Unpasteurized beer (and Georgia P devours mozzarella di bufala)

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Humankind cannot live by wine alone… We were pretty beat after a long journey from Texas night last and so we decided to have an early pizza for dinner before calling it a day.

Everyone in the village of Caerano di San Marco (in the province of Treviso) agrees that Pizzeria La Torre is the best in town.

We were thrilled when we found unpasteurized beer on the beverage menu. It’s nearly impossible to find in the U.S. but here in the trevigiano beer culture — artisinal and unpasteurized — was already very popular when I toured the area with my cover band in the 1990s. It was delicious. Note also the “head” of the beer: even in a family-oriented pizzeria like this one, the staff always pours the beer correctly. It was awesome…

Georgia P INHALED her mozzarella di bufala. Her first meal in Italy!

Pizza coi carciofi alla romana for Tracie P (pizza with Roman-style, artchokes braised in white wine, a specialty of the house).

Pizza alla romana (with anchovies) for me. Yum…

Pheasant under glass

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Yesterday afternoon, after we arrived at our agriturismo (farm house bread and breakfast) Col delle Rane (which we LOVE btw, but more on that later), I took Georgia P for a stroll around the grounds while mommy took a nap.

A pheasant had somehow wandered into the glass-lined breakfast room and Georgia P was fascinated with it… Green acres, it’s the place to be! :)

Georgia P lands in Venice

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I can’t begin to describe the wave of emotion that Tracie P felt as we landed in Venice with Georgia P… Her first trip to Italy!

Georgia P’s first trip to Italy

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Tracie P continues to document parenthood over at My Little Sugarpie, where today she posted a letter to Georgia P on the eve of her first trip to Italy.

Italy is so child-friendly and we’ve traveled with Georgia P before. So we’re not overly anxious about the trip (for both Tracie P and me, going to Italy is like going anywhere, since we both lived there for so long and we both speak Italian).

Of course, Georgia P doesn’t really know that we’re leaving for Europe tomorrow. She just knows that mommy and daddy are really excited.

We have a great trip ahead of us and we’ll be posting every day about our adventures.

But as I look into Georgia P’s eyes and her smiles and laughter make me melt, I remember the first time I went to Italy when I was nineteen years old. I remember the excitement and the adventure. I remember seeing the Alps from the plane for the first time in my life. I remember getting on a bus at Malpensa and thinking to myself: look around you and remember every detail, every aroma, every flavor, every color, every word…

In the more than twenty-five years that have passed since then, I must have traveled to Europe twenty or thirty times — I lost count many years ago.

But tomorrow is Georgia P’s first trip and even though she won’t remember it, it feels like the very first time…

See you on the other side!

Pinot Grigio overload @EatingOurWords

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Honestly, when I walked into a Kroger in Houston the other day to pick up a bottle of the 2011 [Drew] Barrymore Pinot Grigio to review for the Houston Press, I had no idea that there would be a Pinot Grigio section at the supermarket (if you don’t know Kroger, it’s like Ralph’s in California or Gristedes in NYC).

And as much as I was surprised by some of the European offerings at Kroger (much better than at Ralph’s, where California dominates), I was simply overwhelmed by the selection: Menage à Trois, Middle Sister, Gnarly Head, Naked Grape, Be… Who are these people and why do they make wine?

The question is as rhetorical as the answer is obvious.

Pinot Grigio has become a lucrative brand in the United States, a misappropriation and colonization of an Italian grape variety.

Italians created the Pinot Grigio mania in the 1980s, marketing their wines to Americans. But they’ve been trumped at their own game.

I really wanted to like Drew Barrymore’s wine. After all, I like Drew Barrymore, the brand, and I imagined that the wine would be in line with the standard bearers of Italian Pinot Grigio, clean and fresh, however anonymous and forgettable.

I’m sorry to report that I was deeply disappointed.

Here’s my post today for the Houston Press.

1998 Bartolo Mascarello tasting notes (no cause for alarm)

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When I tasted the 1998 Bartolo Mascarello last month in Houston, I was frankly disappointed by the amount of sediment in the wine, probably due to recent diassociation rather than issues at bottling. I’ve followed the wines for years now and have visited and tasted with Maria Teresa Mascarello on a number of occasions. These are wines conceived and produced for long-term aging and my suspicion is that the wine I had tasted in Texas had been damaged in some way (possibly heat exposure?).

