Above: the aisles are empty at my favorite wine shop in the U.S., Chambers Street Wines in lower Manhattan.

It’s no surprise that safety measures and isolation protocols have drastically reshaped the way Americans buy wine. Long gone are the days when wine lovers could browse the shelves of their favorite shops, perhaps taking a break to taste a wine or two offered by a salesperson or a guest “supplier rep.”

But one of the few places where the wine trade has seen an increase in sales has been the retail sector. The math is simple: people are spending more time at home, eating in more often, and because they can’t make that Thursday evening visit to their preferred wine bar, they are consuming more wine at home.

That doesn’t mean that wine shops aren’t struggling. Just like everyone else in the pandemic, they’ve had to reinvent how they market their services and sell their wines. And because in-person shopping and tasting is no longer possible (or less preferable in some cases where shops are allowing customers to browse), they have to rely on good old-fashioned person-to-person sales strategies, whether via email or phone, to engage with their clients.

Tracie and I have continued to buy wine throughout our isolation. I haven’t traveled in more than seven months at this point and while the amount of wine we consume hasn’t really changed, we enjoy wine exclusively at home now. We buy wine from a variety of sources, in part because we want to support the wine community locally and nationally and in part because there are so many great deals and discounts on some of our favorite wines right now.

Here are some tips, gleaned from personal experience, on how to buy wine in the ongoing pandemic.

Above: browsing the shelves at Chambers Street Wines in normal times is like leafing through a favorite wine book. 

Look out for deals and discounts on wines and shipping.

The Montinore winery in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, one of our favorites, just sent out an email that they’re waiving shipping fees for a year for anyone who joins their wine club. They already offer free shipping on 12-bottle orders. Incentives like these are becoming increasingly common as wineries need to drive sales. When you take advantage of these offers, you save money and you help support a struggling industry. It’s a win-win. I’ve made a point of signing up for every email list I can find and some of the deals I’m seeing — from wineries and wine shops — are incredible.

Many independent wine shops across the country have a work-around when it comes our nation’s restrictive wine shipping laws.

It’s illegal for a wine shop to ship wines to a consumer in Texas. But Chambers Street Wines in New York, my favorite wine shop in the U.S., can now ship me wines using a “third-party shipper.” Technically, the store isn’t shipping me the wine. A dedicated wine shipper is handling the shipping. It’s a dumb as the anti-competitive policies of my state legislature but it works.

Now more than ever, we rely on our relationships with wine salespersons to source us the wines we love.

The ongoing pandemic has disrupted the wine supply chain in ways that no one could have predicted or imagined. Exclusive allocations earmarked for by-the-glass programs, for example, have gone unclaimed and are being offered, hat in hand, to retailers. Now more than ever our retailers can source deals and deep discounts on wines that we love. But none of that can happen unless they know our tastes. Tracie and I have discovered so many new wines thanks to our favorite local retailers who reach out when they come across something they think we’ll like. If you can’t be with the wine you love, love the wine you’re with.

Restaurants are eager to sell you their wine.

Many states, including Texas, now allow restaurants to sell you wine to take home with you. In my experience, wine lists are a great resource for finding older wines that were prohibitively expensive in the time before the pandemic. And restaurateurs are increasingly open to making deals. Smart wine programs are designed with long term aging goals. But in this time of unprecedented crisis, that’s all out the window. As a result, the authors of wine lists are now often eager to walk you through their programs and offer you retail pricing. And as much as it may feel like you’re taking advantage of them, you’re actually helping them to grow cash flow at a time when they are desperate for capital.

Wine shop and restaurant employees are essential, front-line workers.

No matter where or how you’re buying wine, it’s important to remember that wine shop and restaurant employees are essential, front-line workers. Just like you and me, they are mothers, fathers, spouses, partners, and caretakers for the elderly and disabled, human beings with mortgages, rent, and health insurance premiums to pay and kids to feed. You can help support them by buying wine, by listening to their advice, and trusting them to source new wines for you to try.

Thanks for being here. Please buy some wine from your favorite wine retailer and enjoy.

Above: Boulder Burgundy Festival founder Brett Zimmerman (left) with winemaker Jean-Marc Roulot at last year’s gathering. This year’s event marks the festival’s tenth anniversary.

The organizers of the Boulder Burgundy Festival have decided to open up their virtual winemaker seminars to anyone who would like to attend — free of charge.

Speakers this year include Dominique Lafon, Julie Gros (Anne Gros), Coravin founder and inventor Greg Lambrecht, and renowned Burgundy importer Daniel Johnnes. Festival founder Brett Zimmerman and Lyle Railsback of Kermit Lynch will also be leading seminars.

Attendees are given the option of making donation to the festival’s charity partners. But as Brett told me by phone last week, he encourages wine professionals to join even if they prefer not to make a donation.

As many sommeliers across find themselves with extra time on their hands, these seminars represent a wonderful opportunity to interact with some of the leading names in Burgundy today.

I began working with the festival in 2014 as its in-house blogger and media creator. It’s been a fantastic experience: the caliber of the speakers and the quality of the content has been nothing less than spellbinding (not an exaggeration). I sincerely hope that wine professionals will take this opportunity to expand their knowledge of Burgundy. And I’m thrilled that Brett made this move. It’s something that he wouldn’t have been able do in a “normal” year.

To sign up for the seminars, just visit BoulderBurgundyFestival.com. You’ll see that there are options for $0, $25, $50, or $100 donations. Again, Brett highly encourages people to sign up free of charge. And there’s no limit to how many people can join. Brett’s even brought a Zoom specialist on board to manage the sessions.

Image via Wikipedia Creative Commons.

This Friday in New York, I’ll be leading a virtual tasting with wines that I selected together with my good friend Jamie Wolff, owner of the “best wine shop in the world” Chambers Street Wines (according to the readers of JancisRobinson.com, 2014).

Reserve for the virtual tasting here.

(I won’t actually be in the city. I’ll be at my desk here in Texas.)

And not only will we be pouring three wonderful Italian wines, but I’ll also be discussing my ongoing research on the role that wine plays in Boccaccio’s Decameron. I promise it won’t be boring! I think a lot of people, even those who haven’t read his collection of stories, will be surprised by my findings.

New Yorkers can still purchase the wines in time for the event, which benefits Animal Zone International.

I’d love to get to taste these with you. See the EventBrite for the wines.

And on Thursday in Houston at the weekly virtual wine dinner I host, I’ll be welcoming winemaker Francesco Carletti of Poliziano, one of my favorite producers of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.

Click here for menu and details.

These truly magical events have been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career in wine. For those who have never attended, I know you won’t be disappointed. These are super fun and the wines and food are great.

We expect this dinner to sell out quickly so please feel free to shoot me an email if you want me to hold you a spot.

Thanks for the support and thanks for drinking Italian wines. Italian winemakers need your support now more than ever.

The quest for the perfect glass for the perfect wine is one that has long vexed wine lovers and professionals.

While there are some genuine technical aspects to consider when pairing stemware and wines, the fetishization of matching glass and fermented grape must is driven primarily by glaziers. They need, after all, to sell you more glasses.

In regard to stemware shapes historically paired with regional wines, the match is more often than not determined by one simple variable: local tradition. Whether the slightly flared balloons of Langa or the broader vessels of Burgundy, the different shapes perform the exact same functions (aeration and heat diffusion). But their shapes are different because the people who make the wines “have always done it that way” and “as long as anyone can remember.”

Like most 21-century wine professionals in the U.S., we use a classic Bordeaux glass for nearly all the wines we serve at our house — red, white, and sparkling — with one notable exception: Lambrusco. When it comes to the many wonderful sparkling reds and rosés from Emilia that we love to pour, the “stem” has to be a classic tumbler like the one in the image above. It’s what we call a “glass of the world” in our family lexicon because it’s the type of drinking vessel that you find in taverns and public houses across the globe.

In Emilia, where the locals drink Lambrusco ubiquitously and nearly exclusively (don’t ever try to bring them Brunello as I once foolishly did), the tumbler is the hands down glass of choice.

Is there a technical motivation behind this tasting? No, not as far as I can ascertain. Lambrusco tastes just as good in our tumblrs as it does in our Bordeaux stems. (But please, please, please: never serve Lambrusco in a flute. And on second thought, never serve ANY wine in a flute. But that’s another story for another day.)

In my view, the glass choice for Lambrusco is an aesthetic and ideological one. Low in alcohol and (ideally) with bright fruit and gentle fizziness, Lambrusco is meant to be a crowd pleaser for everyone to enjoy at the table. And so it only makes sense for it to be served in a “glass of the world,” a nod to its demotic nature.

No matter what wine you are pouring tonight, remember: if you can’t be with the glass you love, love the glass you’re with. One of the greatest wine experiences I’ve ever had was sharing Bollinger Special Cuvée Champagne with Tracie backstage at one of my band’s show at the Mercury Lounge on the Lower East Side when we were first dating. We poured it in clear plastic cups, the only option available (below). So go figure!

Oh and by the way, the Lambrusco in the glass last night was paired with nachos topped with refried beans and freshly sliced jalapeños. It one of the most satisfying pairings I’ve had this month. For real.

If you’re joining me tonight for our virtual wine dinner with Alessandro Medici of Lambrusco great Medici Ermete, be sure to use your tumblers instead of traditional wine glasses. And you’ll see what I’m talking about.

In my experience, there’s no other wine in the world that more ably expresses the character of the people who make it than Lambrusco.

It’s as if the Emilians — the most joyous and sensual of Italians — had found a way to bottle themselves.

