"without the Culinary Arts, the crudeness of reality would be unbearable"
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Hoping to attract more American men away from
their icy Budweisers and Millers, Ray's Station is
producing "Hearty Red Wines for Men", saying the type of person it
wished to woo was your average Joe barbecue fan or Nascar
racing watcher. Read Article.
Pink wine is no longer the exclusive domain of elderly
ladies with blue hair, or of twenty-something, night-clubbing party girls.
Pink wine has come of age, and it's about time. Blush, rose, pink, whatever you want to call it,
these wonderful wines have never been so abundant, and the quality levels have
increased dramatically. Read Article.
It seemed like the perfect gimmick: a celebrity
porn star would launch her own wine, with her alluring picture on the label. Savanna Samson did just that, but when it
received a score of 90 to 91 out of 100 by wine guru Robert Parker, the
project became serious. It turns out Samson, the star of "The New Devil
in Miss Jones," has produced an exceptional wine, becoming the toast of
two industries: wine-making and pornography. Read Article.
The Denominacion de Origen is
the standard classification for quality wine in  Hoping
to attract more American men away from their icy Budweisers and Millers,
Ray's Station is producing "Hearty Red Wines for Men". Producing both a
merlot and a cabernet sauvignon, it said the type of person it wished to woo
was your average Joe barbecue fan or Nascar racing
watcher. The labels on both
wines feature a galloping stallion. And their
advertisements include manly pursuits such as fishing and hunting. No white wines Brian Hilliard, head
of marketing for Ray's Station, said the company knew exactly who it was
targeting. “These guys, they're
married; they've got a couple of kids," he said. "Wine is part of
their lives, but it's not integrated in a way that they really force
themselves to be knowledgeable." The firm adds that it
is not going to produce any white wines, as they are for the ladies. "White wines ain't cutting it," added Mr
Hilliard. Ray's Station is also
not producing any red wines made from the pinot noir grape, which is both
celebrated and mocked in equal measure for being light and delicate. Getting noticed Robert Smiley,
management professor and wine expert at the "You face this challenge:
how do you even get people to know you're alive?" he said. Mr Smiley added that with
drinkers having to choose from hundreds of different wine brands, it was
"not a bad strategy" for a vineyard to try gender specific branding
in order to stand out. Ray's Station's wines
for men comes after another US winemaker - Rainier Wine - last year launched
a wine aimed at women, under the name Mad Housewife. While the Pink wine is no longer the
exclusive domain of elderly ladies with blue hair, or of twentysomething, night-clubbing party
girls. Pink wine has come of age, and it's about time. Blush, rose, pink, whatever you want to call it,
these wonderful wines have never been so abundant, and the quality levels
have increased dramatically. Rose wines have been around forever, but their
increasing popularity, due in no small part to Sutter's remarkable success
with white zinfandel, is causing all sorts of waves in the wine world.
Winemakers are getting adventurous. More and more producers are becoming
proud of their pink progeny. There is a major misconception that pink equates
to sweet. While it's true that many domestic, commercial pink wines such as
white zinfandel are sweet, this is not true for many other wines. A typical dry rose is the perfect picnic wine.
Pasta salads and shellfish just scream for it. Crisp and fruity, often with a
spicy finish and generous but not overwhelming acidity, these are wonderful
spring and summer wines. They are virtually all very food-friendly. The last obstacle associated with pink wine is
that it is girly. And that’s just ludicrous. But shhhh!
Don't shatter any illusions. It just leaves more pink stuff for the rest of us.
Back to top. Savanna Samson did just that, but when it received a score of 90
to 91 out of 100 by wine guru Robert Parker, the project became serious. It
turns out Samson, the star of "The New Devil in Miss Jones," has
produced an exceptional wine, becoming the toast of two industries:
wine-making and pornography. "I never wanted to just do gimmick. That would just happen
with me being a porn star, me having a photographer shoot the label, how risque could I get on the label -- all those
things," Samson, the stage name for 31-year-old Natalie Oliveros, said in an interview. The seriousness of the idea was lining up a respected wine
maker. So she convinced Italy‘s Robert Cipresso --
also a vintner to the Vatican -- to join the project. Samson went to Tuscany and tasted dozens of Cipresso‘s
Italian-grown varieties, then she selected a mix of 70 percent Cesanese, 20 percent Sangiovese
and 10 percent Montepulciano. She ordered over 400
cases. "I knew I wanted Roberto to make my wine -- I just love his
passion for wine," said Samson. The result is Sogno Uno, a 2004 vintage of an Italian red wine packaged under
the Savanna name with a label of Samson in a see-through gown. It was
launched last month. Parker has been called the most influential wine critic in the
world, and a score of 90 to 95 denotes "an outstanding wine of
exceptional complexity and character." "Trust me, I didn‘t add any points for Ms. Samson‘s
personal presentation," Parker wrote in his review. Samson is one of the biggest names in pornography, having won
best actress in the Adult Video News Awards (AVN), the pornographic
equivalent of the Oscars , and another AVN Award for a scene she shared with
Jenna Jameson in last year‘s "The Masseuse." She has made two dozen
porn flicks. "There‘s spiciness -- the Cesanese
has the naughty side of me. And yet it‘s an elegant wine. I love the opera,
and I‘m a classically trained ballet dancer. And there is some chocolate
undertone, which I just love. There‘s a little bit of sweetness. Like, 10
percent of the time I‘m sweet," she said. She is working on a white wine -- Sogno
Due -- that could be out later this year, and also has ideas of expanding
into champagne, ice wine and grappa. Samson, who was raised Catholic in upstate "My priest said in Mass once, ‘Violence or pleasures of the
flesh. What is the greater of two evils?‘ I think we
all know the answer. I felt like he was saying that toward me," she
said. Still, she never had her parent‘s blessing for her career choice
as an adult movie star. "They were so devastated. They were terribly,
terribly upset." But while she will continue her film career, wine-making may
offer some redemption. "I wanted to do something that my parents could
be proud of," she said. Back
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