Merin Curotto

1 week ago | observer.com | Merin Curotto

Jesse Katz walks the vineyard rows at Farrow Ranch, where regenerative practices meet generational thinking. Rachid DahnounMost winemakers boast about terroir. Jesse Katz has built an empire by respecting it. As the founder and head winemaker of Aperture Cellars and Devil Proof Vineyards, Katz has become one of the most influential voices in modern American viticulture—without ever losing sight of the soil beneath his feet.

2 weeks ago | observer.com | Merin Curotto

When your name’s on the label, the standards are personal. Billy Draddy, Creative Director of B. Draddy and third-generation sportswear man, doesn’t do throwaway gifts. He’s a dad to four boys, a student of good design and a guy who believes comfort should never come at the expense of polish—or vice versa. That philosophy is stitched into every B. Draddy piece and runs through this guide like a well-placed backstitch.

2 weeks ago | observer.com | Merin Curotto

This is a list for the man who doesn’t need another gadget that tells time, tracks steps and dies on Tuesday. He already owns a proper pen, irons his own cuffs and can explain—without pause—the difference between barrel-aged and bottle-aged. He’s not impossible to shop for; he’s just allergic to mediocrity. This is not a list for the dad who needs reminding, but for the one who notices (and remembers) the details—stitching, structure, finish, form.

1 month ago | observer.com | Merin Curotto

Mother’s Day gifting is nothing short of a diplomatic mission—a high-wire act of nuanced symbolism. Too pedestrian, and you’ve reduced motherhood to a logistics operation. Too extravagant, and the gesture becomes performance art. The right gift lands in that narrow corridor between understatement and indulgence: elegant, useful and quietly self-assured.

Jan 13, 2025 | observer.com | Merin Curotto

Sarah Hoover’s first book, The Motherload: Episodes from the Brink of Motherhood, is a sharp-edged response to the sentimentalized myths of motherhood that society insists on perpetuating. It’s not a manifesto against parenting, nor is it a guidebook. It’s a ferocious act of honesty about the reality of being a mother in a world that simultaneously idealizes and diminishes the maternal experience.