wine blogging for no apparent reason.

A few colleagues and I had a day off and so we spent it not focusing on work but just visiting wineries we love already or have yet to explore.

I tasted the wines of but had never physically visited with Stefano Perrone of Elio Perrone in the tiny village of Castiglione Tinella (“castle of the barrel” is a facile but apt translation) where a preponderance of limestone soils make it a top zone for Moscato d’Asti DOCG.

Stefano’s Moscato d’Asti is simply one of the best wines I’ve ever tasted from the DOCG. It had the signature freshness of a great Moscato d’Asti but it also had an electricity to its rich fruit, buoyed no doubt by the acidity that Castilgione Tinella’s famous subsoils express in the wines.

Moscato d’Asti is all about a balance between the intense sweetness of the natural (not refined!) sugar of the grape berry and its acidity.

There are some other great Moscato d’Asti wines out there but man, this one is unforgettable, the kind of wine you’d drink throughout a meal. Can you imagine this wine with Texas BBQ?

I also really loved Stefano’s blend of Chardonnay and Moscato (just about 10 percent), “Gi,” a wine that, again, was buoyed by the soils there.

And for the record, Stefano is also known locally for his Barbera, also excellent.

But the thing I loved the most about visiting Stefano was how his aesthetic, beyond the wines, permeated his entire “habitat.” From the works of art that adorned the walls and the labels to the pseudo-brutalist style of the cellar to his low-key style of working and living.

It was a reminder of why I — we! — started wine blogging in the first place: wines were a means to experience richly populated worlds otherwise impenetrable for mutton-headed city dwellers in search of a meaningful connection between land, mind, and soul.

Thank you, Stefano, for an unexpected and much enjoyed treat. Thank you.

Tracie P, it’s been 15 years since we got married and 17 years since we first started dating. Happy anniversary!

I still get a flutter in my heart with every time you write me “I miss you” and “I love you.” I really do. I still can’t believe that someone as beautiful as you could love someone like me. But it’s true and I am grateful every day — poo, poo, poo! — for your love and our life together.

Do you remember these lyrics I wrote for you, nearly 10 years ago now:

Fast forward to a time, a couple years from now
And then rewind to find the reason
In the where and what and how
The woman brought the very best out of you
When she said I do

It’s so true: you have made me a whole soul again and your love has given me the strength and courage to be the person I have always wanted to be.

It’s been 13 years since Georgia was born, 11 since Lila Jane came into this world.

Watch her hold the babies
When the thunder makes them cry
Hear her tell them that she loves them
And you’ll wonder why it took so long
To get here from that day in 1975
Doesn’t it feel good to be alive?

Tonight we’ll celebrate by going out to dinner at a new, chic Mexican restaurant in our city.

We won’t be budgeting like we used to when we ate at all those down-and-dirty Tex Mex places in Austin when we were first dating.

But the thrill of going out together has only grown brighter in my heart. It truly has. Thank you for giving me the absolute best years of my life.

Happy anniversary, piccinina. I love you and I can’t wait to stare into your eyes tonight as we celebrate.

Tracie, the girls, and I invite you to celebrate Martin Luther King Day with us in Orange, Texas.

On Monday morning, we will be marching in the historic MLK Day parade. See details here.

MLK Day is always an inspiration for our family: to stand up for what is right and to be better community members.

But over the years, I’ve found that the Orange march is something special and extremely compelling. Please join us! It’s just an hour and a half drive from Houston.

Following the march, Tracie and I will be heading over to the site of the neo-Confederate memorial at the intersection of I-10 and MLK Dr. where we hold our annual protest. (Yes, the Sons of Confederate Veterans, those cowardly assholes, built their “memorial of the [breaking] wind” on one of the city’s main arteries.)

Those who join us will also see the MLK billboard that we raise each year, overlooking the neo-Confederate totem.

It’s not an event for kids. But it is an occasion that reminds the Sons of neo-Confederate Bitches that conspicuous displays of hateful and hurtful iconography is no longer acceptable — even in MAGA America.

Please join us and I believe you will find the experience to be as powerful as we do.

See details here.

We hope to see you and we wish you a meaningful and purposeful MLK Day!

DM me for more info.

One of the great things about studying Italian viticulture is the field’s endless mosaic of terroirs, traditions, and hyper-local grape varieties. It’s encyclopedic in breadth!

I had never tasted an Aglianicone until late last year while visiting and working with old friends in New York.

Taking a glance at Ian D’Agata’s remarkably long entry for Aglianicone in his Native Grapes of Italy, I toppled down through the rabbit warren of putative mistaken identities. There is so much debate swirling around the origins and genetic makeup of this variety that there are only known unknowns.

At one point the writer and ampelographer throws up his hands, smugly writing that “the fun never stops when identifying Italian grapes.”

What I can tell you is that the De Conciliis Aglianicone was delicious, surprising me with its buoyant fruit and hints of earthiness, not as tannic as you would expect an Aglianico to be (De Conciliis makes some of the best Aglianico imho).

I liked it a lot and from what I’ve read, some are looking at Aglianicone because of its natural resistance to vine disease — highly important in changing climate times.

Sommeliers are going to have fun with this one.

Tracie, the girls, and I are praying for our sisters and brothers in LA. I lived, went to school, and worked in west LA right where the fires are happening. It’s so unreal and scary. And we just got back from southern California where we spent our winter break. We left San Diego where my family lives just a day or so before the Santa Ana winds started up.

I have so many beloved friends and cherished colleagues in the LA area. I just did two wine events in LA a few weeks ago. I know they are going to need our support moving forward.

Let’s all pray for the families and communities impacted and affected. G-d bless them. Angeleños, please stay safe. We love you and you are in our thoughts and prayers. We will be ready to help when the time comes.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to our GoFundMe campaign to raise an MLK billboard that looks over the monument. The billboard is already live and will stay up throughout MLK Day and Black History Month (February) 2025. Thank you and we hope to see you on MLK Day at our protest!

Please join us in a MLK Day PROTEST of the neo-Confederate memorial in Orange, Texas (at Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. and Interstate 10, north access road):

MLK Day
Monday, January 20, 2025
location:
Confederate Memorial of the Wind
(Google map)
time:
1-3 pm

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE REPURPOSE EMAIL NEWSLETTER
to receive event details and updates.

Read more at RepurposeMemorial.com.

Happy new year from the Parzen family! Wishing you health, light, and joy in the year to come! May there be peace on earth. 

Please consider donating to our GoFundMe so that we can raise an MLK over the Neo-Confederate monument in Orange, Texas in time for MLK Day and Black History Month 2025.

Click here to donate.

The monument, believed the biggest Neo-Confederate site to be built since the 1910s, was debuted in 2017 and we have raised a billboard and organized a protest each year since.

At this point, we only need about $1,300 to reach our goal of $2k. Thanks to a surplus of $600 from 2023-24, we are already so close!

People ask me and Tracie why we do this every year. They’re never going to take it down, they tell us.

As a wise person once told me, sometimes the battles you know you are going to lose are the ones most important to fight.

We’ve been spit at, cussed at, rolled coal on, threatened with violence, bombarded with lit cigarettes…

But we’ve also received so many notes of thanks and encouragement from residents of Orange, especially from those who are frightened by the ongoing threats — verbal and physical — from the Sons of Confederate Veterans and their followers.

“I have to drive my child by that monument every day on our way to school,” one person wrote to me.

Click here to see what some of that abuse has looked like (it ain’t pretty).

Someday, the people that built the monument will be gone. We’ll see if their children continue to propagate their white supremacist message. In the meantime, Tracie and I are teaching our children that we all must stand up to racism and hate in our communities.

Thank you for your support. And hopefully we will see you in Orange on Monday, January 20, for the historic MLK March there, followed by our protest in the shadow of our MLK billboard at the site of the monument.

Read more about our efforts over the years and see photos from our protests here.

Thank you.