After singing of “Fields of Gold,” British rock star Sting is tending fields of grapes as he prepares to market red wine made at his country estate in Tuscany.
Some 30,000 bottles of wine produced on the property will go on sale in September, mainly in Britain and the United States, Paolo Rossi, the estate's manager, said Thursday.
In 1997 the former Police frontman purchased a 16th-century villa, called Il Palagio, in Figline Valdarno, a small village some 19 miles (30 kilometers) south of Florence.
Over the years he has turned the surrounding 860 acres (350 hectares) into an organic farm that also produces honey, olive oil, fruit, vegetables and Tuscan salami.
“When I came here to Figline I wanted first of all to feed my family,” Sting said on Tuesday during an event at the village where the 57-year-old star spoke of the time he spends at Il Palagio.
“I also wanted to use agriculture with practices that would nourish the land and not deplete the land and so we went to traditional methods with farming, we got rid of pesticides, we shunned monoculture, and it works, the farm is also a garden,” he said in the remarks broadcast by local television Rtv38.
Rossi did not reveal the name of the upcoming wine. He said it will be a 2007 vintage based on the Sangiovese grape, with a touch of Cabernet and Merlot.
A 2008 Chianti could also go on sale in the fall, but tests on the wine's aging must be conducted before a decision is made, Rossi told The Associated Press by telephone.
The wine, along with other products made on the Sting farm, will also be available at a shop on the property that the singer will inaugurate by June, Rossi said.