The Ceretto “Grape” and vineyards

Last week was super special because I visited the southern Rhone valley, which is to say grenache country. This is going to be a super special week because I’m making my first of what’s sure to be multiple treks over the Alps to Italy’s Piemonte, where nebbiolo reigns supreme. Grenache and nebbiolo are my go-to red grapes, folks, and that’s why, in a moment of momentary madness years ago, I decided to build a house that sits halfway between the two regions.

My visits come at a bittersweet juncture, though, because 2021 proved to be a miserable year in both locales. Devastating April frosts took a terrible toll on France’s grape-growers, while pockets of northwest Italy, which had also been badly impacted by unseasonably icy conditions well into the spring, also got hammered by late-summer hailstorms, a one-two punch that dramatically limited yields there as well.

Nonetheless, the few 2021 Rhone wines that I have been able to taste turned out swimmingly, particularly the Soubois Rosé and new white blend made under the same name by my friends at Domaine de Mourchon (domainedemourchon.com).  Its estate fruit fortuitously grows at a high-enough elevation to have survived the worst damage done to vineyards closer to the Rhone’s banks. And the current-release reds from 2019, at least those that I was able to sampled, checked all the boxes, too, showing ripe fruit and great concentration.

Nobody is going so far as to describe 2019 as an historically superb vintage, but there figures to be lots of excellent wines, particularly from the best producers in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. And 2020 is said to be across-the-board better, softening the blows of 2021 a bit.

How bad was last year in France? Overall, yields were the smallest in 40 years and represented an unprecedented 27-percent decline from the previous vintage. In Burgundy, the drop-off surpassed 50 percent. The Jura lost four-fifths of its fruit. The countrywide financial hit to vintners is said to have been more than $3 billion. In short . . . Zut alors!

But I’m expecting lots of happy talk from my friends in an around Alba regarding the aforementioned newly released Barolos and Barbarescos from 2018 and 2019 respectively, which I’ll be tasting for the first time. Regarding the latter, Cult Wines senior fine wine buyer Andre Marino calls 2019 “a fantastic vintage, with consistent weather and very few worrying climate events. Good yields and great quality meant the domains could work with perfect fruit across the whole appellation. Wines in the glass are deep and energetic with pure ripe fruit but without any of the excess (shown) by some of the recent warm vintages.”

As for the 2018 Barolos, described as classic, elegant and Burgundian in style, Matteo Sardagna Einaudi of Poderi Luigi Einaudi pretty much summed things up by saying, “the grapes were in excellent health in the vineyard thanks to the stable and sunny months of September and October. This allowed us to wait tranquilly for the harvest.”

Roberta

I’m especially looking forward to lunching Thursday at my favorite restaurant in Alba,  La Piola in the Piazza Duomo, with my oldest friend in the Langhe, Roberta Ceretto. A Barolo I’ve already got my sights set on trying is the Ceretto family’s Prapò, described by one critic as having “a fruity nose that tastes of cherry and strawberry, with hints of violet, licorice and nutmeg. In the mouth, the sip is wide and deep, the tannins well marked and the persistent finish still on the fruit and with a balsamic finishing note.”

If I ask nicely, perhaps she’ll bring a bottle for us to sample together. (Big toothy grin imoji here).

This is a good place to note that both the Mourchon family – Walter and Ronnie McKinlay and their daughter Kate – and the Cerettos are both harboring refugees from the Ukrainian catastrophe in their respective wineries’ guest quarters. No surprise this. That’s the kind of people they are.       

Sippin’ with Sporty

White

* 2020 Vermentino di Monteverro Toscana – From the Maremma region of Tuscany, it tastes of white peaches, grapefruit and green apples and you’ll love the expressive minerality. The handpicked grapes were whole-cluster pressed without malolactic fermentation and the wine then spent six months on the lees in stainless steel tanks. $19.97 at winechateau.com

Rosé

* 2020 Gerard Bertrand Gris Blanc – From the Tautavel neighborhood near Perpignan in France’s Pays d’Oc, it has become one of my favorite rosés for its freshness and expressive minerality (never mind its enticing price tag). The very pale pink hue is deceptive. It packs a big flavor punch. $14.99 at wine.com. Widely available in retail in Houston, too.     

Red

* 2018 Watermill Estate Merlot Walla Walla Valley – Walla Walla merlot rivals that from anywhere – really! – and this one is proof of same, offering vibrant plummy and black currant notes. The wine stayed on the skins for more than two weeks, undergoing additional maceration through punch-downs and pump-overs before going into barrels, new and medium toast French and American oak, for 12 to 16 months. It’s also a serious bargain for $30 at watermillwinery.orderport.net

H-town Happenings

* Brenners on the Bayou Wine Fest – Saturday, May 7. $125-$150. www.brennersfest.com

* A Spanish Fling with the Bierzo wines of Raúl Perez Pereira – Camerata, Tuesday, May 17. www.camerata.com

* Stroll Through Bordeaux Event – Ouisie’s Table, Thursday, May 19. $60 plus tax and gratuity. 713 528-2264.

* La Rioja Alta wine dinner – Truluck’s, Wednesday, May 25. $400. https://trulucks.com/la-rioja-alta-wine-dinner

* Wines from Rioja Experience – The Post Oak Hotel, Thursday, May 26. $199. localwineevents.com

* The Wine Rendezvous Grand Tasting & Chef Showcase – The Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel & Convention Center, wrapping up Wine & Food Week – Saturday, June 11. $125. wineandfoodweek.com 

Follow me

* Podcast: Sporty Wine Guy

* Instagram: sportywineguy

* Twitter: @sportywineguy

* Facebook: Dale Robertson

Other folks to follow

* Sandra Crittenden (winelifehouston.com) – Sandra shares her story on the multi-faceted pinot gris grape written for Galveston Monthly magazine.  

* Russ Kane (vintagetexas.com) – Russ reports on the wines of Farmhouse Vineyards in Johnson City.  

* Jeff Kralik (thedrunkencyclist.com) – Jeff reviews an eclectic mix of wines that have excited him of late.

* Jeremy Parzen (dobianchi.com)  – My podcast partner in crime shares his space with Davide Camoni, the laboratory director at Enoconsulting in Villa Pedergnano (Franciacorta) where some of the world’s most famous wines are tested. Camoni explains saccharomyces cerevisiae, which he calls “humankind’s best friend.” Why? You can find out here.  

* Katrina Rene (thecorkscrewconcierge.com) – Kat gets us up to speed on what’s going on in May vis-à-vis Texas’ vibrant wine scene.   

Sitting here staring at the freshly re-snow-capped peaks of France’s Southern Alps, which received a splendid late-April dusting Saturday evening, I still can’t help thinking about my next glass of rosé. I suppose it’s because I’ve been away from humid Houston for only a week. Then again, who said pink wine has to be seasonally specific, never mind geographically correct?

But geography, to be sure, does play a role because it’s impossible to not think about sipping rosé when you’re anywhere in the sunny South of France. This is the epicenter, no two ways about it. Note the photo below. That’s the rosé section in my neighborhood supermarket, which serves a town of about 3,500 people. And those are all French rosés, too. Pink wines from other locales would only provide unnecessary redundancy.

And one learns French rosé’s pecking order by studying the pricing structure of the “house” offerings, sold under Casino’s “Club des Sommeliers” brand. (Casino, by the way, is the store’s name; it’s NOT a gambling joint.) The Bandol is the only one that costs more than $12 a bottle, so the across-the-board value in this lineup is superb. Some sell for less than $5.

My go-to French rosés all come from the following neighborhoods. Look hard enough and you’ll find wines representing all of them in Houston.     

* Bandol – Mourvèdre, a grape that is said to need its head in the sun and its feet in the sea to fully express itself, is the prominent grape from this relatively small but prestigious costal region, where about 4,000 acres are under vine. These rosés tend to be more age-worthy and possess more nuanced layers of flavor. They are also darker in color than the grenache- and syrah-centric pink wines that dominate the rest of Provence.

* Côtes de Provence – It’s the largest of the southern AOCs, with some 50,000 acres under vine and 352 wineries plus 38 cooperatives producing 116 million bottles annually, more than 90 percent of which are rosé. Within the AOC, there are five designated sub-regions (DCGs): Sainte-Victoire in the west below the famed Mont Sainte-Victoire, Fréjus to the west of Cannes, LaLande along the coast just to the east of Toulon and the land-locked Notre Dame des Anges and Pierrefeu in the heart of the Var.  

* Coteaux de Aix-en-Provence – To the north and west of the town of Aix-en-Provence, it’s home to more than 10,000 acres of vineyards, 73 wineries and 12 cooperatives in the gorgeous countryside that Cézanne immortalized with his paintings, many of the aforementioned Mont Sainte-Victoire.

*Coteaux Varois – More than nine out of every 10 bottles from this hilly, calcareous sub-region of Provence are rosés. Twenty-eight communes surrounding the town of Brignoles (once home to the counts of Provence)  plus 11 cooperatives produce about 18 million total bottles of wine annually.  

* Luberon – Named for the mountain ridge that straddles the most evocative part of Provence, it’s perfectly situated between the Côtes du Rhone and the Côtes de Provence. Rosés account for about 40 percent of the wines made with grenache and cinsault the most prominent varietals in the blends.    

* Ventoux – It borders the Luberon to the west and, of course, surrounds the famous wind-whipped peak of the same name, the highest point between the Alps and the Pyrenees and the site of many epic Tour de France battles.  

* Corsica/Ile de Beauté – About 70 percent of the wines produced in Corsica, which may be part of France politically but often look more toward Italy emotionally, are rosés because that’s what the island’s vacationers most want to drink while on holiday. Grenache is widely planted, but two indigenous grapes, niellucciu and sciaccarellu, are moving to the fore in the making of the island’s unique pink wines.  

Kudos

Quilceda Creek, the Snohomish, Wash., winery known for its world-class cabernet sauvignon, recently released its first and – the winery insists – its last white wines for the sole purpose of raising funds for José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen “Chefs for Ukraine” program.

The Horse Heaven Hills Sauvignon Blanc and the Columbia Valley White, both 2020 vintages, sold out in less than hour after being offered to wine club members in a lottery April 20. The sale of the 80 cases (paired two-packs went for $250 each) plus a personal contribution from Quilceda Creek’s president and director of winemaking Paul Golitzin brought in $300,000 to support World Central Kitchen, which has been operating in 12 Ukranian cities and at eight border crossings into Poland since soon after the Russians’ brutal, unprovoked invasion began. It’s also providing produce and dry goods to restaurants around the country to supplement a horribly strained food supply chain.

“José Andrés and the work he’s doing with World Central Kitchen is a true beacon of what can be accomplished for the sake of humanity,” Golitzin said.” Today, the journey that so many displaced Ukrainians face is daunting, with countless individuals and families traveling for days without food. We are humbled to be able to support Chef Andrés and his team who have been working around the clock to serve thousands of meals every day.”

For a “rookie” white winemaker, Golitzin succeeded spectacularly, it would seem. Vinous awarded his white blend 97 points and the sav blanc 95. Nonetheless, he insists they will be one-off offerings only.

Quilceda Creek was founded by Golitzin’s parents, Alex and Jeannette, in 1978 with the first vintage released in 1979. Alex’s inspiration came from his many visits to Napa Valley in his youth. It seems his maternal uncle was a fellow named André Tchelistcheff, arguably the dean of American winemaking. Paul joined forces with his dad as winemaker in 1992.

Sippin’ with Sporty

White

* 2019 McBride Sisters “The Great Escape” Reserve Chardonnay – From the Santa Lucia Highlands not far from Monterey Bay, it’s an elegant under-oaked California chard. The devil you say! A beautiful wine with its superb minerality and a beautiful back story. Re the label, Robin McBride explains: “When I was a baby, my mom drove our bright red Volkswagon bug up the Pacific Coast Highway from LA to a small town called Monterey. This is where I fell in love with vineyards and winemaking.” $49.99 at mcbridesisters.com

Rosé

* 2020 Domaine de Mourchon Loubié – I’ve drunk more of this rosé, from Seguret in the Côtes du Rhone, than any other pink wine. It’s not even close. The Loubié  never disappoints and it’s still under $19 at Spec’s. At the winery, where I’m happily headed this week, it’s under $10. Woo hoo!!!  domainedemourchon.com  

Red

* 2016 Duchman Family Vineyards Aglianico – Speaking of wines that never disappoint, this Tex-Italian gem can hold its own with the best Italy’s Campania has to offer. It ain’t braggin’ if it’s true, right? Chewy tannins and juicy cooked red fruit take center stage. $40 at duchmanwinery.com

 H-town Happenings

* Wine and Cheese pairing workshop, benefiting Chronic Fatigue Syndrome – Thursday, April 28. SERCA Wines Tasting Room. www.sercawines.com

* Sonoma County Wine Fest – Kemah Boardwalk, Kemah. Saturday, April 30. https://sonomawinegrape.org

* Brenners on the Bayou Wine Fest – Saturday, May 7. www.brennersfest.com

Follow me

* Twitter: @sportywineguy

* Instagram: sportywineguy

* Facebook: Dale Robertson

* Podcast: Sporty Wine Guy

Folks to follow

And their recent postings:

* Sandra Crittenden (winelifehouston.com) – Sandra examines the many wines made from the pinot grigio/pinot gris grape.  

* Russ Kane (vintagetexas.com) – Russ suggests a stop at Hye Meadow Winery in the Hill Country, where the 2017 Boooom red blend was made. It’s the wine that won top Texas honors in the 2022 Houston Rodeo Uncorked International Wine Competion.  

* Jeff Kralik (thedrunkencyclist.com) – Jeff offers up the best “random samples” for under $20 that he has tasted recently.

* Jeremy Parzen (dobianchi.com) – My podcast partner in crime brags – justifiably – about his wine list at Roma having earned the Villa Sandi Best Contemporary Wine List Award from the Gambero Rosso, which recently visited Houston for a big trade tasting at Minute Maid Park. But, sadly, Parzen is no longer affiliated with the Italian restaurant in Rice Village.   

* Katrina Rene (thecorkscrewconsierge.com) – In honor of Earth Day, Kat raises a glass to sustainably produced wines from five different regions. 

   

Returning to the tennis beat for 10 days has gotten in the way of my wine blogging. But, having said that, there’s no place I’d rather spectate than at River Oaks Country Club, where Riley Opelka won the Fayez Sarofim & C. U. S. Men’s Clay Court Championship over John Isner in a compelling battle of the biggest men in tennis. So, no I’m not complaining. I had a splendid time.      

Now, however, lacking a lead wine topic, I’m stealing one today straight from the Houston Chronicle, written by Annie Blanks, who covers Texas for the Report for America program working out of the San Antonio Express News, the Chron’s partner Hearst paper. Blanks did an excellent job of summing up what the wine industry has meant for the Hill Country in the 21^st century.

Her most eye-popping fact? In 2011, there were 35 winery permits active in the region. By 2021, there were 254. Spirit production has grown exponentially, too. Five distilleries had active permits in 2011. By 2021, the number had grown to 71. Breweries have increased from five to 49 over the same time frame. More than 1,500 acres are under vine today, compared to 450 a decade ago.  

Banks’ closing quote was given to her by my friend Bob Young, the Bending Branch Estate owner. Asked why things have gone so swimmingly for his property near Comfort, he replied: “The elevation is higher here, the drainage is good and the soil is good for growing grapes. Plus, it’s beautiful.” He is, of course, correct on all counts.

I’ll be catching up with Young and others in the Texas Fine Wine group via a Zoom tasting Thursday night that’s being hosted locally by my buddy and fellow blogger, Russ Kane, a.k.a., the Texas Wine Slinger. Can’t wait.          

Sippin’ with Sporty

White                                                                                       

* 2020 Wander & Ivy Chardonnay California – The concept seems gimmicky, but it works. Each of the stylish glass bottles represents a hearty pour and all the wines, made from organically grown grapes sourced from a variety of locations,  are quite good, although it was the chardonnay that impressed me the most. It’s light, bright  and flavorful, perfect for H-town this time of the year. $63.92 for eight single-serve bottles at wanderandivy.com.

