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Usher opens a wine bar in Atlanta, a former Top Chef contestant comes to New York and David Beckham kicks around Spain's wine regions

Posted: Wednesday, December 20, 2006

• What has purple windowsills and a purple-clad owner? No, not Barney's playhouse. We're talking about The Grape--pop singer Usher's new 3,100-square-foot wine bar in Atlanta's Inman Park neighborhood. "I had been playing with the idea of getting into the restaurant business for about three years and had been presented with many concepts," said the pop singer, who greeted reporters at the opening of his new franchise wearing a plum-hued velvet blazer with a shirt to match. "None meshed well with my persona except for The Grape. The wine bar emits a sexy and sleek image--a perfect fit." Usher's is one of 21 separate locations (The Grape is a franchise chain operating throughout the southern United States), though he's hoping to open three more of his own in New York, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. The Grape sells 120 wines by the glass (from $7 to $13), half-bottle and bottle, including a magnum of de Venoge Blanc de Blancs 1978--the same year Usher was born--for $1,000. Guests can sip their wine around a cozy outdoor fireplace and try out a new papaya dessert, in a nod to the singer's favorite fruit. Purple attire optional.

• Sure, Champagnes are now often seen in mini-bottles, but what about wines for today's light-beer drinker? Enter the Bordeaux-based company Lir, which announced last year that it had figured out a way to remove half the alcohol in wine without hurting the flavor. The company has now unveiled Ensô, a half-alcohol, effervescent white wine in a beer bottle. "Ensô is a drink that's easy to consume like a beer, but with all the advantages of wine, such as natural aromas, low levels of sugar and calories, but with the health benefits of the grape," said Audrey Hantiu, who headed the project. OK, but wouldn't it have been easier to convince people to just drink half as much regular wine?

Dave Martin's curbed his enthusiasm for cooking for celebrities such as Cheryl Hines.

• Being a Top Chef contestant made Dave Martin a reality TV star, but he's hoping that his new job in New York will put the focus back where it belongs--on the food. He's just been named executive chef at Lola, a downtown bistro and live jazz club set to open in early 2007, and he'll soon be relocating from Los Angeles, where he's been busy catering to and for celebrities and their entourages. "New York is a city where food is king, and that's very different from L.A.," said Martin, who has recently cooked for Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, Cheryl Hines and Kathy Griffin. "I've been doing the celebrity catering thing, and that's a good angle, but are they as interested in the food as I'd like them to be? Most of them really don't eat, so obviously they aren't." Martin's menu will be packed with what he calls "advanced comfort food," and he hopes to showcase some of his favorite California and Oregon wine producers--such as Patricia Green and Fiddlehead--to the Manhattan market. And since he'll be the top toque this time, we have to assume that he won't be employing his famous catchphrase ("I'm not your bitch, bitch!") in the Lola kitchen.

• Cloudy Bay head winemaker Kevin Judd stopped by New York recently to show off his new Marlborough 2006 Sauvignon Blanc, but the visit turned out to be a bit better than the usual handshake, swirl, sip, spit, adios. Judd is a well-known photographer, and lining the walls of parent company Moët Hennessey's New York office were vineyard and winery photographs of Judd's, now on sale to benefit two charities. So far about $10,000 has been raised for the Larkin Street youth services in San Francisco and the Friends of the Highline historic preservation project in New York. The photos are on sale at http://www.mhusa.net/cloudybay.

Beckham's spent so much on wine he can't afford shirts anymore.

• When it comes to wine, Victoria and David Beckham have pinched pennies in the past. After all, this is the couple--she's a former Spice Girl, he's a midfielder for Spanish soccer team Real Madrid--that reportedly served $5.48 bottles of Liebfraumilch at their World Cup party last year. When it's just the two of them, however, the famous pair has a tendency to splurge. While staying at London's five-star Hempel Hotel this past fall, the Beckhams showed off a penchant for pricey bubbly (Cristal). Now, Britain's golden couple is showing an interest in high-end reds, and they're not afraid to spend big bucks--at least according to Bodegas Emilio Moro's José Moro, who hosted the couple on a recent tour and tasting at the Ribera del Duero, Spain, winery. We're glad to hear that Beckham's graduated from Liebfraumilch to the good stuff, but since then he's been dropped from the England national team and has wound up warming the Real Madrid bench several times this season. A little more time in practice, and less time drinking wine perhaps?

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