The Beautiful Ramato: Cory Booker <> Scarbolo Pinot Grigio
Our next pour is the Valter Scarbolo ‘Il Ramato’ Pinot Grigio from Friuli Venezia Giulia.
In most standard bottles of Pinot Grigio, there is absolutely zero skin contact. The commercial goal is usually to make a clear, safe, and simple white wine. But this bottle is strikingly different in the glass. It pours a pale copper color with vibrant, glowing salmon tones—it is entirely distinctive.
In fact, the name Il Ramato plays on a brilliant Italian word game: ramato means copper, but drop the 'R' and you get amato, meaning "loved one." Wine critics are so smitten with it that they routinely write that this bottling literally "seduces" the palate and offers "a total pleasure."
The parallels to our next politician—New Jersey Senator Cory Booker—are hard to ignore.
Booker spent years topping prominent eligible bachelor charts across the country. Most notably, Town & Country magazine featured him on their exclusive "Top Bachelors" list twice. To put that in perspective, this isn't a pedestrian supermarket tabloid ranking; it’s a registry of the world’s most connected, uniquely accomplished single men. The first year Booker made the cut, Prince Harry took first place.
So, yes—both the wine and the Senator are highly charismatic. But the real story is what happens beneath the surface.
To achieve that gorgeous copper hue, the winemaker leaves the juice in contact with the pinkish-gray grape skins for 12 hours before pressing. That intentional skin contact doesn't just extract color; it pulls out a savory, structural grip and a silky, satiny texture that you never find in a standard grocery-store white.
Like this copper-hued bottle, Cory Booker pairs an exceptionally bright, high-octane public optimism with serious, heavy-duty intellect. Behind the charming, crowd-pleasing charisma lies a complex policy operator. Whether he is digging into the literal dirt of agricultural reform on the Senate Ag Committee—where he is a major proponent of regenerative agriculture—or cutting intense, bipartisan deals on criminal justice reform, he consistently brings unexpected substance to the table.
It is definitive proof that you should never judge a Pinot Grigio—or a politician—by its cover.
