When it came to selecting wines on Monday night at the amazing Marea in New York, my dining companions — an Italian winemaker and one of the top wine writers working in the U.S. today — and I joked about what a tall order it would be. Between the three of us, we surmised, it would be difficult to come up with a wine that none of us had ever tasted.

Having been told that we wanted to start with something white with healthy acidity and minerality, sommelier Francesco Grosso, who is one of the leading Italocentric wine professionals in the country right now, delivered the Lambruschi 2012 Vermentino Colli di Luni Il Maggiore from Liguria — a wine that none of us had ever tasted.

The wine was pure and focused, with that “nervy backbone” that Italian writers look for in wines like this. Thanks to its freshness and brightness, you could tell it had been vinified in stainless-steel but it also had remarkable depth and nuance reminiscent of white wines that are fermented in cask. I’d ascribe its complexity to the materia prima: I don’t know much about the grower but would hazard to guess that the vines are older and that selection massale has played a role in the vineyard’s life, delivering richer clones and richer wines.

Chapeau bas, Francesco! I love what you are doing with and for Italian wines.

O and what did we eat? I posted the food shots yesterday over on Paolo’s blog.

Our “eating ’til we drop” tour of the U.S. continues: Monday we were at Marea, last night at Vetri in Philadelphia (posts forthcoming, an amazing experience), tonight at Tony’s in Houston.

Stay tuned!

Just had to grab a slice at Rosa Pizza in Penn Station before heading out for Philadelphia.

I actually had a plain slice. It was pretty good. But the pepperoni was so much more photogenic.

There’s just something about a NY slice… it’s salty and gooey and the tomato is sweet. It’s like a subway token: its price is a gauge for the economy and its mouthfeel a gauge for life…

Life is good…

When the server at Il Buco Alimentari e Vineria on Great Jones (in lower Manhattan) brought out the Ronco del Gelso 2010 Latimis (Isonzo del Friuli) by-the-glass last night, I was sure that he had mistakenly brought me one of the winery’s top wines in the place of one of the entry-tier labels.

But my good friend Roberto Paris, the restaurant’s general manager and one of my favorite NYC wine professionals, explained that he had bought the wine on a closeout and was able to offer it by the glass.

The rich, golden wine — a blend of Friulano, Pinot Bianco, Traminer, and Riesling — was dominated in its aromatic profile by the latter two grapes.

An orange wine ante litteram, it was simply stunning in the glass, muscular and confident, “drinking beautifully right now,” as Roberto noted.

It’s one of the great things about dining in Manhattan: you never know when you’re going to find a surprise like this by the glass.

Il Buco Alimentari e Vineria is the more casual incarnation of the storied Il Buco on Bond, one of my haunts from my years in the city. It was great to catch up with Roberto and reminisce about the years when the Italian wine renaissance began to take shape in NYC.

Posting in a hurry this morning as I rush to grab a high-speed train to Philadelphia.

An INCREDIBLE dinner at Marea last night. Will tell all asap… Thanks for reading!

Every year, Steve Muench, my college roommate and one of my best friends of all time (and one of the most brilliant people I’ve ever met) sends me a photo of a roast chestnut seller in the Piazza della Frutta in Padua where he and I attended university back in the late 80s.

It’s that time of year when the damp cool weather of fall in the Veneto is tempered by the unmistakable aroma of street-roasted chestnuts.

I’m so glad that Steve and I are friends. And I remember those years as if they were yesterday…

In other news…

I’m about to leave for New York where my good buddy and client Paolo Cantele (below right) and I will begin our Cantele Rolling Thunder Tour 2013. We have some pretty amazing reservations lined up across the country.

Hold on to your seats!

Please click here for my Do Bianchi wine club Thanksgiving Six-Pack 2013 offering…

Above, from left: Nicole Burke, Krug’s U.S. brand ambassador, leading Houston sommelier (and my good friend) Sean Beck, and the inimitable Rajat Parr, one of the coolest dudes in the wine world period.

No, the image above wasn’t snapped at The Ten Bells in New York or Tosca Café in San Francisco.

It was taken two nights ago at my favorite Houston wine bar, Camerata, where one invariably bumps into wine scene glitterati.

There’s a genuine buzz (excuse the pun) in Houston these days and so much groovy stuff happening.

I’d only ever met Raj on one other occasion and I was so geeked to catch up with him. I’m an unabashed fan and I believe he really stands apart from his peers in his entirely fresh, real, and sui generis approach to wine and wine connoisseurship. He’s just a super cool dude and I was stoked to rub shoulders and taste with him. The Krug wasn’t bad either.

In other Houston wine scene news…

Earlier in the evening, sommelier Travis Hinkle poured me some very reasonably priced 2005 Musar white, a wine I love to taste at every opportunity, over at The Pass and Provisions.

And before the evening got started, I caught up with my favorite Italophile wine director in Houston, Samantha Porter, who’s pouring a flight of macerated whites next week at Osteria Mazzantini.

Who can complain about living in Texas?

I wish that everyone could know and experience what a wonderful man, caring friend, gastronomic encyclopedia, and downright mensch my good friend and client Tony Vallone is.

Last night he treated me and a Houston food writer (another one of my best friends in Houston) to our first Alba truffles of the season at his flagship restaurant Tony’s.

The rainy cold spring of 2013 and the late summer rains are indications of an excellent truffle harvest this year.

This dish was also spectacular: a slice of beef sirloin served al sangue over a tomato conserva with zucchine and “marrow” polenta topped with fried garlic chips. I loved the “action painting” mise en place.

I had a really tough day yesterday and Tony put his arm on my shoulder and said, “don’t be so hard on yourself… You’re only human.”

So much to be grateful for in this lifetime… Thank you, Tony.

Please click here for info/details on my upcoming tasting events in the west, Nov. 1, 2, and 5.

“The grapes are very healthy and we’re looking forward to an excellent harvest,” writes my good friend Filena Ruppi, the better half of the Donato d’Angelo winery in Vulture (Basilicata), producer of one of my favorite expressions of Aglianico.

“As you can see, we are returning to the classic harvest times for Aglianico at the end of October.”

Like many grape growers, Donato and Filena are harvesting nearly two weeks later than they have in recent years. Across Italy, growers have reported that this harvest reminds them of the pre-climate change era.

They began harvesting this week (see image above).

When I recently visited the Tenuta Il Poggione in Montalcino, one of the writers on the trip asked winemaker Fabrizio Bindocci what Italian appellation showed the most promise in terms of fine wine production.

Without missing a beat, he responded Aglianico del Vulture.

At Sotto in Los Angeles, where I co-author the wine list, we do great work with Aglianico del Vulture, including Filena and Donato’s but also a number of fantastic producers (Musto Carmelitano, Carbone, Fucci among them) and I love the wines.

Filena has just been elected the president of the Basilicata chapter of the Movimento Tursimo del Vino (Italy’s Wine Tourism Council) and I’m thrilled to see her breathe some life into this often forgotten wine tourism destination.

When Tracie P and I drove across Vulture last September, with little Georgia P in the back seat, we felt like we were at the end of the earth: the black and gold striations of the stark but beautiful landscape make it feel otherworldly. It’s no surprise that Pasolini filmed certain sequences of his life of Christ there (The Gospel According to St. Matthew, 1964).

That’s a photo of Mount Vulture I took last year.

And below is a wonderful photo that Tracie P snapped.

And with this dispatch from Filena, sent from the end of the earth, it would seem that the 2013 harvest in Italy has come to an end…

Please click here for info/details on my upcoming tasting events in the west, Nov. 1, 2, and 5.

Above: The $40k magnum of 1945 Petrus at my friend and client Tony’s restaurant in Houston.

These days, it seems I can’t get out of bed without someone being pissed off about something I wrote on this blog or that.

My post this morning for the Houston Press, Houston’s 10 Best Destinations for Wine, already has the angry emails and comments flying into my inbox.

Anyway, for what it’s worth, I’m trying to show what a vibrant and growing wine scene we have there.

As my friend and client Tony, who’s been the city’s leading restaurateur for nearly fifty years, said to me this morning when we spoke by phone, “people don’t realize what a great community of wine connoisseurs we have here in Houston.”

For what it’s worth, here’s the link.

Hey, I guess it could be worse. I could have Eric Asimov’s job.