Across the world of Italian wine and beyond, industry observers are decrying the looming demise of our trade.

Young people are drinking less and less wine, they note. People are consuming fewer alcoholic beverages in general as they focus on health and wellness. Climate change is reshaping and perhaps demystifying our notion of terroir. Italy alone has an abundance of unsellable surplus wine destined to be distilled — despite diminished production levels owed to global warming.

I spent last week in New York with my longtime friend and client Alicia Lini, producer of Lini 910 Lambrusco. We were there to meet with media. At each of our appointments, our interlocutors spoke of our mission and duty — as producers of wine and chroniclers of wine — to share the values and joy of our work with the public.

It was at one of our highest profile meetings that a young colleague, an assistant to one of the most well known wine writers in the U.S., suggested that Lambrusco could be the category to save Italian wine.

They had just returned from a trip to Emilia and had been thrilled to taste Lambrusco in its natural habitat.

Lambrusco is a great wine for young people who are just getting into wine, they said. It’s easy to understand; it’s fun and unusual for people not accustomed to red sparkling wines, a conversation piece; it’s food-friendly and low in alcohol; and — most significantly — it’s not prohibitively expensive.

All of my friends love Lambrusco, they told us.

It reminded me of what another Lambrusco producer once told me, using a ¢75 but on-point word: Lambrusco is propaedeutic, they said. As per the young professional’s notes above, it could the perfect wine “to get people into wine.”

Some believe that Lambrusco is the world’s oldest grape variety to be continuously vinified since antiquity. And some of a certain age will remember a time when Emilians served nothing but Lambrusco with the culinary treasures of their region.

Maybe our quest to “save” Italian wine would be well served by getting back to the basics.

Please join me and Houston sports and wine writing legend Dale Robertson as we present the annual Texas BBQ & Italian Wine seminar at the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce Taste of Italy trade fair, Monday, February 26.

Click here to reserve your spot.

Click here to see the complete list of events, including the Prosecco seminar I’ll be leading (filling up fast btw) and the grand tasting.

The smoked meat component of our tasting will be led by the inimitable pitmaster Ara Malekian (above), owner of Harlem Rd. Texas BBQ just outside of Houston proper.

It’s hard to imagine now but when I first moved to Texas there wasn’t a lot of hipster bbq available in the urban centers. Yes, there were a few legacy places that still served lackluster smoked meats. But you had too drive out to the country to find the really great stuff (does anyone remember the mania created by Snow’s back in the late 2000s?).

Today, that’s all changed and there more smokers in Austin and Houston than I can count.

And as cliché and passé as it may sound to pair Texas BBQ with Italian wine (been there, done that?), it just works really well and the foodies seem to come back gladly. It’s a special event and I love doing it.

This seminar sells out every year so please reserve asap to ensure availability. We have some great wines lined up, including some Aglianico, Sangiovese, and a couple of surprises.

Thanks for the support and I hope to see you there!

In other news…

I’m just wrapping up a crazy week of media meetings in NYC. It’s been great to be back in the city, my first visit this year. The energy is coming back. It’s not quite all there but it’s getting there. I’m looking forward to visting later this year (in March I’ll be doing an Abruzzo seminar there at the Slow Wine tasting).

No big discoveries on this round (too many meetings and client visits) but I did find an amazing dive bar in the subway! That end-of-the-night beer made it really feel like home again.

My colleague Maurizio Gily and I are pleased to present the most recent update to our Italian-English wine glossary.

The exciting news about this update is that Maurizio has begun to populate Piedmontese dialect translations of terms.

The reason behind this latest revision was prompted by necessity. As he wrote me recently in an email, migrant workers are often flummoxed by dialectal terms for grape farming practices. He was inspired to add the “Piedmontese” column as a guide for the perplexed.

As with all works of lexicography, this small trésor is a work in progress and is surely in need of improvement. Maurizio and I are always happy to crowdsource more finely tuned entries. Please share your notes with me. And we are also eager to entertain new entries. Please suggest them.
Continue reading →

It seems like just yesterday that the Times was singing the praises of the Sacramento restaurant scene.

