Sips and Sounds: Wines from your favorite celebs, paired with their works

Making wine is an art form that takes commitment and passion. So, it’s no surprise that passionate people—actors, musicians, filmmakers, and so on—have taken up the art and craft of winemaking. These well-known performers love to entertain, whether that means a song, a movie, or a well balanced glass of vino.

We’re showing you how to best enjoy a glass of celebrity-crafted wine—with one of the celebrity’s other works of art. Cheers!

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Sting

Wine: Message in a Bottle

Winery: Il Palagio

In the late 1990s, Sting and his family found a new home in Il Palagio in Tuscany, reviving the 16th century agricultural estate with wine production. A few of the wines are named after Police songs, and Message in a Bottle is perhaps the most appropriate title for a good bottle of vino. Beyond the name, The Police’s 1979 hit song speaks of loneliness and the search for connection. Wine—and Italian wine in particular—invokes conviviality. If “a hundred billion bottles” of this Sangiovese, Syrah, and Merlot blend washed up on the Mediterranean shore, the message would be a joyous one indeed.

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Francis Ford Coppola

Wine: Director’s Cut Cinema

Winery: Francis Ford Coppola Winery

Francis Ford Coppola’s love of Italian culture carries over into his California winery, Francis Ford Coppola Winery. The Sonoma Valley location is a “winery resort” designed by Academy Award-winning production designer and Coppola’s longtime collaborator, Dean Tavoularis. The winery carries many labels of note, but the Director’s Cut wine collection—named after the version of a film which best reflects the director’s vision—truly represents the winemaker’s vision for a varietal wine. In a further nod to cinema, the wine label is designed after a Zoetrope strip, one of the earliest moving picture devices.

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Fergie

Wine: 2012 Fergalicious

Winery: Ferguson Winery

Fergalicious “makes the boys go crazy,” and wine drinkers as well. Stacy Ferguson, AKA Fergie of The Black Eyed Peas, owns Ferguson Winery with her father, Pat Ferguson. While Fergie tours with her band, Pat lives on the winery in the Santa Ynez Valley and oversees the production of the six-acre estate. The Fergalicious 2012 vintage by winemaker Joey Tensley is a blend of Syrah, Merlot, Grenache and Cabernet Sauvignon. With notes of fruit, violets, and chocolate, the wine is “so delicious.”

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Dave Matthews

Wine: Crush

Winery: The Dreaming Tree

Dave Matthews’ songs are dreamy, deep, and inspiring—characteristics that are found in both the taste and the creation of The Dreaming Tree’s wine. The winery, located in Northern and Central California, follows sustainable practices, such as using lighter bottles and recyclable corks and labels. The 1998 Dave Matthews Band hit song Crush evokes a happy, sexy, almost-tipsy feeling. With lyrics like “Drink some wine ’till we get drunk… Lovely lady/Let me drink you please/I won’t spill a drop,” it’s easy to see how this intoxicating song inspired Matthews to create a wine to pair with it.

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Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt

Wine: Miraval, Côtes de Provence, Rosé

Winery: Château Miraval

Perhaps it’s the hue, or perhaps it is because it comes from France, but there is something undeniably romantic and ethereal about Provence Rosés. Miraval Rosé is a romantic wine made in Provence, France that pairs perfectly with a romantic film set in France. By the Sea, written, directed, and starring Angelina Jolie across from her husband, Brad Pitt, is a perfect match for a cold glass of this rosé. The gorgeous images of shoreline bring out the breezy notes of the wine which is made on the couple’s own Chateau Miraval by winemaker Marc Perrin and his family.

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Drew Barrymore

Wine: Rosé of Pinot Noir

Winery: Barrymore Wines

In collaboration with Carmel Road Winery, Drew Barrymore has launched Barrymore Wines. Little Edie and Big Edie of Grey Gardens lived in East Hampton, drinking their vino out of Dixie cups. Since the Hamptons continue to have an electric love affair with Rosé, Barrymore by Carmel Road Rosé of Pinot Noir 2015 seems only fitting for a reclusive summer afternoon spent indoors.

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Mick Fleetwood

Wine: Red Ransom

Winery: Fleetwood Mac

Complex. Harmonious. Bold. Profound. Emotional. Are those words describing Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 song, The Chain, or Mick Fleetwood’s wine, Red Ransom? All those adjectives can be applied to both, which is why Mick Fleetwood Private Cellar Wines Red Ransom is the ideal wine to pair with a song about the complexity of relationships.

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Maynard James Keenan

Wine: Nagual del Marzo

Winery: Caduceus Cellars

You may not expect a heavy metal icon would start a winery, but Tool’s James Maynard Keenan happens to come from a line of Northern Italian winemakers. His winery, Caduceus Cellars, is located in Jerome, Arizona. The winery draws its name from the staff carried by Hermes of Greek mythology. The word Parabola is also Greek in origin, and the song’s lyrics of enlightenment pair well with the Nagual del Marzo, a Tuscan-style blend of Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Barbera. Here’s where things take a turn as the wine’s name stems from Keenan’s Italian (not Greek!) roots: Marzo is their family name.

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Les Claypool

Wine: Purple Pachyderm

Winery: Claypool Cellars

Les Claypool of Primus runs a boutique winery with grapes stemming from the Russian River Valley, called Claypool Cellars located in Sebastopol, Califorinia. Pachyderm is an outdated term for classifying hippos, rhinos, and elephants. Primus’ animated music video for Southbound Pachyderm shows these animals being poached and is interpreted as commentary on the treatment of endangered animals. Les Claypool’s winery, Claypool Cellars, calls their Pinot Noir label by a similar name, Purple Pachyderm, and decorates the label with a purple cartoon elephant like that in the music video. The winery is not without humor as their tasting room is housed in a “glorious old train car” and dubbed The Fancy Booze Caboose.

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Train

Wine: Drops of Jupiter

Winery: Save Me, San Francisco Wine Co.

In 2011, Train started a wine company in Napa Valley, California. They named it after the band’s fifth studio album, Save Me San Francisco. The wines are named after their most popular songs, with Syrah-based blend taking the name of their 2001 international sensation, Drops of Jupiter. As it is theorized that the lunar cycles affect a vineyard’s yield, this romantic song with metaphors of moons and stars is an ideal name for a romantic, full-bodied red. This wine is best enjoyed at twilight on a summer evening, just as the stars are coming out.

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