When I went to California in August, I grabbed one of the few bottles of 1998 Bartolo Mascarello that I have in my cellar (I keep my wine locker in San Diego, where it’s less expensive to store wine and where I have access limited by distance, thus precluding and preempting impulsive visits!).

I’m happy to report that the wine (as can be seen in the photo above) showed beautiful and is still very young in its evolution. No issues with sediment whatsoever.

I snapped the above photo when I visited the winery a few years ago. In my view of the world, Bartolo Mascarello’s wines are a benchmark in Langa wines, where steadfastly traditional growing and winemaking practices align seamlessly with elegance and depth.

The 1998 is still very tannic in character but is already revealing some of its gorgeous fruit. I plan not to revisit my remaining (and sadly dwindling) allocation for at least another five year.

But no regrets here, coyote. Just keeping the world safe for Italian wine… thanks for reading…

Middle Eastern wine for xenophobic times from @DrewHendricksMS @EatingOurWords

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Above: Serge Hochar, winemaker and owner at Chateau Musar.

Let’s face it: Texas is often the butt of our nation’s jokes. Nearly every day, The New York Times shares some of our less savory idiosyncrasies with readers across the country. Today it’s voter discrimination by our state’s legislature. Yesterday it was Lubbock County Judge Tom Head’s plans to rise up against the United Nations troops that he believes President Obama will deploy to Texas if re-elected.

In the light of the often racist and bizarrely xenophobic attitudes that pervade and prevail here, I was all the more impressed by Master Sommelier Drew Hendricks’s bold choice to feature a flight of Lebanese wines on his flagship list at Pappas Bros. Steakhouse on Westheimer.

Click here to continue reading my post today for the Houston Press…

A difficult vintage in Tuscany (and tasting notes for Poggione Brunello Paganelli 04)

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Above: Our friends at Il Poggione in Montalcino began picking their Merlot today. I really admire their openness and earnestness in posting about weather and harvest conditions.

The “split-screen optics” at casa Parzen tend toward the dramatic these days.

On the one hand, we’re monitoring the path of hurricane Isaac, hoping it doesn’t veer west and make landfall in Orange, Texas where our family lives. And of course, we’re keeping our Louisiana sisters and brothers in our hearts and our thoughts, as well as Gulf Coast residents to the east.

On the other hand, we’re watching the weather in Italy carefully: a challenging harvest is already in full swing and weather patterns over the next few days will greatly influence the quality of the grapes that have yet to be picked.

On their blog Montalcino Report, our friends at Il Poggione in Montalcino write that much needed rain arrived Sunday. They’ve been very open about the difficulties posed by high temperatures and prolonged drought this year. And in today’s post they concede that, although the grapes are healthy, they’re seeing elevated sugar levels in the Merlot that they started picking today.

Above: It rained across Italy on Sunday, including Friuli, bringing some relief to grape growers, but probably too little too late to compensate for the prolonged drought.

Our friend Giampaolo Venica in Collio (Friuli) also tweeted about the rainfall, posting the photo above.

He’s been very frank about the less-than-ideal ripening conditions this summer on his Twitter feed.

Emergency irrigation is not allowed in Montalcino and, as Giampaolo wrote me the other day, it’s nearly impossible in Collio.

More than once, Alessandro Bindocci, son of winemaker Fabrizio Bindocci, has written on his blog that 2012 reminds them of the tragic 2003 vintage.

In other news…

Above: We opened a bottle of 2004 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Paganelli by Il Poggione on Friday night.

Our friend Mark Sayre let us open a bottle of 04 Brunello Paganelli from our cellar at Trio in Austin the other night.

Man, what a gorgeous bottle of wine! Still very youthful and muscular, like a young bronco, rich in its mouthfeel and judicious, if not generous, with its fruit. Its “nervy” acidity served as a trapeze for the wine’s berry and red stone fruit flavors as they danced with the wonderful savory horse-sweat notes that — in my view — define true Sangiovese as expressed by Montalcino.

There’s so much Brunello di Montalcino out there these days and a lot of it is good (some of it middle-of-the-road).

Il Poggione’s — especially a top-tier bottle like this — always stands out as a pure, superlative expression of the appellation. Truly superb wine…

I’ve got a few more tasting notes to post before Tracie P, Georgia P, and I head to Italy on Saturday… stay tuned…

eating Pasolini (@NousNonPlus new album is here)

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“le sexe et la politique”, the new Nous Non Plus album is almost here…

Stay tuned… it will be available soon…