Parzen Family Christmas Letter 2012

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sgt peppers baby

Above: “My little Beatle” Georgia P celebrated her first birthday last week. She’s beginning to talk and can say words like “hi,” “mamma,” “daddy,” and “milk.” Her favorite toy friend is the pink mouse (pictured here). She loves to hug the mouse and she wants you to hug the mouse too.

Wow, what a year it has been!

And, my goodness, how it has flown by… When you become a parent for the first time, one of the things folks tell you is how quickly time begins to pass. It’s so true. Georgia P’s first year feels like it passed in the blink of an eye.

She’s doing great… hitting all her milestones on the mark and doing all the fun things that baby girls do. She loves music and dancing, she loves playing with her mommy and daddy, she loves her pink mouse, and she LOVES eating — a child after her parents’ hearts.

Tracie P and I have been very fortunate this year: as my marketing consulting business has continued to grow, she’s become a stay-at-home mom, devoting herself full-time to Georgia P and giving me a hand with our business in her spare time.

And even though our life with a newborn (now a toddler) is just as hectic and upside-down as it for all new parents, this year has been an extremely productive one.

georgia p in italy

Above: We took Georgia P to Italy in September. Even with all the challenges faced by Italians of all walks of life, they always take immense joy in a child’s smile and sweet laugh.

Among other pieces I published in 2012, I wrote a cover story on the Texas wine industry for the Houston Press; an introduction to Italian wine for La Cucina Italiana, and my band Nous Non Plus released a new album, which I recorded and mixed myself (a first for me).

The wine program I curate in Los Angeles at the restaurant Sotto hosted a dinner for cult winemaker Frank Cornelissen in November (a highlight of my wine year). And in Houston, where I continue to work with my good friend and prince of Italian gastronomy, Tony Vallone, I spoke at a series of truly extraordinary wine dinners, featuring some of my favorite wines.

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Soldera: Ex-employee arrested and charged, Corriere della Sera reports

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Today on its website, Italy’s national daily Corriere della Sera reports that an ex-employee of the Case Basse winery has been arrested and charged with an act of “sabotage.” (On Sunday December 2, 2012, 60,000 liters of highly valued wine were destroyed when a vandal entered the winery and opened the valves of the large casks that contained the wine, allowing the wine to pour out on to the cellar floor.)

According to the report, the man, 39, had been angered by the fact that he had not been provided with lodging on the estate.

The vandalism, said authorities, was an act of retribution.

The arrest was revealed in a press conference held today in Siena where Fabrizio Bindocci, president of the Brunello producers association, and Siena mayor Silvio Franceschelli assured journalists that there had been no mafia involvement.

soldera

Above: I took this photo of ripened fruit on the Soldera estate in 2010, one of the vintages lost in the act of “sabotage” by an ex-employee.

Soldera: Rorschach & (probable) resolution

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soldera criminal

Above: I took this photo of sunset over Soldera’s Case Basse estate in 2010.

Nearly two weeks after more than 60,000 liters of wines were destroyed in an act of vandalism at the Soldera Case Basseestate in Montalcino, Italian wine industry observers generally concur that the atrocious and senseless crime cannot be attributed to organized crime. The theory that it was an act of retribution for the 2008 Brunellopoli controversy, believed by some to have been sparked by Gianfranco Soldera, has also been discounted by Montalcino insiders.

This week, leading Italian wine blogger Franco Ziliani quoted a private message sent to him by lawyer Bernardo Losappio, who represents many Montalcino wineries and winemakers.

“I am certain,” wrote Losappio, “that the author of the crime will be sought among persons with whom Case Basse has had private relations” and not among “external” actors.

gianfranco soldera montalcino

Above: Soldera (left) with chef Roberto Rossi in 2010.

In an article published online this week by Panorama (a leading weekly), author Gianmaria Padovani, whose family makes wine in Montalcino, noted that the crime is not being investigated by an “antimafia” investigator. This fact, he writes, precludes a “mafia connection.”

In my personal email exchanges with persons on the ground in Montalcino this week, everyone of my friends and colleagues has expressed the belief that it was an ex-employee of Case Basse who committed the crime.

Many have written that it’s only a matter of days before the case is solved.

One thing is certain: this act of heinous vandalism and “intimidation,” as Soldera has called it, has prompted a collective gasp of disbelief and horror that stretches across the world.

As in a Rorschach test, every subject has reacted differently: many saw the hand of organized crime, some called it an act of retribution by “big” wine, and others simply expressed their inability to wrap their minds around this atrocious act of violence.

Our morbid fascination with this episode surely reflects the role that wine plays in contemporary bourgeois society as an emblem of wealth, luxury, and power. Nearly two weeks after news of the crime spread through the internets, we have observed how the power to destroy wine — an act that took just a few minutes — is almost as enthralling as the power to produce it. And we continue to be nonplussed by the disparity between the energy expended to make this wine (six vintages of maniacally cultivated fruit and meticulously vinified wine) and the energy employed to destroy it.

In other news…

This week, the Case Basse winery declined an offer by the Brunello producers association who had called for donations of wine to be given to the Soldera family to use at its discretion. In a statement, published online (and reposted by Franco Ziliani), Soldera thanked the consortium for its solidarity but proposed that the wine be given to the Universities of Siena and Florence for research.

The winery also announced that it is suspending sales of its 2006 Brunello di Montalcino in order to discourage “speculation” in pricing. On the popular Italian wine blog Lavinium, leading wine writer Roberto Giuliani reported today that an Italian wine shop was selling the 2006 for Euro 4,500.

Lunch at home with Maria Teresa Mascarello

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italian gardiniera

One of the highlights of my November trip to Italy was a lunchtime visit Giovanni and I made to the home of Maria Teresa Mascarello in the village of Barolo.

That’s the gardiniera (above) her cousin made her. It was topped with hard-boiled egg wedges and crumbled olive oil-cured tuna. The combination of textures was wonderful, one of the best things I ate on this trip.

salame cacciatora

The butcher who makes this cacciatora is di sinistra, noted Maria Teresa, on the left side of the political aisle. And that was one of the reasons it was so tasty.

In the U.S., we rarely discuss the ideology of people whose food we eat. In many homes in Italy, such gastronomic scrutiny is de rigueur.

barolo vinegar mascarello

Of course, Bartolo Mascarello aged vinegar was offered to guests to dress their lettuces.

Conversation was dominated by the center-left primary elections (which would take place the following day). Maria Teresa was one of the polling organizers.

But it soon turned to the sticky subject of Natural wine.

Maria Teresa expressed her frustration with the Natural wine movement, noting that she doesn’t consider her wine a Natural wine by any means.

The obsession with “zero sulfur,” she lamented, was misguided.

luigi oddero

Maria Teresa’s partner David was geeked for us to taste a Barolo — the Luigi Oddero Rocche Rivera — that he’s keen on.

Traditional in style, this wine showed uncommon balance for a 2003. Its earth and tar prevailed over its fruit but its acidity delivered unexpected brilliance in the mouth. Gorgeous wine.

Conversation also touched upon the recent and ongoing Cannubi controversy.

Political discussion and cultural engagement at the dinner table are considered a responsibility in the homes of many Italians.

In the Mascarello home, of course, the di sinistra ideological legacy of Maria Teresa’s father Bartolo still resides warmly.

And in my experience, there is nothing that pairs better with great Nebbiolo…

Letter to Georgia P on her first birthday

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beautiful georgia

My darling Georgia P, today is your first birthday!

Happy, happy birthday to you, my love!

Mommy and I have lots of special presents for you and this weekend nanna and pawpaw and grandma Judy will be coming to Austin to celebrate this special occasion with us.

We’ll be giving you many special gifts. But none of them can rival the gifts that you given me.

Every laugh, every hug, every kiss… every one of them is a miracle… and every day with you brings so much joy into our lives…

But you have also given me something as unexpected as it is wonderful: since you came into our lives a year ago, you have given your father a capacity to love that he never knew before.

I love mommy, of course. I love her more than I ever loved anyone in my life (and I loved her even more for giving you to us).

But you, my precious Georgia P, you have taught me that my heart is bigger than I ever thought it could be. There are days when it swells up with so much love for you that I think it’s going to burst!

But it never does: it only grows bigger and bigger as you teach me that love — unconditional love — has no limits.

There are so many things I want to tell you and so much of the world that I want to share with you.

But today on your first birthday, I just want to thank you for the miraculous gift that you’ve given me.

I love you, precious child. I love you so very much…

Remember this song that we wrote together on the plane back from Italy? It will always remind me of our trip… Happy birthday, sweet baby!

Amazing meal at Miramonti l’Altro (Brescia)

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From the department of “it’s a tough job but someone’s got to do it”…

michelin restaurant brescia

Above: The octopus appetizer at Mirmonti l’Altro outside Brescia.

As tautologous as it may sound, it’s worth repeating: there are so many great restaurants in Italy.

From the glamor of urban Milan to the homey eateries of Langa wine country, from the classicism of Naples’ Angevin-inspired cuisine to Rome’s temples of molecularly deconstructed offal, the sheer number of fine-dining options is overwhelming.

snails

Above: “Vineyard snails.”

