Putto with amphora

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“The greatest thing my mother taught me,” Giannola Nonino told me at lunch today, “was how to love things that are beautiful — whether a flower in a field or a work of art.”

Giannola — the matriarch of the Nonino family — is such an amazing lady and I loved chatting with her today about her family’s close ties to Luigi Veronelli.

I couldn’t resist photographing the putto (above) with amphora outside the home of Elisabetta (one of Giannola’s daughters) where Team Nonino and I had lunch today.

As chaotic and troubled as Italy can be at times, its beauty — even in the smallest details — is always unrivaled.

I’ve posted some more photos from the trip over at the Nonino blog this afternoon and I’ll be posting in more detail in the days that follow.

Tomorrow we head to Milan for a cocktail tour of the big city.

Stay tuned…

The AutoGrill and the Free-Range Chicken

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After landing early this morning in Milan, Team Nonino headed for Udine, where we’ll be staying for the next few days before heading back to Milan where we will be checking out the cocktail scene there.

But, as all travelers of the wine trail in Italy will tell you, the first stop is always an AutoGrill, the roadside diner and cafè (what the Italians call a bar). The AutoGrill is as commercial as McDonald’s or Burger King but the food is actually pretty good. The sandwichs are generally fresh and made with wholesome ingredients (I had simple salame on a baguette and it was delicious).

The clip below is set in a 1960s AutoGrill. It’s entitled “The Free-Range Chicken” and is part of an episodic film called Ro.Go.Pa.G., a collaborative work by some of my favorite directors.

Even if you don’t understand Italian, check it out. It’s not about the dialogue. The story is told through the images.

Stay tuned: I’ll be posting updates from the trip in quasi-real-time over at the Nonino blog! Thanks for following along!

When a song makes you cry (leaving for Italy again)

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Driving back from seeing a client in Houston this week, John Denver’s “Leaving on a Jetplane” came on in one of my mixes and I just couldn’t hold back the tears. I knew that in a few days I’d be packing my bags and leaving again, heading back to Italy.

As we head into the last trimester of our pregnancy, it’s just so hard to say goodbye to Tracie and Baby P. (I was only supposed to be away for a week but the trip was extended when the Nonino family asked me to lead a group of celebrity mixologists on a cocktail tour of Friuli and Milan.)

This year has been a happy one for us, with our healthy pregnancy, business going well, and family and friends here in Texas who support and love us. Becoming close with all my long-lost Texas cousins has been such a blessing for me. The other day at Rosh Hashanah lunch, I told the Rosenbergs how much it means to me and they all just smiled and said, “that’s what Texans do.”

We have so much to be thankful for but saying goodbye to “my girls” this morning nearly broke my heart… I love them so, so much…

All my bags are packed I’m ready to go
I’m standin’ here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye
But the dawn is breakin’ it’s early morn
The taxi’s waitin’ he’s blowin’ his horn
Already I’m so lonesome I could die

So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you’ll wait for me
Hold me like you’ll never let me go
Cause I’m leavin’ on a jet plane
Don’t know when I’ll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go

Fast food and fine wine pairing, my post today for Houston Press

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After I read an article in this week’s The New York Times reporting that the fast food chain Sonic has begun offering its guests wine, I was inspired to contemplate the pairing of fast food and fine wine for the Houston Press today.

I had a lot of fun with it and you might be surprised by what I came up with and the folks that appear in the post. Here it is…

Thanks for reading!

DOCG RIP: Death by Bureaucracy

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And so it would seem that the Italian government has finally stopped handing out DOCGs to any and all who wish to participate in the age-old game of political spoils. But the news that Italian National Wine Committee has ended its despicable practice comes after scores and scores of wines have received the accolade while legions of other more deserving wines have been ignored and omitted.

Over the weekend, my writing partner in VinoWire, top Italian wine writer and blogger Franco Ziliani, and I posted an English translation of his editorial on the final nail in the coffin of the Italian DOC/G system.

And not only did Alfonso post an updated list of current DOCGs but he also wrote a stirring, lyrical, and unforgettable post about the five Italian regions that will never attain a DOCG, despite the nobility of their wines (this is a must-read post, truly brilliant).

