Three star athletes, one hope
Plus, Perrier-Jouët celebrates 200 years with a gift for the ages, and the U.S. Women’s Curling champions head to Denmark with the help of Morey Cellars
Enophile Mike Piazza and his star athlete pals are stepping up to the plate for OneHope charity wines.
With spring training well underway, Unfiltered is getting excited about another season of Major League Baseball, and we’re always a little partial to the many wine-loving ballplayers out there, even the retired ones. The last time we checked in with legendary catcher Mike Piazza, he was quickly becoming well-versed in the world of wine. Now, nearly a decade later, he’s supporting a charity wine project, along with a handful of other superstar athletes, including Green Bay Packers Super Bowl Champion quarterback Aaron Rodgers and one of the NBA’s all-time great point guards, Jason Kidd. They’re now all throwing financial and promotional support behind OneHope wines, a charity label we first told readers about during Breast Cancer Awareness Month this past October because the label donated 50 percent of profits from sales of its Chardonnay to breast cancer research. The various OneHope varietals, which sell for between $19 and $24 ($3 to $4 from each sale is donated to charity), benefit HIV/AIDS research and support America’s troops, autism research and environmental concerns, while the newest varietal, a Pinot Noir, supports children’s hospitals. Rodgers serves on the brand’s Leadership Council and has recently been spotted at NBA games wearing OneHope t-shirts and caps, and to date the company has raised more than $400,000 for charity. Sounds like a homerun to us.
Ten large gets you more than just the packaging.
• Champagne house Perrier-Jouët, part of the Pernod Ricard mega-wine group, celebrated its 200-year anniversary this past Monday in Paris. Various celebrities—including Marquis Antinori, Jerry Hall and her daughter Georgia May Jagger—filled the courtyard of the Ecole des Beaux Arts as chef Jean-Louis Nomicos (an Alain Ducasse acolyte) made a dinner inspired by the menu served at the 1911 centennial celebration, and American artist Daniel Arsham offered a Perrier-Jouët-inspired diptych sculpture for the event. The Champagne house used the festivities to unveil the newest in luxury marketing: the Bi-Centenaire Champagne package. For a suggested retail price of $10,000 you can now buy two magnums of 1998 P-J Belle Epoque, housed in replicas of Arsham’s sculptures, one to enjoy today, and another to be stored in the cellars of Perrier-Jouët for up to 100 years for one of your descendants. In short, another good reason to guilt your offspring into having grandchildren. There are merely 100 sets available of the Bi-Centenaire at Perrier-Jouët’s boutique in Epernay or through Pernod Ricard, and purchasers also receive an exclusive private tour and tasting in the cellars. The vintage was carefully chosen by cellar master Hervé Deschamps to withstand the long aging process and, at least as an investment, you can’t ask for better provenance. Now that’s what Unfiltered calls a trust fund.
Morey Cellars is providing more than just these spiffy jackets.
• Did you know that curling, the Winter Olympic Games cult favorite that is like a slow version of shuffleboard combined with a fast version of sweeping the floor, is actually played in non-Olympic years? And that the World Women’s Curling Championship is happening right now in Denmark? This year, the U.S. Women’s Champions have a seemingly unlikely sponsor: Morey Cellars, a Napa outfit that is supporting the team by donating half the proceeds from their 2007 Sauvignon Blanc sales to help the squad meet whatever expenses are incurred in the course of curling. (We imagine the extra fee for checking all those 40-pound stones at the airport is rather substantial.) Furthermore, even if our ladies don’t win it all for Old Glory (they are currently in 7th, with a respectable 5-5 record), everyone wins, as Morey slashed the price on the wine from $20 to $15 to help customers get in the curling spirit. Time to put that bottle of Sauvignon Blanc on ice.
