Canada- [canada.com] All I can say is, thank God for Robert Parker.”
Yes, that is what came out of Savanna Samson’s mouth when I played gnocchi with her at Noce on Queen West last week. And, no, this is not what one ordinarily expects to hear from a famous porn star such as her — the casual reference to the Almighty, that is, combined with the not-so-casual reference to the planet’s most important wine critic.
But who says the go-getting Savanna does ordinary?
The celebrated American skin-barer — a two-time winner of the Adult Video News Award for best actress — is also a winemaker of hardly unremarkable note. In fact, the gratitude that she extends to Parker is due, largely, to the fact that he has given her voluptuous reds high marks.
Savanna Samson’s new wine was rated a 90 out of 100 by legendary wine critic Robert Parker.
Her Tuscany-made Songo Uno garnered 90 to 91 points out of 100 from the famous vino-rater, she tells me.
And then — somewhere during our sipping and our dining at this dinner hosted by Toronto financier Larry Brenzel — Savanna, nee Natalie Oliveros, also told me how Parker is to wine what Jenna Jameson is to porn. A conversation that I’m going to score 90 to 91 out of 100!
“There are so many critics,” she started to say, “but there’s only one that everyone talks about.” Just like Jenna, in fact, who has made herself into the symbol of the skin-flick industry.
Yes, I think I heard myself murmur, “It’s all about branding, isn’t it?”
Speaking of which, this remote-control-friendly winemaker is too clever not to talk about her other life while trying to get her vine out there. Naturally, too, her visage appears on the bottles, and there’s even talk of her designing her own “stemwear.”
And though there was plenty of other talk — of shooting scenes with that gets-around Ron Jeremy, of being a dancer long ago with the world-famous Scores Gentleman’s Club in New York — what really stopped me in my tracks was when Savanna informed me that most female porn stars are left-handed!
Her anecdotal evidence? From going to those conventions and observing the celebrated nudies sign autographs.
Oh, such great grapes of wisdom.