Rosé

* 2020 Saint-Pierre de Mejans Cuvée 1118 – This classic Provençal pink, a complex five-grape blend from the Luberon that was made with the saignee method, had long been one of my favorites before it acquired a Houston connection. Wendy Heineken Gobbi, who grew up in Kingwood, and her husband Jean-Marc purchased the historic property a couple years ago but retained winemaker Brice Doan de Champassak, whose family was the previous owner. The 1118 references the year that historical records first mention the ancient abbey. $19 through aocselections.com

www.aocselections.com 

Red

* 2019 Goldeneye Pinot Noir Anderson Valley – Duckhorn’s Goldeneye lineup never disappoints. The dark fruit expresses itself beautifully. It’s a savory and elegant wine that also offers a good bit of value. The vineyards, first harvested in 1997, are in the heart of the Anderson Valley, prime pinot noir country. The property is flown over annually by the migrating Goldeneye ducks, hence the name. $61 at wine.com goldeneyewinery.com

H-town happenings

* Tango & Malbec – Saturday, April 16, at SERCA Tasting Room, 447 Heights Blvd. $50 club members, $65 non-club members. http://www.sercawines.com

* Chateau Montelena wine dinner – Thursday, April 21, at Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse, 5061 Westheimer. https://www.delfriscos.com/event/chateau-montelena-wine-dinner/?ref=lwe

* Katy Sip N Stroll – Saturday, April 23, at the ARK by Norris Event Center, supporting the Ballard House. $65-$95. https://www.foodandvinetime.com/events

* Wine and cheese pairing workshop benefiting Chronic Fatigue Syndrome – Thursday, April 28, 5-7 p.m. at SERCA Tasting Room, 447 Heights Blvd. $50 per person minimum contribution. http://www.sercawines.com

* Ashes & Diamonds dinner– Thursday, April 28, at the Rainbow Lodge. $195 plus tax and gratuity. marc.borel@rainbow-lodge.com

Jock shorts

Remember Tony Parker? Of course you do. The French star won four championships as a San Antonio Spur and routine broke the Rockets’ hearts. Now, he’s in the wine business, having partnered with the famed entrepreneur Michel Reybier who launched the tony La Réserve hotel chain and also owns several prestigious wineries, including the classed-grow property Cos d’Estournel in Bordeaux’s St. Éstephe AOC.

It’s Reybier’s recently acquired Provençal winery, Château La Mascaronne, that Parker will be hands-on with. These delightful wines from the Var were first imported to Houston by French Country Wines in Rice Village under the previous owner, the personable American Tom Bové, who had put Miraval on the map before selling that winery to, yes, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

The village of Le Duc, where La Mascaronne occupies about a 100 hectares (60 under vine), is only a couple hours from my place in the Ubaye Valley, so at some point I hope to wander down to catch up with Parker. If he puts up a rim – if? – maybe we’ll shoot some hoops, too.   

Follow me

* Twitter: @sportywineguy

* Instagram: sportywineguy

* Facebook: Dale Robertson

* Podcast: Sporty Wine Guy

Folks to follow

* Sandra Crittenden (winelifehouston.com) – In a piece for Galveston Monthly, Sandra goes deep with the pinot gris grape and its many expressions, both stylish and geographic. 

* Russ Kane (vintagetexas.com) – The Texas Wineslinger features the Texas Heritage Vineyard, owned by Susan and Billy Johnson and located on the Route 290 Wine Trail just east of Fredericksburg.

* Jeff Kralik (thedrunkencyclist.com) – With Russia’s unprovoked war on Ukraine becoming more horrific by the day, Jeff writes about contemplating deathon Open That Bottle Night. A must read!

* Jeremy Parzen (dobianchi.com) – My podcast partner in crime, now the former wine director for Roma in the village after what appears to have been a contentious parting, recounts his love affair with Vinitaly, which he won’t be attending this year. He also noteed that, on Monday, April 11, on the occasion of the Vinitaly wine trade fair in Verona, the Brunello Consortium, in partnership with the Chianti Classico and Bolgheri consortia, will be holding an auction of large formats and prized vintages to benefit Ukrainian refugees in Italy. The event, “Vini per la Pace” (“Wines for Peace”), will include 30 rare lots. 

Gone . . . but never forgotten!

But first I wanted to salute a couple that will likely be impossible to find, both from the 2007 vintage. First, I salute the Quatro Caballos Tannat. A Houstonian had financed the project and the winemaker was José Ignacio, a rock star vigneron in his native Uruguay. The bottle had been gifted to me more than a decade ago by a colleague with the caveat that I should lay it down for a good long while. Mission accomplished. In fact, I’d completely forgotten I had it until I decided to go about reorganizing my “cellar” last week.

