Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Mick Fleetwood’s 2nd passion a hit

Who: Mick Fleetwood

Saturday: Noon to 4 p.m., Costco, 791 Marks St., Henderson

Sunday: Noon to 4 p.m., Costco, 801 Pavilion Center Drive, Summerlin

Mick Fleetwood is one of a growing list of celebrity winemakers.

The list includes "Blues Brothers" alum Dan Aykroyd, "Jurassic Park" star Sam Neill, "Grease" star Olivia Newton-John, folk singer Bob Dylan, "Jeopardy" host Alex Trebek, Virgin Atlantic Chairman Richard Branson, British rocker Cliff Richard and Motley Crue lead singer Vince Neil, although the Las Vegas resident is better known for his tequila.

Sting reportedly paid $6.2 million for a winery in Tuscany to make wine for friends. Perhaps he hadn't heard the old winemaker's joke: How do you make a small fortune in the wine business? Start with a large fortune.

The winemaking fraternity is pretty snobby, so it takes time for celebrities to earn a good reputation.

Here are half a case who have:

Francis Ford Coppola - The famed movie director is called the godfather of celebrity winemakers. He's been producing wines in Napa Valley, Calif., since 1995 and has rebuilt the fabled Inglenook estate as Niebaum-Coppola. He won Wine Spectator magazine's Distinguished Service Award in 2003.

Fess Parker - You wouldn't expect high-end pinot noir or a flinty sauvignon blanc from the man who played Davey Crockett and Daniel Boone. But Parker has been making wine since 1989 in California's Santa Ynez Valley. Look for the labels Fess Parker, Parker Station, Epiphany and Fortress Vineyards. Or spot his trademark coonskin cap on his Frontier Red.

Smothers Brothers - Winemaking is no joke for the Smothers Brothers. Tommy Smothers has been making wine at Kenwood in California's Sonoma Valley for 30 years. He dropped the Smothers Brothers label because most folks weren't taking his wine seriously. Instead, look for the label named after his grandfather, Remick Ridge Vineyards.

Gerard Depardieu - The French actor ("Cyrano de Bergerac," "Green Card") may be the most passionate of the celebrity winemakers. He started by buying Chateau de Tigne in the Loire Valley in 1982 and now owns more than 20 vineyards in France, Italy, Spain, Morocco, Algeria and the United States.

Greg Norman - Sports celebrities often turn winemaker - Joe Montana, Arnold Palmer and Ernie Els to name a few - but none is in the same league as The Shark. He launched Greg Norman Estates in 1999 and now produces wines from vineyards in Australia and California.

Lorraine Bracco - Tony Soprano 's shrink recently visited Las Vegas to introduce the Tuscan wines being bottled under the Bracco label. Turns out she got hooked during the 10 years she spent in Paris as a fashion model.

Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood is talking up a storm.

He's talking about his passion.

Not Fleetwood Mac.

Wine.

He has created Fleetwoods Private Cellar. Fleetwood doesn't own a winery but chooses wines from various vineyards and blends them.

So far, he's released 18 wines and has won awards and critical praise.

Fleetwood will make an appearance this weekend at Costcos in Henderson and Summerlin to promote his wine. Fans can have their pictures taken with the 60-year-old drummer, chat with him about his music or his wine or other topics.

He recently talked to the Sun by telephone from his home on Maui, Hawaii.

Q: How did you develop a passion for wine?

It evolved. My passion, in terms of really turning a corner and just enjoying the whole experience of wine , started probably 17 years ago in terms of really liking wine a lot. I never really paid any heed prior to that. My wife enjoys cooking, she's a great cook, and so we have a lot of get-togethers. I started enjoying going out and choosing the wine. Then, on the road, I started doing the same thing - getting the wine to put on the airplane. Basically , that's sort of how it ended up.

How did your love of wine turn into a business?

