A Talk Show Where Wine Is Topic A

Urban Vintage

By PETER HELLMAN
June 6, 2007

Ever since Julia Child began puttering around the kitchen on PBS, cooking has been a television staple. In some food circles, including my own, more people know the names of the contestants on "Iron Chef " than they do on "American Idol." But the invasion of "slice and dice" shows has left wine programming far behind. Not one wine show is currently on the Food Network.

But there are flickers of hope for deprived wine lovers who also like to watch television. PBS has two wine shows in the offing, which will air this spring on the West Coast. One, called "Uncorked!" is a wine primer taped at wineries and vineyards worldwide. The other, called "The Wine Makers," is a reality-based show in which a group of wine novices compete for the right to create their own wine label.

First off the mark, however, is a new online wine talk show series called "Character," which will be available on the Penfolds winery Web site (penfoldsvip.com) on June 14. Host Glenn O'Brien — the founding editor of Andy Warhol's Interview magazine, a collaborator with Madonna on "The Sex Book," and a downtown cultural gadfly — is slated to interview arts world celebrities as they sip wine. The show is sponsored by Penfolds, which is the producer of Australia's largest array of characterful wines including Grange, the greatest of all Down Under reds. The first segment of "Character" was taped last week before a mostly young audience of wine sippers at Nicole's, the café beneath the Nicole Farhi boutique on East 60th Street.

Mr. O'Brien's guests on the show at Nicole's were his friends, artists Philip Taaffe and Donald Sultan. Mr. Taaffe, 51, has been called "among the more gifted American artists of his generation" by art critic Robert Hughes, while Mr. Sultan, 56, has had two retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art. A quartet of Penfolds wines, ranging from young to old, was on everyone's table. "When I asked these two famous painters and bon vivants to be on the show, Philip and Donald both said they weren't wine experts," Mr. O'Brien said. "But from sharing many bottles with them, I know that we are all expert winos."

As the cameras rolled, it became apparent that gabbing about wine on command would not come as naturally to the guests as it might over a late night dinner at Raoul's. When Mr. O'Brien intoned, "Donald and Philip: This is Your Life!" both artists looked uneasy. Mr. Sultan gamely sought to jumpstart the conversation by asking, "Why does wine put you to sleep at lunch but keep you awake at dinner?" Nobody had a definitive answer to that question, not even Penfolds's resident wine expert Matt Lane, who was also at the table.

But tongues were swiftly lubricated with the pouring of the first wine, the tightly textured Penfolds Thomas Hyland 2006 Chardonnay, South Australia ($14 at Zachys). "It doesn't have that California thing, that overwhelming …" Mr. Taaffe said, unable or unwilling to fill in the blank. "Fruit bomb thing," maybe?

"Aussie chardonnay used to be big, rich, and buttery," Mr. Lane said, jumping in. "But they've changed. This one is zesty; it brings back purity of fruit."

"It would go well with a tuna sandwich," Mr. Sultan said. Asked about his introduction wine, the North Carolina-bred artist said, "I started out on moonshine."

"My mother liked to drink port," Mr. Taaffe said, and Mr. O'Brien volunteered that his mom's favorite wine was Mateus Rosé. "Saddam Hussein's favorite wine," he said.

"Maybe that's what they drink in hell," somebody in the audience said.

Mr. Lane poured the next two wines, both of them showing the ability of some Australian wines to gain character with age. First came a velvety Coonawarra Shiraz, Bin 128, 1988, which had taken on a brown sugar sweetness. Somehow, it got Mr. Sultan, an emerging master of the non sequitur, thinking about Italian drivers: "Naples is the only city in Italy I know of where they go backwards and forward at the same speed. In Rome, they just go fast straight forward."

The other older wine, a Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon, 1991, was a spicy, vital wine now at its peak. "I've been drinking a very nice cabernet from the Bekaa Valley [in Eastern Lebanon]," Mr. Taaffe said, "but this wine is stronger — more experiential," a descriptor that possibly even the king of wine critics, Robert Parker, has never used. "I do love these strong, experiential wines," Mr. Taaffe continued, "but sometimes you also need something that goes down quickly, like a Chambolle-Musigny. This wine isn't just experiential. It's a story."

"Does either painter drink while working ?" Mr. O'Brien asked the artists. "It's good to sit there in the studio with a glass of wine at the end of the day and ruminate and deliberate about what's been done, but when I'm making things, I can't drink," Mr. Taaffe said.

"I drink to forget the day," Mr. Sultan cracked.

The last wine was the RWT Barossa Valley Shiraz 2004 ($97 at Pop's), the letters standing for "Red Winemaking Trial." Made only when conditions are just right, it's a wine that "rises above the vagaries of vintage," according to the label, and stands just below Grange in prestige. The wine, a rampage of fruitiness, seemed to need years of mellowing. "It's like the world's best blueberry pie," someone at my table said.

As I left Nicole's after the taping at around 11 p.m., the two artists and Mr. O'Brien were at the curb, perhaps preparing to head downtown for a late dinner. If so, it's too bad the cameras couldn't follow them. The wine talk could only get livelier.

A Talk Show Where Wine Is Topic A

Urban Vintage

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