First, sports. After all, that was my first gig. But note that the wines pictured above will be singled out for praise later.  

The Texans don’t suck anymore and hurray for that. But beating up on a terrible Ravens defense – an unthinkable adjective for their Ray Lewis era D – without Lamar Jackson under center for the Ravens offense hardly qualifies as a cosmic turning point. Ditto their 26-0 shellacking of the dreadful Titans the previous week. Tennessee is so bad coach Brian Callahan has already been fired less barely a third of the way through his second season.

But hope springs eternal, even in Houston, which hasn’t seen one of its teams advance as far as the conference championship game – never mind the Super Bowl – since the Oilers did so in 1979, a drought that exceeds all other current NFL cities by a full decade. To put this span in context, the quarterback who last got a team from H-town there, Dan Pastorini, will turn 77 next year.

And that’s why I’ve become a Seattle Mariners fan with the Astros long out of the hunt. Seattle’s baseball franchise is the only one never to play in a World Series. If the Mariners can get there, and they are now only two victories shy of same – there has to be hope for the Texans ending H-town’s suffering, right?

Speaking of droughts, let’s talk about the Dallas Cowboys. Jerry Jones says he’s going to boycott the Super Bowl this year because of the NFL’s decision to make Bad Bunny the featured halftime attraction. That’s hilarious because Jones’ football team has been boycotting the Super Bowl for 30 years – and Jerry knows this one isn’t going, either.   

Finally, I was also going to take some shots at the Bill Belichick circus at North Carolina, but I’ve lost my enthusiasm. Why? Because, really, who cares? Without his fortuitous intersection with Tom Brady, Belichick would be an afterthought nobody today.     

Now, on to vino . . .

It’s hard to tout wines I’m enjoying while in France because most of my favorite, daily-drinking selections are small-production, super-cheap bottles that will never make their way to Houston or anywhere else in North America. To be sure, I will be confronting sticker shock upon my return in a few weeks. Just this morning, for example, I picked up a fresh, lively, eminently quaffable Côtes du Rhone from Domaine Père Hugues at the local Carrefour supermarket for what I thought was the equivalent of a little over four bucks.

Except, because I bought two bottles, the price dropped a dollar on each. Are you kidding me?

And my go-to rosés, the Crazy Tropez and a generic Var – the inland region above Saint Tropez – are about $6 each. I literally buy every bottle of both that I find on the shelf.     

Thursday, however, I’m heading back to my beloved Piemonte for a single night to meet up with a couple friends who are leading a tour group through the region.  I’ll also be restocking my favorites from Ceretto, Oddero, Bruno Rocca, Pio Cesare and Luigi Eiunadi with, of course, somewhat higher tariffs, they will still be way less expensive than what the same bottles would sell for in Houston . . . if I could find them.

But I’m no less excited to hit a few of my favorite Alba-area retailers to look for wines that my friends at AOC Selections have gotten behind. Master sommelier Brandon Kerne, pictured above, is filling a huge void in our market for Barolos, Barbarescos, Barberas and Dolcettos. I know Roagna, Trediberri, G.B. Burlotto and Giulia Negri only through the crack AOC team, although, full disclosure, I have yet to taste any of Giulia’s prized offerings, a number of which are now on offer at AOC.

I’m hoping to score three bottles of her 2016 “La Tartufaia” Barolo ($75) and the recently released 2021 ($90) is no less tempting. The 2016 vintage had been considered the best vintage of the early 21^st century in the Langhe, but 2021 seems to be eclipsing it, based my tastings in early September and conversations with producers I know personally.

Negri cultivates Barolo’s highest site, Serradenari, shown above, in the La Morra neighborhood,and she is unquestionably a rising star in the region. Kerne’s expert take on Negri, shown above doing her “barologirl” thing, and her wines:

“Barolo has never been quick to change, and Giulia’s brilliance lies in her ability to push forward while honoring the past. She calls her approach ‘enlightened traditionalism,’ a pragmatic, respectful philosophy that refines classic methods through smarter vineyard and cellar work. One detail I love is her use of tressage, or vine braiding, a time-consuming Burgundian technique that helps vines handle heat without the trauma of hedging. Everything is aged in neutral large oak, and every choice is intentional. ‘That which is born square can never be round,’ she says, and that care and clarity comes through in the glass. These are some of the most aromatic, silken expressions of Nebbiolo being made today.”

In short, if you’re as passionate about Nebiolo as I am, run, don’t walk, to AOC today.

Finally, I need to share something I received recently from WalletHub about H-town’s vibrant wining-and-dining scene, which I’ll put it up against anybody’s, although I’m hardly unbiased.  

To determine the best and cheapest local foodie scenes, WalletHub explained in a press release, it compared more than 180 of the largest U.S. cities across 28 key metrics. The data set ranges from affordability and accessibility of high-quality restaurants to food festivals per capita to craft breweries and wineries per capita to retail pricing.

While we didn’t score too well in gourmet specialty food stores per capita and average off-the-shelf beer and wine prices, ranking only 95th and 77^th respectively, we were No. 1 in both restaurants per capita and availability and accessibility to highly-rated restaurants. I’m not really sure what the latter means, but, hey, let’s raise a glass of Negri Barolo to that anyway.

Cheers!