I’ve found this across the board, whether tasting with my many close friends there or opening a bottle at home with dinner. I don’t quite know how to describe or explain it. But if ever there were a genie in a bottle, it’s got to be a bottle of Lambrusco.

The magic ethos of their wines is just one of the reasons I’m thrilled to welcome my friend Alessandro Medici this week for our Thursday night virtual wine dinner at Roma in Houston (my client).

Alessandro is a rising star of Italian sparkling and he’s bringing fresh new ideas and energy to his family’s winemaking legacy. I like him a lot and he’s also a graduate of the Slow Food University of Gastronomic Sciences where I teach (in normal years), another reason I think he’s got the “right stuff.”

See the menu and reservation details here.

And thanks for the support: these events are what’s keeping this restaurant alive. Support local businesses, including my own, by eating great Italian food and drinking great Italian wines with the people who love and make them.

Above: Nicola “Dudu” Durandi (right), beloved Friulian winemaker with Melania Spagnoli, Texas sales manager for his U.S.-based importing and distributing company.

Nicola Durandi, 43, a legacy grape grower and winemaker from Friuli has died. According to a local media report, the cause was a heart attack.

Known affectionately as “Dudu,” Nicola was a beloved figure in Udine where he lived with his wife and children.

His family’s Antonutti winery is one of Friuli’s leading producers of fine wines. He worked as the estate’s brand ambassador in the U.S.

Over the years, I met and tasted with Nicola on a number of occasions in Texas, a state he visited regularly. Earlier this year, he was the featured guest at one of the virtual wine dinners I host for a restaurant here in Houston.

Nicola was a warm man, with a broad smile and a hearty handshake. And he had that classic Friulian eagerness and genuineness about him.

Tracie and I were both immensely saddened to hear of his sudden passing and we would like to share our heartfelt condolences with his family. Our condolences also go out to the Impero wine team. Nicola will be sorely missed.

Sit tibi terra levis Nicolae.

Yesterday, my Italian colleague and friend Filippo Larganà, editor of the popular Piedmont-centric wine blog Sapori del Piemonte, asked me to write a note about the Tuesday evening presidential debate for his site.

Here’s a link to my “op-ed” entitled “Donald Trump and the Partisan Johnny” (in Italian).

For readers who don’t know the works of Beppe Fenoglio, he was one of the most widely read authors of the 20th-century in Italy. His most famous work was his auto-biographical novel Il partigiano Johnny (The Partisan Johnny), the story of an Italian soldier in the Second World War.

After the 1943 armistice with the Allies, Johnny abandoned his post and headed back to his native Piedmont where he joined the partisans fighting German and Fascist armies.

In my post for Filippo’s site, I wrote about how Fenoglio saw Piedmont’s farming culture and its values as the source for the human courage and solidarity that were needed to vanquish the occupying forces.

Piedmontese viticulture grew out of that same culture and humanity.

It’s up to us to draw on those same values as we face the rising but still stoppable racism and racist violence in our own country.

When we find it, we’ll share the human courage and solidarity of those partisans. And perhaps instead of saying, I’m not a racist, but…, we’ll say I’m not a racist, but instead an anti-racist.

Heartfelt thanks to Filippo for letting me share my thoughts with his readers. And special thanks to Strega Off for allowing me to use their photo.

Image courtesy Strega Off, the organizers of an event that celebrates the prestigious Italian Strega literary prize.

In case you haven’t been following the news about the fires in Napa and Sonoma, please see this harrowing account by leading wine blogger Alder Yarrow. Our heartfelt thoughts and prayers go out to our sisters and brothers on the ground there. See also this Calfund.org link with information about the current status of the fires and relief organizations that are taking donations.

This Thursday for our weekly virtual wine dinner at Roma restaurant in Houston, we’ll be hosting Pertinace winemaker Cesare Barbero (above) and presenting the cooperative’s Dolcetto, Barbera, and Barbaresco.

Whether the single-vineyard designates or the classic Barbaresco (the one we’ll be drinking on Thursday), these are some of my all-time favorite wines.

I started following Pertinace back in the early 2000s when I was still living and working in New York. For nearly two decades now, I continue to reach for these wines as one of Langa’s best values and one of the greatest expressions (imho) of Italian viticulture.

Roma owner Shanon and I have been working with the distributor to make the wines available at the same price he charges for all of these dinners. I couldn’t be more thrilled to be hosting Cesare and the wines this week.

See the menu and details here.

You can reserve by simply sending me an email (here).

I’ll look forward to tasting these extraordinary wines with you. Thank you for your support.

And btw, the importer recently gave me a bottle of the 2016 Dolcetto by Pertinace because I wanted to make sure the vintage was showing well. This wine knocked me off my feet with its vibrant fruit and balance. I thought it was stunning. I know our guests are really going to love these. They are really special wines.