I met Jonathan Todd, who came into my life as sort of a business partner and adviser , and then a friendship blossomed and one thing led to another and then I thought , "W ouldn't it be nice if I had my own wine ?" And it went a few steps further when Jonathan said , " You know what, that's something maybe we can do. " It started in a very boutique way, and then one thing led to another. We always had the intention of maybe being able to build a company out of my desire to be involved in running wines. Then, lo and behold, in the last five years we've built Private Cellar into something taken seriously in the wine world, which is great. I think the celebrity entity doing something like this often is more fun than real, which is fine, but it's also sometimes probably a little hard for people in the world I'm talking about (the wine world) to take them (the celebrity winemakers) seriously. You have to earn your stripes. I believe that we've done that by following the sensibilities of how we started it, which was really very simple - I choose the wines and I stay on course. I have lots of input. Nothing goes in the bottle unless I've chosen it or helped blend it. My sensibilities have been accepted. If I had lousy taste in wine , I don't think we'd be on the phone right now.

Why have you chosen to blend wines as opposed to starting your own winery?

The journey is a personal thing that led to the aspiration of doing something that did not involve going out and spending 10 or 15 years building a winery. I'd be pushing up daisies by the time we got our first decent wine. Of course , at the beginning there were flashes of "W ouldn't it be great to have our own vineyard ?" We just didn't take that route for real specific reasons. It's the right formula for me. We've had a lot of fun. We've worked really hard. People know I get in the trenches and do this from the ground up.

Do you know all there is to know about wines?

The world I'm in, I'm constantly learning about it. But I trust what I like. I can remember back 20 or 30 years ago where, in truth, I remember being told what I like : "You're bound to love this." You almost feel guilty when you don't like it , so you end up drinking it. Those days are gone now.

What has changed?

I think the little family going out and celebrating Johnny's birthday and, ooh , having a bottle of wine are gone. The family that has little Johnny now has a wine cellar. It's very different from the '50s and '60s . Back then understanding wine in the United States was, in truth, a semi - elitest type of thing. Now it's a whole new sensibility. It has opened up. I love that so much. I don't like, inherently, all the snobby stuff that used to intimidate people about this whole wine experience. I love meeting people when we get to Costco events and you realize that from every walk of life people are just getting into it and that's what I did. I was not understanding or involved 25 years ago. I didn't think about it. And now I look back and, wow, now I understand the tasting of the wine, the sniffing at the table. It's part of the dance.

What do you look for in wine?

I have an adage I said once and now I'm stuck with it : I don't like to be attacked by a wine , and I don't like to have the enamel ripped off my teeth. I like a nice after taste, a nice smoothness to it. In the wine world some of the descriptions are very poetic and that's fine. I think it's fair to say I like a calm, mellow experience in terms of where my palate is at. I like the experience of opening a wine and having it being really presentable, to be enjoyed almost immediately. Generally speaking , I choose wine that you get the bottle open, maybe decant it briefly if that, and drink. That's where our wines, for the most part, seem to be residing . You can open a bottle of Private Cellar and enjoy it immediately. My umbilical, that seems to go through many if not all of my wines, is it's a mellow experience in terms of the way it comes to me on my palate.

How much time do you devote to wine as opposed to music?

It's a major part of my life. Luckily both passions go hand in hand, as far as I'm concerned. I don't work all the time playing music, but I'm never that far away from it. I'm able to pursue my interest in wine because I'm not on the road all the time. The two (wine and music businesses) are a lot alike. The wine is the album that comes out. You work hard creating the songs. You put them together. Some don't make it. Some you think are going to make it and then don't. All of those sensibilities are similar to a lot of the journeys we take in bringing our wines into a place where people can enjoy them. Then, of course, when you're done and the labeling is right and we feel we've described the wine right when we do the promotion and then, you let go, just like when you've made an album. You let go of it. You have to let go of it , and then it's down to someone else telling you how they feel about it, what they like about it. "Oh my God, they're writing lousy songs this year." Or not, hopefully. All the hard work is done and you hold your breath and see how it runs. You're still in the lap of the gods. You need to get someone to buy the wines, taste it and get feed back. It's hard work and time consuming, but I love it. It's something that's personal. I'm not just slapping my name on a brand.

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