But in the editors’ roundup of top destinations, they omitted two Sacramento standbys: Waterboy, the all-time classic and leader, where the capital’s food cognoscenti have dined for decades; and Allora, a relatively new fine-dining concept where the husband-and-wife team have set a new bar for Italian cookery in the city.

During my trip there last week, I ate at both and both were nothing short of spectacular.

Waterboy doesn’t need any help from me in getting the word out. It’s been on gastronomes’ radar for a generation, one of the early interpreters of the California farm-to-fork movement.

Over at my new favorite Californian Italian, Allora, the brilliant co-owner Elizabeth-Rose Mandalou has put together a compact and precise progressive list, like the Colombo Pelaverga above. (It’s important to note that not all of the small- and mid-sized hipster distributors deliver to Sacramento. So, Elizabeth’s work is even more impressive given the challenges of limited deliveries and added costs.)

She also has what may be the deepest selection of Franciacorta in the U.S. Who can say no to a glass of Franciacorta and caviar and freshly shucked oyster service?

I loved how the cheese course masqueraded as dessert.

Everything about this place was warm, welcoming, entertaining, surprising and familiar at the same time. And the service, including the cork presented on a tray (yes!), was impeccable.

Thank you again, Elizabeth and team! I cannot wait to get back.

And for the record, here’s the chicken pot pie I had for lunch at Waterboy, below. Enough said!

From the department of “festina lente”….

The 2024 vintage is shaping up to be a good one over here at Do Bianchi Editorial… poo poo poo!

Here are some upcoming events where we can taste together and trade notes.

February 5: online “What’s Happening with Italian Wines” tasting with Hue Society (wines available exclusively to Hue Society members but Zoom call open to all; stay tuned for link).

February 26: Taste of Italy Houston, the city’s 10th annual Italian food and wine trade fair. I’ll be leading a number of tastings including the “Texas BBQ and Italian Wine” seminar (sells out every year; reserve now to secure your spot).

February 29: I’ll be pouring Amistà at the James Suckling tasting in Miami.

March 13-14: Tracie and I will be hosting a reception for Tahiirah Habibi at our house in Houston (March 13) and then a Hue Society Happy Hour, also in Houston where she is recruiting new members for Hue Society (March 14, venue TBD). Stay tuned for details.

March 18 (week): I’ll be leading Abruzzo seminars at three stops along the Slow Wine Tour in New York, Austin, and Denver. If you attend in Austin, hit me up for info about our annual Slow Wine honky tonk crawl (no joke, just ask Giancarlo!).

April 14-17: I’ll be doing a ton of stuff at Vinitaly this year and will be attending all four days. Hit me up if you want to taste with Amistà or Abruzzo or if you just want to connect. Hopefully I’ll be doing a Hue Society event as well.

Looking forward to connecting with you in 2024! Thanks for the support!

The 2023 vintage will be remembered as a turning point for the mainstreaming of hybrid grape varieties in Italian viticulture.

It will also be evoked when tradesfolk recall the downturn in sales and volumes as prolonged inflation, saturated markets, rising competition, and declining interest in fine wine impacted the Italian wine industry.

But this year’s most interest prediction for Italian wine was published on Christmas Day 2023 by the excellent wine-focused news and media portal WineNews.it.

The post is an interview with and paraphrasis of the great Italian ampelographer and viticultural philosopher Attilio Scienza.

In the piece, Professor Scienza illustrates how the rising alcohol levels and sustainability crises caused by increasing climate change have made us “victims of terroir.” Or to put it more precisely and slavishly, quoting the professor (translation mine): “we are still victims of the ambiguity of terroir.”

He rightly points out that until the contemporary era, wine was not considered a luxury product but rather a human necessity — like food or potable water. For that reason, wine appellations sprung up primarily around transport corridors and hubs and were closely aligned with other products of consumption. Where trade routes existed for other and undoubtedly more important products, wine growers planted their roots where they knew the customers were.

Today, that model is entirely inverted.

Fine wine is grown in places where people wanted to grow it, not where it would grow with the greatest results.

Yes, there are counter examples, places like Burgundy where wine has been grown for centuries. But why did people plant grapes there in the first place? Because there was limestone in the slopes? Or because Dijon and Avignon were nearby?

