Video: Watch Justin Warner Rap About Wines For Robert Mondavi Private Selection
A few years ago, during a West Coast research trip just before I launched Food Republic, a longtime colleague from LA told me I had to meet this chef and sommelier who rapped about wine. It sounded crazy, but I looked him up when I returned to New York and it was true: Justin Warner not only knew a ton about wine, but he had mad flow as an MC.
Fast forward to today and Warner is an even more eccentric figure in the game, with a cool restaurant called Do or Dine in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn, a stint as the winner of The Next Food Network Star, and now, a gig reprising his career as an oenophile rapper on behalf of Robert Mondavi Private Selection. His song "Central Coastin'" is entertaining, sure, but what's interesting is that it could mark a change in celeb chef endorsements, moving Warner and his ilk into a league with athletes in beer commercials or pop stars singin' for their soda. Watch the man who could be the Terry Bradshaw of wine ads, here: