There is one overriding reason people will consider buying the new white wine with the big “B” on the label, and it can be summed up by the name above it: Barrymore. Drew Barrymore has gone into the wine business, and her first release is not from California, where so many Hollywood and other celebrities have dabbled in wine, but from Italy.
While the marketing notes declare that “the discovery of new wines, new regions and new vintages is what keeps wine exciting to novices and enthusiasts alike,” Barrymore has turned to the familiar: She has given us another pinot grigio. And while her motto is “from our family to yours,” don’t be misled. The actress may have put her name and her family crest on the label, but the wine is made by Decordi, a large winery in Lombardy in northern Italy. They have produced a wine that is good, if not great -- a solid “B,” so to speak -- which may nonetheless be good enough for many starstruck Americans lured by the Barrymore name and willing to pay a premium for it (the $20 suggested price is higher than many pinot grigios on the market).
Barrymore’s 2011 Pinot Grigio delle Venezie has notable minerality, which lingers in the mouth and is its strong point. Some fruit notes, particularly apple and citrus, emerge as the wine warms up a bit, but I would have liked even more fruit. There’s also an ample herbal note. Beyond obvious fish pairings, it would work well with an asparagus risotto. It’s certainly drinkable, but I have enjoyed other pinot grigios more – for less. (In a quick check at one wine store in my Manhattan neighborhood, I found 11 pinot grigios, nine of them under $20.)
Barrymore is just the latest celebrity to turn to wine. This week, Wine Spectator reported that Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie has bought a vineyard in California’s Santa Ynez Valley and plans to make syrah, cabernet sauvignon and viognier under the Ferguson Crest label.
If Frances Ford Coppola is the “godfather” of the celebrity wine movement, others who have followed him more recently include Madonna, who, with her father, is involved in Ciccone Vineyard and Winery in northern Michigan; Wayne Gretzky and Dan Aykroyd, who produce wine under their own labels in Canada; Nancy Pelosi, who owns two vineyards that supply fruit to other wineries in California; Jeff Gordon, who has a passion for fast cars and also for making high-end California wines; and Dave Matthews, who owns Blenheim Vineyards in Charlottesville, Va., and also has a collaborative effort in California with Steve Reeder, the winemaker at Simi Winery in Sonoma.
Matthews’ California label is called The Dreaming Tree (named after one of his songs), and there are three $15 wines. The other night I bought Dreaming Tree’s 2009 Crush, a North Coast blend of merlot and zinfandel, hoping for something that would rise above the ordinary. But it, too, was just OK. Its dark berry fruit, relatively soft tannins and considerable oak influence could describe dozens of comparably priced California reds competing for shelf space, many of them with similarly catchy names.
In my research, I found dozens of celebrities who are attaching their names and their money to wine. But I also found very few doing so in the under-$20 category. And that may be just as well. Beyond the boldface names on the labels, it seems to me, celebrity wines, at least on the value end, don’t have a lot to offer. (The Barrymore wine was received as a press sample.)
Wine drinkers, what do you think? Would you be more willing to buy a wine with a celebrity name? Tell us in the comments.
Edward Deitch is a James Beard Award-winning wine critic. Find many more of his wine reviews and commentary on his blog, Vint-ed.com, and follow him on Twitter.
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