Dr Vino's wine blog

Michael Ruhlman’s new book about the reach of celebrity chefs has just been published (link). I liked his previous book The Soul of a Chef and look forward to throwing this new one in my beach bag this summer.

Just the concept of the book got me thinking about celebrity chefs and wine. What if Emeril started singing the praises of Sancerre? Bam! Sales would rocket! Or if Rachel Ray said “cru Beaujolais, yes way!”

That would certainly reinvigorate sales of French wine in the US. Look what the movie Sideways did for pinot noir in America as evidence of what TV/movies can do for wine sales.

Or what if celebrities (forget the chef part) bought up vineyard land in a region? Brangelina was rumored to be poking around Serralunga, Italy looking for vineyard land. But it’s not as if Piedmont is exactly undiscovered.

But what if Brangelina bought vineyard land in Mendoza, Argentina? That would really put it on the map.

Clearly the star power of celebrities has not escaped wine marketers. Even the downtrodden Georgian wine producers recently tried (and failed) to recruit J-Lo to sing their praises.

But getting back to the celebrity chefs…I’d like to see–either in print or on TV–a showdown, be it an Iron Chef challenge or an American Idol, between Robert Parker and Emeril. Parker can bring his points; Emeril can bring his panache. We’ll see which wines consumers would buy. Or they could even call in their votes!

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Michael Ruhlman will be doing a book signing tonight at Borders in the Time Warner Center, 7PM, for The Reach of a Chef.

tags: wine | books | chefs | stars