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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Photo by Jeremy Parzen.

Antonio Gianola is now three weeks into his new tenure as Italian wine buyer at the Houston Wine Merchant.

It's only been a few short weeks since a handsome Floridian swooped down from the sky and snatched up one of Houston's most beloved wine professionals, Marcy Jimenez.

Hers is a tough act to follow: Since moving to Houston in 2005, she was a buyer and floor manager at Houston's only independently owned wine shop, the Houston Wine Merchant, where she became well known among industry insiders for her adventurous palate and spirit.

If you were looking for a funky orange (skin-contact white) wine from France or California? She had the goods. A radically Natural wine from Sardinia? She could deliver. A sexy "grower" Champagne? She had your number.

Her larger-than-life personality and all-around joie de vivre also made her stand out in a world already brimming with colorful characters. (Hell, this broad even convinced me to drink Merlot! I paired it, appropriately, with my hat!)

After her happy albeit abrupt elopement earlier this year, the Houston wine community has anxiously awaited a new princess or prince to fill the void left by her absence.

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Image via On the Wine Trail in Italy.

Dallas-based Italian wine blogger Alfonso Cevola was awarded the 2013 Vinitaly International Prize for his contribution to Italian wine education.

You could hear a Texas twang at the 47th annual Italian wine trade fair last week in Verona, Italy: Organizers of the behemoth event, Vinitaly, awarded the prestigious Vinitaly 2013 International Prize to Dallas-based Italian wine blogger and journalist Alfonso Cevola, author of On the Wine Trail in Italy, for his contribution to Italian wine education throughout the world.

Born in California to Sicilian and Calabrian parents whose families had immigrated to the United States in the first half of the 20th century, Cevola (left) is based in Dallas but his work as Italian Wine Director for Glazer's -- one of the largest fine wine distributors in the U.S. -- brings him to every major market in the state of Texas, where he is a top resource for the scores of young Texan wine professionals studying to be Master Sommeliers (in the Court of Master Sommeliers) and Certified Wine Educators and Specialists (members of the Society of Wine Educators).

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Photo by Jeremy Parzen.

Château Bernadotte is just one of the under-$25 bottles of Bordeaux selected for a blogger by Houston wine legend Bear Dalton.

Real estate is the name of the game of when it comes to finding extreme value in Bordeaux.

Because the astronomical prices commanded by the top classified "growths" (i.e., vineyards) keep the wines out of reach for the ninety-nine percenters like me (and presumably you), value-conscious Bordeaux lovers seek out châteaux that lie in close proximity or even adjacent to the marquee names. (The hierarchy of Bordeaux wines was codified in the nineteenth century with the so-called "1855 Classification," which divided the top domains, otherwise known as châteaux or houses, into five crus or growths. Certain houses, not included in the classification, like the wine I tasted the other night, were called Cru Bourgeois.)

The trick is to find expressions of Bordeaux that share growing conditions (in other words, soil type, exposure and climate) with the more famous grape growers and winemakers.

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Photo by Jeremy Parzen

Lisa Mattson, a wine industry marketing whiz, brought home the 2012 Wine Blogger award for "best winery blog" in 2012 for the Jordan Winery Blog.

A few years ago, a holiday weekend drive to Palm Springs from my native San Diego delivered me to the doorstep of Chardonnay Hills, an upscale homeowners association in Temecula.

In this day and age, it's not surprising that a community would name itself after a grape. After all, ampelonyms (that's Greek for grape names) evoke much more than just the humble berry of the vine. In today's popular culture, grapes are widely (and wildly) associated with lifestyle, fashion, tastes and personal expression.

No one would be surprised if a power lawyer described her/himself as a "Napa Cab kinda gal/guy." Nor would anyone be taken aback by a person who described her/his wine tastes by saying, "I'm a California Chardonnay drinker."

That's because grape names and their affiliated winemaking styles have transcended their purely descriptive and technical functions in contemporary discourse.

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Photo by Jeremy Parzen.

Cornelissen from Mt. Etna, Sicily, is widely considered to be the world's most radical Natural wine. It is available for the first time in Texas.

Ever since the New York Times first reported on the radically Natural wines of Mt. Etna, Sicily producer Frank Cornelissen in 2009, the wines have captivated the attention of Natural wine writers, enthusiasts and detractors across the United States.

To my knowledge, the wines have never been available in Texas until now: This week, I spied a bottle of Cornelissen at a venue that stands apart as the only Natural wine bar in our state, 13 Celsius Wine Bar on Caroline.

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Photo by Jeremy Parzen.

Against all odds: Maverick wine importer Doug Skopp has introduced Houstonians to small, family-run European estates despite "big" wine distribution's chokehold on the industry.

Maverick wine importer Doug Skopp (above) and his Houston-based Dionysus wine distribution company first came to my attention via our mutual friend and Houston Chronicle sports and wine writer, Dale Robertson.

"You've got to meet Doug," Dale kept saying to me. "He's the guy bringing in the Barberas you like so much." (Last month I wrote about the case of the family-run Trinchero estate in Piedmont, producer of one of my favorite Barberas and victim of "big" wine injustice: Wine industry behemoth Sutter Home recently forced the Trincheros to remove their family name from their labels under threat of trademark litigation. Doug is their Texas importer.)

Of course, I had already seen Doug's company's name on the back label of many of my favorite bottles here in Houston: He is the exclusive distributor of Rosenthal Wine Merchant, one of our nation's leading proponents and supporters of family-run European estates that embrace chemical-free farming and unmanipulated wines.

"About 50 percent of my business is Rosenthal wines," said Doug when he and I sat down in his office earlier this week. The rest are wines -- like the Trinchero -- that he has sourced personally.

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