Welcome Back Laurie Delk!
A month or so ago I announced that I held a dinner to welcome back an old friend and with this blog post I am thrilled to announce the long overdue announcement of the poorly kept secret which is that person is Laurie Delk, former General Manager of Cork & Bottle and we have welcomed her back to our little wine Nirvana to resume her duties as General Manager of Cork & Bottle.
Starting at Cork & Bottle in 2005, Laurie served as GM of Cork & Bottle in New Orleans for nearly two years while I was running our venture in Baton Rouge. Laurie was back in the NOLA store right after the water emptied from the city after Hurricane Katrina and you can say that she single handedly kept Cork & Bottle together in those early months of 2006. In mid-2007 Laurie took an opportunity to live in Alba, Italy picking grapes and making wine. That gave way to a year or so living in Coastal Carolina and then San Diego working in the service industry (hey, the girl’s got a knack for living in great places). Being only a few hours from Santa Barbara and just a few more up to Napa and Sonoma, she took the next logical step in the wine business and it didn’t involve heading north to wine country, instead, she returned back to where her wine career began in a city that she loves.
We’ve been through a lot together, she and I have, traveling to New York to research wine bars, touring vineyards in Italy and being a part of more wine tastings than I care to count. Having her back under the roof is a sign that all is right and good with the wine world and having her back in the city is truly a great thing for our industry.
Laurie and I after a 9:00 am private tasting at Ruffino’s headquarters in Chianti Ruffina in the summer of 2006.
I told everyone when I bought back Cork & Bottle in early 2008 that you don’t get too many chances in life to go home and I jumped at the chance to do so. Now that Laurie is back it seems like nothing has ever changed and I couldn’t be happier about it.
Come on over and say hello if you’re an old friend or if you’ve never met her be sure to make some time to come by and meet her. You’ll love Laurie for her dynamic, genuine personality along with her razor sharp palate and pragmatic-no BS approach to wine AND because she originally showed up in New Orleans in the first place to get her Masters in Fine Arts from Tulane and has been published in art journals there’s probably a better chance than not that she’ll become a regular contributor to this meager little blog.
Cheers, and welcome back Laurie Delk, its been great to have you back home.
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