Jay McInerney, New WSJ Wine Critic, Files First Column

Last Friday saw the debut of novelist Jay McInerney's new wine column for the Wall Street Journal (Fun fact! Not only has McInerney won a Beard award, he also had a guest role in a 2008 episode of Gossip Girl). And what a start! McInerney may easily be our new favorite critic, what with recommending a $360 bottle of 2000 Dom Pérignon Rosé, with lines like this: "If Dom Pérignon is the Porsche 911 Carrera of the wine world, then DP Rosé is the 911 Turbo."

We know we're not exactly the WSJ's target audience, but referencing wildly expensive German vehicles in the context of expensive champagne establishes a certain bling-y tone most people cannot fathom. (The 2010 911 Turbo will set you back $143,800, but to each his own, we presume.) McInerney rationalizes how one can spend $360 on a bottle of champagne by saying that "[it] costs about the same as the tasting menu at Joël Robuchon in Las Vegas."

And it gets better: In describing the 1990 Dom Pérignon Œnothèque Rosé, McInerney writes:

Among many pleasant sensations it evoked, I thought of Julianne Moore, a mature pinkish-hued beauty whom I'd seen on the street in the West Village earlier that day—but this is the kind of wine that can call forth a thousand associations.

And apparently he hangs with Hugh Hefner? International playboy! Writing about the head winemaker at Dom Pérignon, McInerney write: "Mr. Geoffroy has had many triumphs since then and I have to say that the only man I've ever met who seems to enjoy his job as much as he does is Hugh Hefner."

Also, he's blowing it up on the WSJ's wine blog, On Wine — a recent post had him dining at Cru in New York City where a sommelier had the audacity to suggest a red to go with his fish:

For my second course, a wild striped bass with scarlet runner beans and green olives, sommelier Greg Majors talked me into a red — a really rich, complex 2000 La Rioja Alta Rioja Riserva Vina Ardanza. My first thought was, are you nuts? I wanted to order the ‘07 Sanford and Benedict Chardonnay.

Who was McInerney out to dinner with? Greg Grossman, the 14-year-old chef "prodigy," who incidentally (!) is friends with his son.

· Rose-Hued Memories Of a Summer Night [WSJ]
· Early-Evening Pairings at Cru [WSJ]

[Photo: New York Times]