Luscious, Full bodied, Almost X-Rated
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Roberto Cipresso, a respected Italian wine maker who worked for the late Pope John Paul II, has jolted the enological world by partnering with Natalie Oliveros, better know as Savanna Samson, a New York blonde porn queen who recently earned the US porn industry's highest award for best all-girl sex scene.
The unexpected collaboration between a top porn star and a former papal vintner has produced Sogno Uno (Dream One), an Italian red wine that is described as earthy, luscious and full-bodied when it was released in New York at the beginning of March. Robert Parker defused the wine world's suspicions that the product was just a celebrity publicity stunt by rating it at 91 points out of 100, and commented that it was "an outstanding wine of exceptional complexity and character."
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The image that appears on the label of Sogno Uno |
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The bottle's label features Ms. Samson wearing only a see-through negligee, a fact that Parker declared did not affect his evaluation of the wine. When he met her at a pre-launch party in November 2005, he said he was impressed with her "good palate" more than by her "provocative" dress.
Daniel Oliveros, a Manhattan wine merchant married to Samson, introduced her to Cipresso. In her own words, she had suffered an existential crisis while vacationing in Tuscany in 2005, thus decided to "leave a mark on this world" through wine. Determined to create her own wine, she approached Cipresso, who is best known for the high quality Brunello di Montalcino wines and for having produced a special cuvee for the Pope John Paul II to mark the papal jubilee in November, 2000.
After tasting different blends proposed by the winemaker, Samson selected a rare combination of Cesanese from Latium and Tuscan Montepulciano grapes, with the addition of a small amount of Sangiovese grapes from the Chianti wine zone.
Sogno Uno is selling for $38 a bottle at New York wine dealers and up to $70 in restaurants (see up-to-date value in other currencies).
Samson is the latest celebrity to lend her name to wine labels, joining the Rolling Stones, Carlos Santana, Bob Dylan, Simply Red's Mick Hucknall, Madonna, Sir Cliff Richard, the defunct Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe, golfers Ernie Els and Greg Norman, and many more. Wine is hip and cool, and apparently getting cooler by the moment.
Journalist Frank Cerabino of the Palm Beach Post, noticed that the vocabulary of wine appreciation is startlingly similar to that of porn film critique.
"It turns out there is less difference than you might imagine in discussing, say, a good Pinot Noir and Savanna Samson's performance in Last Girl Standing," he wrote. Of both, one might say that they are "velvety with a hint of cherry" and have "a pleasant lingering finish."
Parker's tasting verdict, however, placed Sogno Uno on the same level as a Château Margaux from a decent year. The wine critic pointed out that when he used the words "opulent and luscious," he was referring to the wine, not to Ms. Samson herself.
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