The NFL has Mike Ditka and his Kick Ass Red (a blend of Zin, Syrah and Petite Sirah) and Joe Montana’s Montagia Cabernet Sauvignon. NASCAR fans can buy a bottle under race car driver Jeff Gordon’s eponymous label. And Greg Norman is nearly as well known for wine as he is his legendary golf game. But why aren't there any female sports stars making wine? This is the question golf great Annika Sorenstam posed when she sat down with me yesterday to talk about her latest passion project, ANNIKA wine.

Sorenstam said she’s been working on the idea for nearly two years and is partnering with Wente Vineyards to produce 635 cases of Syrah for the first release, which will be available next May. Sorenstam, who loves to cook and entertain, has been hands-on throughout the project and is currently putting the finishing touches on the label. If all goes well, she hopes to follow up with a Chardonnay and  a red blend.

Obiká, the much-hyped Italian mozzarella bar that created a frenzy when it opened four years ago in Rome, is finally coming to New York. In May, the New York Sun reported that the company had been eyeing Manhattan real estate and I’ve walked past the mysterious space in the atrium of the IMB Building on Madison Avenue daily, wondering if it would ever open.

Today, I finally got the scoop that Obiká NYC will have its soft opening September 20. Obiká is obsessed with the freshest, most delicious Mozzarella di Bufala Campana DOP, which can be ordered in various styles ranging from paestum (delicate in taste) to smoked or stracciatella di burrata (sweat and creamy). Unlike its other locations in London, Rome, Milan and Turin, Obiká NYC was designed by Studio Labs Rome as the first "fast-casual" prototype for the brand and will look more like an airport kiosk than a restaurant. Other distinctions:

*It will open at 7 a.m. to serve breakfast.

*Giving a nod to the American obsession with all things local, it will also serve buffalo mozzarella from Vermont alongside mozzarellas flown in twice-weekly from certified DOP farms in the Campana region.

*Wines will come from Antinori and Feudi di San Gregorio.

*Stuzzichini (Italian appetizers) will be served from 5-7 p.m. during an Italian-style happy hour Obiká calls “apertivo.”

I'm curious to see if it can compete with the much-loved Batali-Silverton Osteria Mozza in L.A. Or perhaps the more serious test will be if it can sway devotees to Queens' famed mozzarella sisters.

I just spent a few days at home in Minnesota, where I was surprised to find the excellent Grateful Palate Airwines 2005 Boarding Pass Shiraz on the list at Beaujo's Wine Bar & Bistro in sleepy Edina, a suburb of the Twin Cities. The bottle's ingenious label, brainchild of wine importer and F&W contributing editor Dan Philips and designer Chuck House, mimics an airline boarding pass. Fittingly, while on my flight back to New York, I read an article in The Economist on the Midwestern winery boom, another indication of how wine-savvy the region has become. A few astounding facts:

- The University of Minnesota is developing grape breeds that can survive at -36 degrees Fahrenheit.
- The first annual Chicago & Midwest Wine Show will be held in September (officially Illinois Wine Month).
- The Midwest’s biggest producer is Michigan, with 112 wineries in 2007, up from 28 in 1995.
- Most intriguing name for a Midwestern wine: Michigan's Stone Temple Pinot (oddly enough, the band Stone Temple Pilots got its start in California).

The U.S. Tennis Open started today. A mixed blessing, like new pencils or new jeans—it's a treat but an indisputable reminder that summer's almost over. To take the edge off of the longer nights and chillier air, Tony Mantuano of Spiaggia and his wine-expert wife, Cathy, have provided F&W with a few lighthearted tennis wine-pairing tips. Rosés to match your tennis skirt, anyone? Check it out here. For the New Yorkers among us, the Mantuanos will be serving wine-bar snacks at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center today through September 7.

 

For our upcoming October wine issue, I helped taste through a series of Austrian wines that go way beyond the trendy and ubiquitous Grüner Veltliner. While Austria produces many more white wines than reds, the reds often come in my style: light-to-medium-bodied and juicy with plenty of mouth-watering acidity. During the tasting, I found a new favorite grape—and I don’t just love it because it’s fun to say.

Blaufränkisch (called Lemberger in Germany) is a hardy grape variety that grows all over central Europe. Apparently, like Gamay, the grape used to make Beaujolais (one of my favorite wines), Blaufränkisch can be horribly mistreated to yield total plonk or, when taken seriously, it can be complex and ageworthy (much like rearing children, it seems). Biodynamic estate Weingut Michlits (imported by Prescott Wines) must do the latter. Their version—intensely peppery with lots of cranberry fruit—pairs beautifully with food. An hour or two after opening a bottle, the wine becomes smoky and meaty—which not everyone might like—but it still provides a more interesting drinking experience than most $20 bottles.

I went to dinner last week at an expensive midtown Manhattan restaurant. After we ordered our meal, our waiter asked my companion if we would like wine pairings with each course. I didn't hear him or I would have objected: I'd rather order one good bottle and leave it at that. But to be a good sport, I kept quiet. Bad idea. One of the first wines the sommelier chose was a Virgina Pinot Grigio! Now I may not know a whole lot about wine, but I know enough to be sure that the chances of this being a very good wine were slim. And in fact it was awful. I even told the sommelier that I didn't like it, but he argued that it paired beautifully with the full-flavored, highly-spiced fish we were eating. (Read: the wine had no taste.) When I told another friend about this, she laughed and told me that wine pairings are just an easy way for sommeliers to get rid of wine they don't want, much like the dinner specials chefs create to use up food that's going bad. How disappointing! Now I wonder if this is true, or did I happen upon the one unscrupulous sommelier out there?

Last week, when I visited British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley—an up-and-coming wine region a five-hour drive east of Vancouver—the jaw-dropping views made me want to ditch cramped NYC and permanently perch myself on top of one of its hillsides. Or at least have a picnic and take dozens of shots with my camera. Note: The best views are at Gray Monk Estate Winery, known for its delicate Pinot Auxerrois, and at the supertiny Arrowleaf Cellars, which conveniently has red picnic tables overlooking the Okanagan Lake. But the best fusion of wine and sights on my trip was at the grand Mission Hill Winery, with its sprawling Spanish-Moderne buildings (including a 12-story bell tower), Chagall tapestry and crisp, peachy Grand Reserve Chardonnay. And yes, there’s an awesome view of the vast Okanagan Lake, and, new this summer—with that view as a backdrop—food and wine–themed movies like No Reservations and A Good Year playing in its outdoor amphitheater in the evenings.

I can think of a dozen reasons why Bruichladdich (pronounced brook-LADDIE) is the most exciting distillery in Scotland. For starters, it’s one of only two independent distilleries left in the country (and the only one on Islay, where it’s helping to revitalize the local economy). Secondly, it’s shaking up the Scotch industry, creating a huge portfolio of lightly peated, floral Scotches that challenge the idea of regional styles and traditional distillation techniques. Thirdly, it’s reinventing the idea of barrel-aging: Head distiller Jim McEwan (who spent 40 years at Bowmore before helping Bruichladdich CEO Mark Reynier relaunch the shuttered brand in 2001) has created a system he calls “Additional Cask Evolution” (ACE), wherein he finishes his Scotches in select barrels from the world’s top wineries, including Chateau d’Yquem, Chateau Haut-Brion, Gaja, Ridge and Guigal. These barrels add a completely different body and flavor profile than traditional bourbon and port casks do, making Bruichladdich’s bottlings unlike anything the Scotch world has tasted before.

And now Bruichladdich is applying its ACE program to, of all things, rum. I recently had my first taste of its Renegade Rum at Manhattan’s Elletaria restaurant,  and the stuff is as aberrant as its whiskey. Reynier had the idea to produce the rum a few years back, when he noticed certain disheartening parallels between the rum and whiskey industries: Both are dominated by a few enormous companies with deep marketing pockets and a penchant for blending and consistency. Reynier picked out a few select barrels from the Caribbean’s oldest, family-owned distilleries (some now defunct) and shipped the rum back to Scotland, where McEwan ACE’d them in ex-d’Yquem and Latour barrels, among other things. I tasted all four of the mind-blowing, limited-edition rums in Renegade’s current rotation: an earthy 15-year-old Jamaican rum finished in ex-Latour barrels; a clean, fruity 10-year-old port-finished Panama Rum; and two rums from Guyana, one a robust 12-year-old ACE’d in d’Yquem oak and the other a lighter, fruitier 16-year-old enriched by Madeira casks.

The rums run from $80 to $110, which is pretty reasonable, given their cult status. Look for them online at K&L Wines, Morrell and Garnet.

My super plugged-in colleague Kate Krader is usually the one name-dropping celebrities and rock stars but this weekend I found myself uncharacteristically star-struck while out in Montauk, probably the least celebrity-filled town in the Hamptons.

I was there to volunteer at the second annual Beach Rescue Mission sponsored by the Surfrider Foundation and Barefoot Wine.  Picking up garbage alongside me at Ditch Plains – Montauk’s best surfing beach - was the much-buzzed-about-of-late singer/songwriter Tristan Prettyman and nearly 200 other surfers and eco-crusaders. Surfrider and Barefoot Wine thanked all of us do-gooders by throwing a killer after-party at the newly opened Second House Tavern with unlimited wine (The new Barefoot Moscato could not be restocked quickly enough!) and incredible performances from Tristan and headliner Garrett Dunton – better known as, G. Love from the eclectic hip-hop,funk, psychedelica, blues trio G. Love & Special Sauce.

The night before I was hanging with G. Love at the much-hyped (all of it well deserved) Surf Lodge where Sam Talbot, a fan favorite from season two of Bravo’s Top Chef, is serving serious, summer-style food in a space that’s a total throw-back to 70’s surf culture and Bruce Brown’s iconic Endless Summer movie. G. Love, surprised me with his sophisticated palate (his mom’s a cooking instructor and his sister works for wine importer Daniel Johnnes) and we shared notes on our meals: sweet corn, peeky toe crab salad got a major flavor boost from the brilliant addition of marinated nectarines; lobster rolls were untraditionally served on hamburger buns, making them less messy to devour; and striped bass prepared in an herb and roasted garlic broth was light, yet insanely flavorful.

The Surf Lodge’s excellent food, super laid-back vibe, lakeside bonfire and 3,000 square-foot deck drew our group back for an after, after party Saturday night which went into the late hours with dancing and endless, Endless Summer cocktails (a dangerously delicious concoction that mixes Snow Queen vodka, Chardonnay, seedless red grapes, simple syrup and fresh lemon juice). G. Love summed up the weekend best saying: “We cleaned the beach, we drank some wine and we rocked out in Montauk.”

On Saturday, the Wall Street Journal reported on a new twist in the trend of abolishing menus. Instead of giving the chef total control of the meal, the power is now being placed in the hands of the sommelier. This wine-before-food concept is being played out at Il Vino, a new Paris restaurant opened by Enrico Bernardo, the former sommelier at the Four Seasons Hotel George V. Diners select wines from a seasonal menu that changes about every two weeks, and then the chef cooks a complementary food pairing. Could this be the wine bar of the future? The restaurant of the future? Bernardo seems confident that the idea is more than a passing trend. He opened a second branch of Il Vino in at the French ski resort Courchevel, and the Journal reported that he is contemplating opening a third in New York City or London.