Several years ago, a brilliant journalist by the name of Jeff Gordinier filed a feature for DETAILS magazine about young maverick wineries, including Roshambo. Gordinier spent the day with our Wine Hero and deftly captured her in print, describing her as “blessed with the graceful kind of morbidity of a Tim Burton movie princess.” Spot on. While this piece came out before I met Naomi, I already counted myself as a fan of his. In my humble opinion, the man can write circles around most anyone on the newsstands and I always looked forward to reading his stories. In 2005, he published “The Lost Boys,” a fascinating expose about the slew of boys being banished from a Utah polygamist compound. The piece grabbed national attention and Dave Eggers included it in his “The Best American Non-Required Reading 2005.” But more importantly, Gordinier is a hell of a nice guy. Over the years, he has served as a kind of mentor of mine and his patience, in the face of my barrage of (certainly annoying) questions, is cause enough for knighthood.

Now, about the book. It is wildly entertaining. Smart, bold and hilarious. Naomi and I bought two copies and read it together this past weekend. We raced through it like giddy hicks on a Motocross course. In a nutshell, the book makes the case that in the wake of the mass-media fixation on Baby Boomer nostalgia and Millennial me-me solipsism, Generation X has been forgotten: “The thirtysomething has been shuttled off, like Molly Ringwald herself, to some sort of Camp Limbo for demographic lepers.”

Here’s what Gordinier has to say about Generation Y:

“When it’s not obsessing over the mating habits of AARP members, the media beast has taken a fancy to another rising demographic cluster, the millennials… That’s right. The boomers bred, and their solipsistic progeny have arrived just in time to serve Generation X a second helping of anxiety. The millennials… seem to speak with none of the doubt and skepticism that have marked - and hampered- Generation. They just love stuff. They love celebrities. They love technology. They love name brands. They’re happy to do whatever advertising tells them to do. So what if they can’t manage to read anything longer than a photo caption or an instant message - that’s okay. If anything, it’s an advantage. Because literacy leads to self-reflection and critical thinking, and self-reflection and critical thinking open the door to doubt and sketpticism, and stuff like that just gets in the way when you’re trying to get ahead, and OMG did you see how fat Britney looks these days?!?!?!?!“

Of course, I had somewhat of a sinking feeling while reading this book, a pit in my stomach that I can only describe as a shocking recognition of the similarities between the Millennials and Me. Whereas Naomi is Gen X to the core, I’m a little bit more, oh, how shall we say, imbedded, or immersed in, OMG did you see that picture of me + Paris and me + Jessica?

The April issue of the North Bay Biz features an article about “saavy wine companies” that are going online to promote their brands. Click here for the entire story. Or if you want to skip straight to the part about the Roshamblog, I’ve reprinted it here. (Apparently, the writer Mary Burnam and Naomi are in cahoots, as she describes the Roshamblog as “a platform for Brilliant’s boyfriend.”  Maybe she has a point.)

Here’s an excerpt from the story…

“Other North Bay wineries have ventured into social networking on their own. Roshambo, the 15,000-case Sonoma County brand owned by Naomi Brilliant, has its own MySpace page as well as the Roshamblog, a platform for Brilliant’s boyfriend and official Roshamblogger Scott Keneally.

Roshambo’s MySpace profile has about 500 friends on it, who, Keneally says, “are mostly people who’ve tried our wines, who know us, have been to our events and partied with us.” The winery posts bulletins and events to its profile, instantly alerting its fans when there’s news to share.

Facebook, YouTube videos and a website revamp are in the works, according to Keneally, who envisions creating short, funny commercial spots that capture the brand’s edgy and irreverent spirit. He enjoys being the voice of the winery via the Roshamblog, which draws about 2,600 people a month: “We started the blog to regularly communicate with our fans, but more than that, it’s there to support Roshambo’s vision of an accessible wine culture,” he remarks. For Keneally, this means posting about everything from his favorite indie rock band to Brilliant’s tattoos.

Conspicuously—and purposefully—absent from his posts is much about wine. “I’m a self-proclaimed ‘vineyard idiot,’” he says. “My tasting notes consist of ‘yum’ and ‘yuck’ or a series of emoticons. I’m not qualified to comment on things like ‘terroir.’

“But there are things, like music and art, that we support that help give a broader sense of the winery’s personality,” he continues. “The new wine catalog on our website focuses on the wines, but the blog focuses on the personality imbued in each bottle.”

Roshambo’s approach highlights a point that comes up over and over again with successful viral marketers: be authentic…”

In case you missed the big announcement…

Rapper ‘Lil Jon is throwing his hand into the grape business, launching his very own “upscale” label - Little Jonathan Winery. And whet your whistle because as he told the Associated Press, his wine is “not no ghetto Boone’s Farm.” Naturally, you may be asking, ‘What does ‘Lil Jon know about wine?’ Apparently not much. “I’m not no ‘drink wine every day’ kind of dude. I’m not like an expert, so don’t ask me no questions.” Very well then. So, if you don’t know much about wine, then… why the wine thing? “We were just going to do some private label stuff (for parties) and we did it, and people was like, ‘Hey, it’s pretty nice.’“

For those of you that have been following ‘Lil Jon’s career (Beuller… Beuller… Anyone?) you might remember this isn’t his first foray into the drink biz. In 2005 he launched the pomegranate juice Crunk!!! Energy Drink (yes, that’s Crunk with three exclamation points). I can’t say I’ve ever seen it on the shelves, but I’m sure Little Jonathan Winery will be a big success. After all, it’s, you know, not no ghetto shit.