But when you scroll the pages of the Michelin guide to Italy, you find that many of Italy’s top dining destinations lie in otherwise anonymous neighborhood, often thirty or forty minutes from the city centers (Le Calandre outside of Padua is one of the first that comes to my mind).

pieropan

Above: This single-vineyard expression of Garganega from Soave, Pieropan’s Calvarino (the winery’s flagship wine), was stunning. So focused and so pure in its mineral flavors. Such a great pairing with the snails.

On my November trip to Italy, my good best friend Giovanni generously treated me to dinner at the two-star Miramonti l’Altro, in the town of Concesio (province of Brescia).

risotto funghi

Above: One of French Chef Philippe Leveillé’s signature dishes, risotto with mushrooms and sweet cheese.

Outer Brescia isn’t exactly the first place you think of when it comes to this level of dining. In fact, the span between Milan and Brescia, including the province of Bergamo, has one of Italy’s highest concentrations of Michelin-starred restaurants.

rinaldi cannubi san lorenzo

Above: The 2006 Barolo Cannubi-San Lorenzo-Ravera by Rinaldi was absolutely gorgeous, however ungenerous with its fruit in this moment of its evolution. Where some would cry “infanticide,” I love following a wine like this — one of Italy’s greatest in my view — as it evolves. Definitely young but wow, what a wine!

The focus of high-concept dining there is due in part to the many weekend villas that dot the countryside here. They belong to Milanese and Lombard “industrialists,” mainly steel money.

But it’s also due to Brescia’s extraordinary tradition of agriculture and wine growing.

milanese

Above: The deconstructed “Milanese.”

By the sixteenth century, the city-state of Brescia, which had already been incoporated into the Most Serene Republic of Venice, was one of Italy’s central hubs for the production of fine wine.

The great Italian Renaissance agronomist Agostino Gallo (1499-1570) was born there and his legacy and contribution to agricultural science — he is credited, for example, with introducing rotating crops and new and highly effective techniques for irrigation — were key to Italy’s emergence as a farming power house.

cheese cart

Above: The cheese cart alone would have been worth the price of admission.

It was a remarkable evening and an unforgettable meal. And my discovery of Gallo — thanks to Giovanni — made the conversation even more delicious. (Gallo’s landmark tractate on Twenty Days of Agriculture, published in Venice at the height of the Venetian typography boom, is an often overlooked window into the world of Renaissance ampelography. What a fantastic find for me!)

Giovanni, thanks again, man, for such a great evening… And thank you for giving me Gallo!

Lake fish & Franciacorta at the “dispensary”

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best fish restaurant italy

Marinated coregone (Coregonus lavaretus, European white fish) served with an “ice cream marinade.”

When you really get down to the thick and thin of it, “there’s really nothing unique about the terroir of Franciacorta,” as one prominent producer told me when I was visiting there over the Thanksgiving weekend.

With its marittime influence (thanks to Lake Iseo) and its alternance of morainic (glacial-era) and calcareous subsoils, it is indeed an ideal place to grow acidity- and minearl-driven Pinot Nero and Chardonnay. But in fact, those conditions can be found in many spots of the pre-Alps.

italian perch

Gently fried perch (Perca fluviatilis) served over a potato “millefoglie.”

The tradition of sparkling wine there is owed to a small group of wealthy, industrialist landowners who began making classic-method wines in the 1960s (Franco Ziliani of the Guido Berlucchi winery was the first).

In my view, the thing that really sets Franciacorta apart as a producer of fine bubbles is the local, fresh-water cuisine there.

European white fish

Vittorio called this superb however simple dish “bread and salt” coregone fillets.

And there is no one who can rival the fresh-water fish mastery of chef Vittorio Fusari at his amazing Dispensa Pani e Vini (“Bread and Wine Dispensary”) in the village of Torbiato di Adro (in the province of Brescia).

The restaurant is a temple to locally sourced lake fish and sparkling wine (including many French labels).

Especially when Franciacorta is made in a mineral-dominant style, the pairing can be sublime.

barone pizzini brut nature franciacorta

We paired with Barone-Pizzini Franciacorta Nature. In my notes I wrote: incredible balance, very nuanced nose, some tropical fruit, some red fruit, extreme freshness in the mouth, great balance here.

I had the great fortune of being treated to lunch at the “dispensary” by colleague Silvano Brescianini of the Barone Pizzini winery during my recent and very short trip to Italy.

I love the intelligence and elegance of Vittorio’s cooking (I ate there once before, in 2008, with Franco and Giovanni).

And he expresses his devotion to local fisherman through the eloquence of his menu.

I can’t recommend his restaurant highly enough. This meal alone would have made the trip worthwhile…