Hip Tastes Blog

Entourage's Turtle: Secret Sommelier
filed under: Hip Tasters, Ramblings

Who knew that Turtle, the unofficial "house manager" of the LA mansion housing the stars of this hit HBO show, could sniff out "lead pencil" in a glass of red wine? I almost fell out of my chair when Jerry Ferrara, the actor who plays Turtle, let this descriptor slide during the show's most recent episode, "Guys and Doll".

The best part was that the rest of the guys were totally oblivious - per usual - to Turtle's subtle genious. You see - Turtle's got a lot going on, he just doesn't get a lot of cred for it amongst this crew.

The bumbling but somehow still cool Entourage foursome was at the Santa Barbara mansion of a top movie producer when the wine banter started. Apparently the producer had made some of his own wine and they were sampling the goods. Drama (Kevin Dillon) started it when he waxed "I get toffee, mocha...and a hint of terra firma."

To which E (Kevin Connolly) replied "Terra firma's dirt, Drama." The retort went like this: "Yeah, well wine COMES from dirt, E." Oooh, drama from Drama!

Turtle chimed in at this point with "Kinda smells like lead pencils to me." Typically, nobody noticed, and the action continued in another scene involving "major player" Vince (Adrian Grenier) the actor the entourage tools around with.

Thing is about Turtle - the guy isn't that far off. Lead pencil, after all, is a classic descriptor of Cabernet Sauvignon. Whether or not they were drinking Cab I don't know, but I DO know this: It's time for a little respect for Turtle, at least when it comes to his beverage choices.

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Posted by Courtney on July 6, 2006 12:31 AM