Celebrity Winemakers
Niebaum-Coppola to Koala Blue: Celebrity Winemakers Show Good Taste
Jan 27, 2007
When Bob Dylan wrote the lyric, "businessmen, they drink my wine" ..... bet you didn't think he was serious.
In fact, businessmen and other vinophiles enjoy quaffing Visions of J (named after an old Dylan hit), a Montepulciano endorsed by - and specially made for - Dylan by Italian winemaker Antonio Terni at his Fattoria Le Terrazze estate.
Dylan is just one of a seemingly bottomless barrel of celebrity winemakers. French actor Gerard Depardieu has vineyards in Bordeaux, Spain, Morocco and Argentina. Rock star Sting makes wine in Tuscany. Olivia Newton John produces Koala Blue wines Down under. Game show host Alex Trebek has a California estate.
But the godfather of celebrity winemakers is easily Francis Ford Coppola. In the business since 1975, the director has been one of the seminal figures in the Napa Valley's rise to fame. His Niebaum-Coppola wines have a dedicated following. And he's recently released Sofia Blanc de Blancs. The sparkling wine in a can is aimed at club goers and named after his daughter and Oscar-winning director, Sofia Coppola.
What gives?
Greg Dunlop, new world wine product manager for Vintages (the fine wine and spirits division of Canada's LCBO, the largest wine merchant in the world) says celebrities make wine for many reasons - often the right ones: they love wine and they can afford to make it.
"I'm in the process of buying New Zealand wines from (Jurassic Park actor) Sam Neill. It's called Two Paddocks . Here's that loves wine and knows wine. His fame has brought him wealth and he's used it to buy vineyards… and now he makes great wine."
The latest to join the list is Virgin Atlantic chairman Richard Branson who launched his affodable wines with a catchy motto ( "unscrew it, let's do it") and a scantily clad model. Question is, are these wines really any good?
Dunlop says a celebrity name can be seen as an indicator of quality - anyone successful enough to catch your eye with their name alone is probably very careful with their image.Of course, some are more worthy than others.
"We've had Coppola wines and they're certainly quality wines. We tend to get them in around Toronto Film Festival time,"says Dunlop. "They have a proven track record."
Vintages passed on Jerry Garcia wine, which featured the deceased Grateful Dead singer's artwork but otherwise had no involvement from the singer or his estate. And, while Vintages is careful to evaluate wines objectively, on a personal level Dunlop - like many of us - has a hard time swallowing wines from the likes of Motley Crue singer Vince Neil although Vince Vineyards' 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon is scoring well on blind tastings.
Guess Neil is smarter than he looks and what he's after is no secret: A Piece of Your Action.
Originally published in MovieEntertainment Magazine.
