Robert V. Camuto

New York: Saturday evening Chambers Street Wines--one of the most interesting terroir driven wine merchants in the US-- hosted a Corkscrewed launch and book signing accompanied by some gorgeous wines from the book.

Nicolas Joly (in photo foreground), the godfather of biodynamic winemaking, and his daughter Virginie-- fresh off the plane from Paris-- joined us to pour some luscious vintages of Coulee de Serrant, of the world's legendary wines. Also offered was a Duras red from Robert Plageoles of Gaillac, Domaine Leon Barral's Faugeres and Jean-Michel Stephan's Cote Rotie.

As a native New Yorker I guess I can wonder aloud about some of the questions I was either asked or that I overheard. 

Actually Newark New Jersey is where I landed Friday afternoon-- going directly to Gary Vaynerchuk's Wine Library TV, where we taped a two-part segment for next week in which Gary spoke about wine, food, women, and ( I think--I hope)  I got Gary to drop the awful and misleading term "dessert wine" from his vocabulary. 

Gary is crazy, and a fine interviewer. This was probably the first media "interview" where I felt completely relaxed. More to come next week.

A long time ago, I left something—not exactly my heart, more likely a piece of my youth-- in San Francisco.

Returning there this week was something of a strange experience.  Strange because of the changes. The skyline that’s bigger and more generic. The birthing  of  international luxury boutiques and store chains. The loss of some soul.

The human landscape has changed as well. I remember San Francisco as a place where half the population expressed itself with outlandish punk hairstyles, body art and leather costumes. Nowadays the city seems more introverted—The faces of the Facebook generation glued to iPhones at cafes all over town.

Note: For a report on the Seattle leg of the tour visit Francophile and Seattle iconoclast Ronald Holden's blog,www.cornichon.org

I Finished off my trip to Seattle Tuesday with a reading and talk at the classic Elliott Bay Book Company (a real old-fashioned bookstore with a cafe now run by local star chef Tamara Murphy) at noon followed by an evening wine tasting at the sleek Local Vine in Belltown (see photo) at which Chateau Mossé’s old vines Carignan (see below) was the crowd pleasing surprise favorite.

This coming week I’m traveling to the left coast of the United States—a place I knew well a long time ago. I’ll be in Seattle and San Francisco to discuss and drink to my book, Corkscrewed (Click to check out the reviews/articles in the Seattle Weekly and SF Weekly).  

Listen to this podcast of Robert on Think KERA (Dallas-Fort Worth) January 29, 2009.