Celebrities make names in wine
From Coppola to Peggy Fleming, VIPS go vintner
As a graceful Olympian, Peggy Fleming thrilled with her elegance on the ice. But these days, the gold-medal skater is making her mark in the world of wine.
And she's not the only celebrity staking a second career in the vineyards. From golfer Greg Norman to rocker Mick Fleetwood to domestic doyenne Martha Stewart, the trend of VIP-turned-vintner is growing.
"It certainly seems to be picking up pace," says Richard Hurst, a senior vice president for The Nielsen Company.
Star-power sells; Nielsen figures based on 2007 grocery store sales show celebrity wines were up nearly 19 percent from the year before, representing nearly 1 percent, or almost $42 million, of total wine sales in the United States.
It makes sense, Hurst says. With hundreds of bottles dazzling the eye, buyers often rely on recommendations, whether that's from a friend, your local merchant - or maybe a trusted celebrity.
"People are looking for that hook to hang on to because otherwise how do you choose between multiple chardonnays and multiple pinot grigios?" he asks.
A well-known name may be read as a signal of quality, in a market where people are looking for signals, agrees Robert Smiley, director of wine industry programs at the University of California, Davis, school of management. "Wine is a product that most of us know very little about that we buy a lot."
Just how much celebrities are involved in their namesake wines varies. For Fleming, who with her husband, Greg Jenkins, owns the Fleming-Jenkins Vineyards & Winery, making wine is a serious endeavor.
The couple planted a vineyard in 1999 at their ridgetop property in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Soon they were selling their grapes, and Jenkins, who'd retired from his first career as a dermatologist, got interested in winemaking, taking courses at UC Davis.
"We got more and more curious," says Fleming. "It just grabs you." Their wine labels whisper rather than blare Fleming's fame, carrying the name Fleming-Jenkins with a delicate swoop of silver symbolizing the ice skating move known as a crossover.
They produced their first wines with the 2003 vintage and later created a rose (ro-ZAY) to raise funds for research into breast cancer, a disease Fleming has successfully battled.
A rich Napa Valley cabernet blend that goes for $50 a bottle is called Choreography, another nod to Fleming's career.
The arts have fielded a number of vintners, Francis Ford Coppola has been directing wine for a quarter century - he bought his Napa Valley property in 1975 - winning critical as well as popular acclaim.
One factor behind the success of celebrity wines, says Hurst, is increasing wine appreciation on the part of the Millennials, who have grown up in a celebrity-soaked culture.