However, my “patience” was rewarded as the wine proved to be equal parts earthy and hedonistic – in short, a perfect expression of the grape, which first became famous in southwestern France’s Madiran AOC, then wound up being Uruguay’s star attraction. (It works pretty well in Texas, too, as you’d know if you have tasted Bending Branch’s tannat.) But, best I call tell, it’s no longer  being produced. Although Ignacio remains a prominent player in Uruguay with his Bodega Océanica, internet searches turned up no information on more recent vintages of Quatro Caballos. Too bad.

Another wine I will remember with great fondness was the 2007 Domenico Clerico Aeroplanservaj Barolo. Getting to know Clerico a few years back was both a pleasure and an honor and his wines never failed to wow me, this one included. The odd name, as I recall the story, honored his fascination as a child with making paper airplanes.

Sadly, it’s probably the last time I’ll taste a wine he crafted because this original “Barolo Boy” – the new-wave pioneers of the mid-1970s in the Langhe who changed how Barolo was made – passed away five years ago. Fortunately, the magnificent estate just outside of Monforte d’Alba carries on splendidly with Clerico’s widow and niece running the business and his protégé, Oscar Arrivabene, making the important decisions in the cellar.  

Sippin’ with Sporty

Bubbles

* Graham Beck Brut Rosé NV – A former Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo Grand Champion wine and a double gold winner in the most recent competition, its tiny bubbles offer a very big bang for the bucks. This South African gem is a blend of pinot noir and chardonnay from the winery’s Robertson (no relation, dammit!) and Stellenbosch vineyards. $16.89 at Spec’s. 

White

* 2021 La Crema Sauvignon Blanc – The Sonoma-based winery, which launched in 1979 and now has significant footprints in Los Carneros, the Central Coast and the Willamette Valley, has long been famous for its pinot noirs and chardonnays, but this relative newbie in the lineup is a worthy addition. The fruit comes from the Sonoma Coast and the wine checks all the varietal’s boxes for a lovely price. $15.99 at Total Wine. (lacrema.com)

Rosé

* 2021 Domaine de Mourchon Loubie Rosé – Year in and year out, it was always among the highest scorers when my Chronicle panel convened for our annual rosé tasting. The winery is located just outside the Southern Rhone village of Seguret, one of the most beautiful in France, and what’s inside the bottle is gorgeous, too. Note that its oak-influenced sibling, the Suis Bois, was selected as France’s best rosé last year in a blind tasting conducted by one of the country’s premier wine mavens. There wasn’t enough of that one made to make it to Houston, unfortunately, but the Texas importer, Dionysus’ Douglas Skopp, was kind enough to share his final bottle with me last night. $17.69 for the Loubie at Specs (domainedemourchon.com)

Red

* 2019 Oberon Merlot Napa Valley – Syrah and zinfandel add subtle layers of flavor and texture to this spot-on superbly-priced merlot, which underwent extended maceration before going into French oak barrels (45 percent new) where it then underwent a lengthy malolactic fermentation. $18.99 at Total Wine. (obreronwines.com)   

* 2014 Ceretto Barbaresco Bernardot – I was also told to cellar this bottle for as long as I could stand it, and the payoff was worth it. Smoky and spicy with balsamic notes and a dark fruit core, it’s a fully mature wine that way over-delivers for the price. Vinous scored it a 94 and the Wine Advocate a 93, by the way. $52.50 at saratogawine.com (ceretto.com)

* 2018 Newton Unfiltered Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley – I hadn’t tasted a Newton Unfiltered Cab in quite some time until this one arrived on my doorstep. Mey loss. This was a reference-standard wine for me in my formative (wine) years and the 2018 loudly reminded me why. James Suckling scored it a 93. $89.99 at wine.com (newtonvineyard.com)

* 2019 Turnbull Oakville Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon – It’s a great wine from a great vintage and a great producer. The end. The layers of flavors and silky tannins are prolonged by a wonderfully lengthy finish. Four national critics scored it 90 or higher with the Wine Enthusiast awarding a 95. $109.99 at wine.com (turnbullwines.com)

H-town happenings

* Free tasting (tonight),Brunello di Montalcino virtual dinner (Thursday night), Italian movie night (Tuesday April 4) – Roma, 2347 University. https://bitlydeal.com/o0hlxD