The rush to create a tide of new DOCGs stemmed from the final phase (and year) of the EU’s Common Market Organisation reform. (See also this post on “riforma 164.”)

The power to create new denominations has now passed from Rome to Brussels but the reform allowed a “grandfathering” of previously decreed DOCGs. The crush of new DOCGs was the result of hundreds of wineries lobbying to attain the classification before the application deadline passed in 2009.

The Italian agricultural minister essentially rubber stamped every application.

To commemorate this momentous legislative landmark, Fedagri-Confcooperative (the Italian confederation of farmers and farming cooperatives) issued the following statement: “with these deliberations, the National Wine Committee has fulfilled its two-year task of reviewing and approving nearly 300 applications to change existing DOs [Protected Designations of Origin] and the accreditation of new IGTs, DOCs, and DOCGs.”

Never mind the fact that the Italian agriculture minister, Saverio Romano, (who oversees the committee and signs their recommendations into law) was appointed to his seat in the cabinet by Berlusconi so that he could avoid prosecution for organized crime association and corruption. (Over the course of his tenure, Berlusconi has shrewdly authored a series of laws that grant immunity to Italian politicians.)

And so with the baby and the bathwater: bureaucracy has skillfully annihilated any significance or impact that the DOCG system could have retained in a post-CMO-reform world.

As I prepare to head back to Italy for the European Wine Bloggers Conference (where Franco and I will both be speaking), it strikes me as one of the saddest forms of wine writing that I can imagine.

2007 Nebbiolo and Rock ‘n’ Roll: notes from our record release party

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As we head into the last trimester of our pregnancy, Tracie P and I decided to have one last house party before Baby P arrives in December. Doesn’t Tracie P look great?

Since I’m going to be in Europe on our new album’s release date (guiding celebrity mixologists to Friuli and speaking at the European Wine Bloggers Conference), the occasion was a listening party for my band Nous Non Plus’s CD Freudian Slip (October 11, Aeronaut Records).

You’ve already heard Bunga Bunga (the first single, released earlier this month). Here’s a preview of Tracie P’s favorite track, a song that Céline and I wrote in Italian for a dear friend of mine who’s going through a tough time in his life (that’s rock star David Garza playing the guitar solo, btw):

I made my guacamole, Tuscan bean salad, and penne tossed with domestic mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, basil, and extra-virgin olive oil. For the main event, Tracie P made her famous potato latkes and in the light of the fact that our band is faux French, I made that supreme classic of French cuisine: le hot dog (Hebrew National weenies and buns grilled on our ridged steak pan and then slathered with Dijon).

We opened a lot of awesome wine with the friends who came out to listen yesterday. But the wine that really thrilled me was the 2007 Barbaresco by Silvio Giamello.

Gauging from the 2007 Nebbiolo I’ve tasted so far, this vintage, already showing extremely well, will only get better. Here’s what Antonio Galloni had to say about 2007 in Langa:

    The year started off with an unusually warm and dry winter, with virtually no precipitation. Flowers and plants went into bloom nearly a full month early. Growers had never seen conditions such as these. The summer was warm, but evenly so, without noticeable heat spikes. Towards the end of the growing season nighttime temperatures lowered, slowing down the maturation of the grapes, and allowing for the development of the perfume that is such an essential component of fine Nebbiolo. The harvest was earlier than normal, but the growing season started so early in the year that the actual length of the vegetative cycle was actually close to normal if not longer than normal by a few days. Overall yields were down an estimated 10-15%.

(Even though he posted this in the subscription-only EBob site, it’s easy to find: just Google “Galloni Piedmont 2007” and the complete text will come up.)

Produttori del Barbaresco still hasn’t shipped its 2007 classic Barbaresco but my bet is that it will be fantastic. And in the meantime, the Giamello is already gorgeous, with a promise for superb evolution. Giamello owns some of the best rows in Ovello, the same cru where Produttori del Barbaresco sources the majority of its fruit for their classic Barbaresco.

The 2008 Mongeard-Mugneret Fixin was also stunning. But the Barbaresco was the wine that really thrilled me yesterday as we listened to the new record.

Burgundy may be my mistress but Langa is my signora…

Thanks for reading and listening!