Photo by Jeremy Parzen.

The Hotel ICON in downtown features "Champagne" by the glass during happy hour.

A few nights ago, I cozied up to the bar at the swank Hotel ICON on Main Street downtown to wait for a friend who was staying there.

I asked for a wines-by-the-glass list only to discover that there was nothing by the glass that I wanted to put into my body (it was dominated by usual-suspect, high-volume commercial wines that I avoid at all cost).

So when the nice bartender informed that they were featuring Champagne by the glass for just $5, I was intrigued.

"What's your house Champagne?" I asked.

"Rogét," she answered.

"Pol Roger?" I inquired, delving deeper into the provenance of said "Champagne."

"Yes," she told me.

"Great, yes, please! And one for my friend who will be joining me shortly."

After tasting the wine and realizing that it wasn't Pol Roger, a favorite (and true) Champagne, I asked to see the bottle.

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Photo by Jeremy Parzen.

New Yorkers would drool with envy at the price I paid for this single-vineyard Barolo at Brasserie 19.

There's really no other way to say this.

The wine prices at Brasserie 19 on West Gray are insane. And that's not just the California-speak of my youth creeping into my wine blogging.

They are insane, crazy, nuts, cuckoo, mad, screw-loose, and just downright non compos mentis.

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Photos by Molly Dunn

Wine Wizard Tim Hanni kicked off Wine & Food Week 2013 with his seminar about choosing the wine you like.

How many of you actually really enjoy a glass of White Zinfandel or Moscato, but are afraid to tell your friends in fear of being judged for having a "beginner's taste" in wine? Probably a lot of you (including myself).

Wine & Food Week 2013 began on Monday night with the Wine Wizard Kick-Off Event where Tim Hanni, this year's Wine Wizard, held a seminar discussion about how to choose the wine that you like, followed by a five-course sit down dinner with wines from Dr. Konstantin Frank and food from Executive Chef Lawrence Fogarty of the MAIN Restaurant at MainStreet America.

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Photos by Mai Pham and Courtesy of Wine & Food Week

Just some of the amazing tastings you'll get at the The Wine Rendezvous Grand Tasting

Yep, it's that time of the year again. Wine & Food Week is coming to The Woodlands next week.

From June 3-9, The Woodlands will become home to more than 50 restaurants; 500 wines; legendary wine producers and culinary personalities from around the globe; and a vast collection of craft beers and gourmet food purveyors. There will be wine education classes, chef demonstrations, cookbook author events and silent auctions, and casual to fine wine-and-dine experiences round out the week's festivities.

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Photo by Jeremy Parzen.

Backstreet Café wine director Sean Beck always manages to surprise me with something in his by-the-glass program.

"Anything but Italian!" I exclaim as I find a seat at the bar at Backstreet Café, where Sean Beck curates one of the best by-the-glass wine programs in Houston.

I have nothing against Italian wines. In fact, I'm a big fan of Sean's Italian selections.

But because Italian wines are my main vinous interest and passion, I always encourage Sean to take me outside of my comfort zone.

And on my recent visit, as always, he poured me something that I'd never tasted before, a Roter Veltliner, a pink (not white or red) grape grown in Austria.

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Photos courtesy of Robin Cavanaugh

Wine & Food Week goes Retro Rad during this year's festivities.

Wine & Food Week in The Woodlands is back again with a bountiful assortment of wines and food concoctions from outstanding chefs. Starting Monday, June 3, until Sunday, June 9, anyone can attend the variety of events centered on wine (of course), food, socializing.

Constance McDerby, alongside her husband Clifton, have been putting on the Wine & Food Week event since 2002. While the week features many of the same events, including the core events -- The Big Three -- this year is focused on being Retro Rad and keeping it fresh, according to Constance.

"Our theme this year is Retro Rad," Constance says. "It came to us because our Wizard Gourmet is a Food Network Star contestant. She is really frozen in time... cat eye glasses and has a fun vibe."

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Photo by Jeremy Parzen.

Some look for fruit above all in their red wine. But a balance of fruit and earthy flavors will complement the charred flavors of Memorial Day grilling and smoking.

"Fruit forward" and "fruit bomb" are descriptors commonly used to describe "big" red wines, the kind you want to break out for Memorial Day, when you're going to be grilling and smoking.

And hey, I've got nothing against fruit: Wine is made from fruit and it should taste like fruit. If it doesn't taste like fruit, then there is probably something wrong with the wine. (Remember our series last year on corkiness and how the absence of fruit aromas is an indication that a wine may have been damaged?)

As Americans, we have been raised to believe that fruit-forwardness is one of the hallmarks of a great red wine. And, no doubt, it can be (if that's your thing).

But when I drink "big" red wine, I look for a balance of fruit (tending toward sweet) and earthiness (among the savory "umami" flavors in red wine).

And when it comes to Bordeaux, flavors of tar -- what the French call goudron -- are what can really set the wine apart from the rest.

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Photos by Jeremy Parzen

Houston native and Food & Wine magazine executive wine editor Ray Isle (left) spent the last few days eating his way through Houston. Our city's restaurant scene has "captured the national media's attention," he told me, "because it combines the global and the local."

My 80-year old mother may not know his name but she knows his face.

"You mean that handsome young man who talks about wine on the Today show with Kathie Lee [Gifford] and Hoda [Kotb]?" she asks when I mention that I'm having lunch in Houston with Food & Wine executive wine editor Ray Isle.

But hey, let's cut Ray some slack: My mother isn't exactly totally up to speed on the highest-profile wine writers in our country today. But she does watch morning television religiously.

Thanks to his monthly columns and frequent appearances on national television, Ray is known to more American wine lovers than any other U.S. wine writer working today. And his work not only reflects the heightened levels of wine connoisseurship in our country, it also shapes and informs the American wine palate on a scale unimaginable even a few short years ago.

Yesterday, Ray sat down with me at The Pass & Provisions on Taft for a sampling of its menu and a chat about his visit this week to Texas, where he spoke at the Austin Food & Wine Festival and spent some time catching up with family and eating his way through Houston.

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Photos by Jeremy Parzen

Few can command the attention of a room full of A-list wine professionals like Master Sommelier Bobby Stuckey.

Houston, is that a frico dropping?

By my count, there were roughly forty of our city's top wine professionals in the room, all listening with rapt attention and relishing savory nuggets of wine wisdom imparted by Master Sommelier Bobby Stuckey (above).

And I'm not talking benchwarmers. This was an A-list, a who's who of the sommeliers and wine buyers that have helped to make the Houston one of our country's leading fine wine markets: Sean Beck (Backstreet Cafè and Hugo's), Joseph "Grappa Joe" Kemble (Spec's), Vanessa Treviño Boyd (Philippe), Antonio Gianola (Houston Wine Merchant), Steven McDonald (Pappas), James DeLeon (Kroger)... (I've only listed the people we've had a chance to profile here at the Houston Press, but these were just a handful of the crème de la crème of the Houston wine scene in attendance.)

There's not much that can command the undivided attention of so many superstars under one roof.

But then there's Bobby Stuckey.

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Jean-Philippe Guy will be joining the French Country Wines team.

After weeks of behind-the-scenes maneuvering to get his importer license and divest himself from French restaurant Bistro Provence, owner Jean-Philippe Guy is switching from one French venture to another.

Guy owned Memorial-area Bistro Provence with his wife, Genevieve, for 15 years and the couple have now decided to divide and conquer: Genevieve will continue to run Bistro Provence, while Jean-Philippe is now the wholesale manager at French Country Wines -- the winery-cum-tasting room near Rice Village which has recently been hosting another of the Guy's projects: the L'es-Car-Go truck.

The escargots and other French fare aboard the L'es-Car-Go truck were a natural match for the French wines sold by French Country Wine's owners Phyllis and Tim Smith, who opened the winery in 2006 as a means of working directly with small, family-run vineyards and wine producers in France.

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