* Chateau Montelena wine dinner – Thursday, April 21, at Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse, 5061 Westheimer. https://www.delfriscos.com/event/chateau-montelena-wine-dinner/?ref=lwe

* Katy Sip N Stroll – Saturday, April 23, at the ARK by Norris Event Center, supporting the Ballard House. $65-$95. https://www.foodandvinetime.com/events

Jock shorts

* A standing ovation is in order for my erstwhile rival and long-time friend/colleague John McClain, who’s retiring this week after a brilliant 46-year run with the Chronicle. I won’t do it here, but I could go for hours about “The General,” a for-real NFL Hall-of-Famer and a for-real kind and generous human being. God, we had some fun together, starting with when we went mano-a-mano for three seasons on the Oilers beat, me with the Post and him with the Chron. OK, we had some awful times, too (the Jerry Glanville era comes readily to mind), but no need to dwell on those. Bravo, John!  

* Meanwhile, I’m again temporarily un-retiring to cover the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships at River Oaks Country Club next week. Thanks to COVID-19, we’ve endured 1,084 days without big-league ball-whacking on the red clay at RO and I can’t wait to get back out there. The club hadn’t gone even a year, never mind two, not hosting the elite men since World War II, and I’d covered at least part of every River Oaks tournament from 977 through 2019. Believe me, there’s no better place on this planet to watch tennis.         

* Twitter: @sportywineguy

* Instagram: sportywineguy

* Facebook: Dale Robertson

* Podcast: Sporty Wine Guy

Other folks to follow

* Sandra Crittenden (winelifehouston.com) – Sandra looks back at our recent dinner at Roma featuring Castello di Volpai’s Federica Stianti, the first winemaker to appear in person at the restaurant since before COVID-19 changed everything. Note that she’s currently in California going deep into zinfandels. Expect a report on same soon.     

* Russ Kane (vintagetexas.com) – Russ tells you why you MUST take his Specialist of Texas Wine class at the Texas Wine School, and how you go about taking it. The sessions have been pushed back with sessions now scheduled for April 27, May 4 and May 11 with the exam to follow on May 12. 

 * Jeff Kralik (thedrunkencyclist.com) – Jeff, a man after my own heart, offers up his rosé touts perfectly timed for our gorgeous spring weather.

* Jeremy Parzen (dobianchi.com) – My podcast partner in crime rightfully blushes and dimples about his lovely family having received prominent mention in Wine Enthusiast story titled “Raising Kids Around Wine.”    

Jock shorts

* A standing ovation is in order for my erstwhile rival and long-time friend/colleague John McClain, who’s retiring this week after a 46-year run with the Chronicle. I won’t do it here, but I could go for hours about “The General,” a for-real NFL Hall-of-Famer and a for-real kind and generous human being. God, we had some fun together, starting with when we went mano-a-mano for three seasons on the Oilers beat, me with the Post and him with the Chron. OK, we had some awful times, too (the Jerry Glanville era comes readily to mind), but no need to dwell on those. Bravo, John!  

* Meanwhile, I’m again temporarily un-retiring to cover the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships at River Oaks Country Club next week. Thanks to Covid, we’ve endured 1,084 days without big-league ball-whacking on the red clay at RO and I can’t wait to get back out there. The club hadn’t gone even a year, never mind two, not hosting the elite men since World War II and I’ve covered at least part of every River Oaks tournament going since 1977. There’s no better place on this planet to watch tennis.        

A gem from the Garda

I have this love-hate relationship with the Taste of Italy, which had become one of my favorite annual events before COVID-19 shut it down the in-person version for two years.

Federica Mascheroni Stianti

Speaking of Chianti, I also had the pleasure of meeting Federica Mascheroni Stianti of Castello di Volpaia when she hosted a dinner Thursday night at Roma. Federica’s visit was extra special because she was wrapping up her first international trip since the pandemic locked down Italy more than two years ago.

Tony Elsinga

I got to know Tony Elsinga not long after he moved to Houston from Seattle in 2006 when I became the Chronicle’s wine columnist. He was equal parts delightful and informative as one the first sommeliers at the Tasting Room in Uptown Park and our paths crossed frequently when he took gigs at other locales, all the while hoping to start his own import company. That dream became a reality when he launched Medallion Global about a decade ago.