Tag Archives: Jeremy Parzen

What I do for a living…

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Folks often ask me just what it is that I do for a living…

After receiving my doctorate in Italian (UCLA, 1997) and getting my start in the wine writing business as the chief wine writer for La Cucina Italiana (1998-2000, New York), I began working as a freelance copywriter for New York-based importers of Italian wine and spirits.

What started as a print-media monthly newsletter for Fratelli [Fernet] Branca (in New York) quickly grew into a business that provided content to importers like Terlato Wines International and Kobrand. Continue reading →

Wedding photography is here!

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tracie parzen

Every since we got on a plane, two Wednesdays ago, to leave for La Jolla for our wedding, life has been nothing but a dream: the preparation for the wedding, the rehearsal dinner, the ceremony (the incredible moment the stunningly gorgeous Tracie P née B appeared to walk down the aisle!), our first kiss and embrace as wedded couple, the reception, the Bollinger NV rosé (and the 1998 Grand Dame!), New York, Sant’Angelo in Colle, Bologna, Barolo, Barbaresco, Rome, and then finally the long trek homeward. At the end of those two weeks, Tracie P and me were ready to come home.

The best news? Next week, we finally move into our first home together, a little house we’ve rented on the north side of Austin.

As hard as it is to come down from the high of the last two weeks, we’ve been enjoying the afterglow of these magical days, cooking at home and staying in to watch movies at night.

The other good news: the first official wedding photos, by our lovely and immensely talented (you’ll see) friends Jennifer (Tracie P’s childhood friend) and CJ Nichols, are here!

In Tracie P they found a cover-girl as their materia prima. In me? Well, they found the same old schlub I’ve always been. But, hey, Tracie P must see something in me, right? I guess she loves me for my brain… ;-)

Enjoy the wedding photos here!

Just Say NO to Merlot!

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In case you haven’t read Franco’s editorial at VinoWire, “Vino Nobile producers: just say no to Merlotization,” please check it out (translation by yours truly). Vino Nobile di Montepulciano is one of the greatest terroir-driven expressions of Sangiovese and it would be a pity to see it dumbed down by higher percentages of international grape varieties. Please comment if you feel so inclined.

Patrizia Castiglioni and Dora Forsoni make my favorite Vino Nobile at Sanguineto. Tracie B always notes that “if Willie Nelson had an Italian sister, it would be Dora.” They are truly lovely folks and when I took this photo of them, Dora smiled sweetly at Patrizia and said, “no one has ever taken our picture together before.” Their wines are natural and stinky, just the way I like them. You won’t find any Merlot here.

Angelo Gaja, please call me!

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From the “just for fun” department…

I like to call him the Giuseppe Baretti of Italian wine writing: my friend and colleague Franco Ziliani (pictured above holding two bottles of would-be [wood-be] Nebbiolo by Giorgio Rivetti) is one of the Italian wine writers I admire most and the feathers he ruffles with his excellent blog, Vino al Vino, often belong to the princes and princesses of Italian wine.

He reminds me of yet another great Italian writer, a Renaissance master of satire, Pietro Aretino: if anyone deserved to borrow Aretino’s motto flagellum principum (flagellator or flogger of princes) it would be my dear friend Franco.

Franco recently posted the above photo together with a post in which he lampoons a Nebbiolo producer (well, should we call him that? his wines don’t really taste like Nebbiolo at all) who — for Franco and for me — represents everything that is wrong with the world of Italian wine today: Giorgio Rivetti is a “wine wizard” and master of marketing who created wines expressly for the American market with little consideration for the great tradition and great people of the place where he makes wine. (You may remember my post on the Spinetta Affair.)

Not long after he posted the photo and satire, he received a phone call from the “bishop of Barbaresco” (who, incidentally, had recently anointed his disciple Rivetti as a member of a putative “national team” of winemakers who will lead Italy into the world cup of the future). Evidently, messer Gaja has forgotten the meaning of irony and satire — notions and literary figures cherished by the ancients and rediscovered during the renewal of learning and then again in the age of enlightenment.

This week, my partner Alfonso Cevola (aka Starsky) and I had some fun with it: Angelo, please call me!

In other news…

Yesterday, Franco sent me this photo, snapped in Maroggia, at the foot of the alps in the Valtellina, where Nebbiolo finds one of its finest expressions.

I moved to Texas for one very special lady only to discover there’s a little bit of Texas in everyone… Thanks, Franco!