Hardy Takes Healdsburg, Plus: Murphy Goode / Top Chef / Relish!
I was lucky enough to be included in an absolutely fabulous dinner @ Relish Culinary in Healdsburg Nov 3, where host Hardy Wallace of Murphy Goode's (in?)famous Really Goode Job search rapped with current season Top Chef contenders Eli Kirshtein and Kevin Gillespie over multiple courses of foie gras-esque fabulousness paired with - what else? - Murphy Goode wine. Enjoy this intro clip of Hardy at said meal introducing the top toques and welcoming us to the occasion. I really, really love MY job. :)
As a 30-year-old sommelier and owner of HIP TASTES EventsTM, I field this question constantly. I've spoken on panels about it and written extensively on the topic. And while I can hardly speak definitively on the needs and desires of an entire generation simply because I'm one of their ilk, I can throw into the ring what I feel are some halfway decent ideas about what they want from wine, based on personal experiences, winemaker input and some top notch research. (For those of you who are still cloudy about who the "Millennials" are: they are Americans who've turned 21 after the turn of the new Millennium).
In this, my first column for terroir-evangelizing site 
Laura Catena is hardly your average emergency room doc. The Argentine native - who came to the US with her professor dad to attend high school and wound up staying to attend Harvard for undergrad and then Stanford for medical school - "moonlights" from her job as an ER physician at UCSF by making wine, and on another continent at that. That's right, the married mother of three (yes, she has a nanny) successfully holds down TWO glamorous jobs and apparently has energy to burn, as I witnessed when I interviewed her in San Fran's homey Cole Valley several weeks ago. But besides her fascinating resume and seemingly boundless energy, I was most intrigued by Catena's commitment to making small batches of totally world-class wine from Mendoza's top low-yield, high-elevation vineyards. And though you may have heard more about her family's OTHER winery, 
Just a little shout out to the great man who worked so hard - and did so much - to make a name for California wine. Not only did Mondavi run his eponymous winery for decades, he helped introduce Americans of all stripes - not just the snobs! - to the modern wine lifestyle. For more on this legend, check out Alan Goldfarb's recent 
Enjoyed this new article at 
Okay, okay, so this is NOT Jude Law, but my new pal Sharif looks so much like the actor I couldn't resist. And, as an amusing aside, I actually HAVE had a tete-a-tete with Jude Law once upon a time at a small Malibu bash, although I doubt he remembers me (sigh). But back to this pic - last night Sharif came along with some friends to keep me company (and eat my leftovers) as I tasted through the entire menu at a SF resto where I'll be giving the wine list a face lift in the upcoming months. More on that later, as the list comes to fruition. For now, cheers, and thanks for being a good sport, Sharif! 
Whoever said hospitality is dead in the wine industry clearly hasn't been to Mendocino. Well, I haven't either (I know, clearly a little embarrassing for someone who gets up to Napa & Sonoma on a regular basis!), but I DID get a great sense for the friendly people and delicious wines of this exciting region at last Saturday's Mendocino By the Bay tasting here in the city. I'll post more on my discoveries - both vinous and lifestyle/travel-oriented - from my regular column at WineCountry.com in the upcoming weeks, but for now I'll leave you with this pic of Mendo man-about-the-vines Casey Hartlip of 
For those of you who haven't already seen it, be sure to read the great piece on SF's many unpretentious wine bars in yesterday's 
I asked a handful of up-and-coming winemakers, such as Richard of Napa's 
Those of you who keep up with the blog will recall that I took part in a really fun panel discussion called 
I'm really pleased to announce that I was profiled this week (with a special shout-out given to the upcoming 
I asked a handful of my favorite up-and-coming winemakers, such as 
I asked a handful of my favorite up-and-coming winemakers, such as 
The Wine Spectator reports that Italian road safety authorities are enraged that hotel heiress and debauchery-prone party girl Paris Hilton is promoting a new Italian bubbly called Rich Prosecco just after she was nabbed for DUI in Hollywood. USA Today counters that the latest in Paris' slip-ups just functions to boost her popularity, and probably won't hurt sales of the bubbly either (may even give 'em a little boost, much as her now famous video did for her own image not long ago). So, which is it - good or bad? Let's weigh in, shall we?
Ok, I admit it: this entry is totally self gratuitous. Maybe it's because I miss 
Everyone, meet Jen Cohen, my long time BFF and soon-to-be Harvard MBA (Class of 2008, baby). There are oodles of reasons she's a Hip Taster, but the main one is that Jen has never, ever turned down an invitation from me to drink some good wine. Heck, I'll even go out on a limb and let it be known that she's enthusiastically downed tons of totally sub-par vino with me (JC - remember that case of Two Buck Chuck?) 
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". 
Everyone, I just have to say HOT DAMN I am so excited - my very own kitty cat, Natasha Petunia, made it onto the illustrious 