If you trace the Montalcino DOCG back to its origins, you will find that Biondi Santi set up their cooperative because a new train station had been built nearby (Sant’Angelo Scalo).

In Napa, people planted Cabernet Sauvignon on the valley floor where apples should have been planted, not because it was the best place for the grape variety but because the people who lived there wanted to drink it.

Climate change, says Scienza, should prompt us to rethink where, what, and how winemakers grow grapes. And maybe that’s how we unchain ourselves from the historically false notion of terroir and make better wines and bolster more sustainability.

Above: Tahiirah Habibi, third from right, founder of Hue Society, created in 2015, an “organization committed to creating access and resources for Black, brown, and Indigenous communities while providing enriching cultural wine experiences for consumers and brands alike” (see below).

It is with great pleasure that I share the following press release published yesterday by the Hue Society.

As Tahiirah recently told me, Hue Society is launching its first chapter in Italy. The Verona-based group is the first of its kind in the country (and possibly in Europe). I’m looking forward to partnering with them in the month leading up to Vinitaly and at the fair!

Vinitaly International Academy (VIA) celebrates a new collaboration with The Hue Society for the Ambassador Course in New York.

The Vinitaly International Academy will once again hold the prestigious Italian Wine Ambassador course in The Big Apple from 4-6 March 2024. This year’s event will include a collaboration with The Hue Society, with the inclusion of two fee-waiver candidates for Hue Society members.

Wine professionals from across North America will gather in New York City, hosted by Banville Wine Merchants in Manhattan, to participate in two days of tastings and seminars as they prepare for the rigorous exam on day 3 to become certified Italian Wine Ambassadors. VIA Faculty member Sarah Heller MW will be on hand to lead the tastings and a series of in-depth lectures, focusing on Italy’s most important wine-producing regions. This will be the 27th edition of the VIA course and the first time collaborating with The Hue Society, offering two fee-waiver opportunities for society members. The VIA Community now spans 46 countries around the world, with a membership of over 1300 people who have taken the course and 346 who passed the exam to become certified Italian Wine Ambassadors, of whom 16 are certified Italian Wine Experts.

Click on the link below and complete the application form. Hue Society members, please indicate your membership in the “Motivation” section.

https://www.vinitaly.com/en/training/vinitaly-international-academy/courses/via-new-york-2024/

About the Hue Society:

The Hue Society is a global award community-based organization committed to creating access and resources for Black, brown, and Indigenous communities while providing enriching cultural wine experiences for consumers and brands alike. While The Hue Society’s mission is the inclusion and education of all things related to Black, brown, and Indigenous wine culture, our most coveted benefits are reserved for our active members, who have access to exclusive perks and events meant to further enrich their wine knowledge and gain a direct connection to influential professionals reshaping the industry.

Southeast Texas friends, please join us on Martin Luther King Day, Monday, January 15 for the MLK Day March in Orange, Texas, followed by our protest of the newly built Neo-Confederate memorial on MLK Dr.

The Orange chapter of the NAACP will be leading the historic MLK March beginning at 10 a.m. at Salem Church on W. John Ave. The parade will be followed by presentations at the Riverfront Boardwalk and Pavilion.

Click here for more information.

And then at 2 p.m., Tracie and I will head over to the Neo-Confederate memorial on MLK Dr. at Interstate 10.

The monument is located across from the Exxon station on MLK Dr. at I-10: Google maps.

Parking is available at the Exxon station or on 41st St. (my blue Ford F150 pickup truck will be parked there).

We will be on the corner with our signs (and water bottles) from 2-4 p.m.

For those who aren’t familiar with the insidious efforts of white supremacists and Neo-Confederates to make hateful iconography unavoidable, please check out this recent reel by musician and activist Dara Tucker.

Heartfelt thanks go out to everyone who donated to our GoFundMe campaign to raise an MLK billboard across from the monument in time for MLK Day. The billboard will continue to appear throughout Black History Month (February).

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns: jparzen@gmail.com or (917) 405-3426.

Thank you for your support and solidarity! We hope to see you at the march or protest or hopefully both!