Two Arts Converge: Musicians are Producing on New Labels

 
By Troy Gronseth

Musicians have the unique gift of taking life's journeys, passing them through the press of creativity and squeezing lyrical wine from them. It is a process of gathering, sifting and drawing from these journeys a potent helping of words combined with composition that dance through our ears into our soul. While this art has long challenged both experienced and amateur artiste, another art has paralleled its way into this rich culture. Winemaking has become a second love to some of today's most prominent melody makers and is shaping the culture in a tasteful way.

Dave Matthews, Mick Fleetwood and Bob Dylan are a few of the music icons who have tasted success both off and on the stage. They are emerging wine artists bringing their creativity to vineyards across the world: gathering, sifting and drawing from grapes a rich blend of Merlots, Chiantis and Chardonnays. These musicians are, perhaps, helping to bridge the gap between the stigma of rock 'n' roll and a generation of sophisticated connoisseurs waiting for the two arts to converge.

Blenheim Vineyards and Dave

A South African native, Dave Matthews, his wife Ashley and their two daughters, spend significant time outside Charlottesville in the Virginia hills. He remembers growing up on healthy, unpackaged food, which may be part catalyst to purchasing the 1,260 acres of farmland near his Charlottesville home and slowly restoring the land to meet the high standards of organic growing. Nearby is Blenheim Vineyards (blenheimvineyards.com), location to another of his creative passions as a vintner.

His friend, managing partner and winemaker, Brad McCarthy, is currently producing two Chardonnays, a Merlot, a Meritage and a Cabernet Franc out of the four-acre vineyard. Known for creating wines of subtlety and simplicity, McCarthy is a firm believer in minimal impact on the fruit. McCarthy and company have designed the Blenheim winery building to have a nominal impact on the wine during production. It is a custom system that uses gravity, rather than hydraulics, to transport the grapes from the bins to the press and then the juice from the press to the tanks, allowing limited use of pumps in the winemaking process.

In keeping with his organic approach, Matthews' brother Peter tends the vines and has been the vineyard manager since 1999. With a visit to the Blenheim website, you will find it sans Matthews' name anywhere as the wines are not marketed as Dave Matthews signature wines. His new passion to make wine, and good wine at that, seems to be enough compensation at this stage in his winemaking career. Says Matthews, "Let's not do this to make money, let just make the best wine we can." And as far as we can tell, he is wildly successful.

Fleetwood Merlot

In 2004, Fleetwood Mac's Mick Fleetwood launched his first wine, under his Mick Fleetwood Private Cellar collection, a blend of 25% Cabernet Franc and 75% Merlot grapes from Westerly Vineyards in Santa Ynez, southern California. The wine was aged for 30 months in an oak cask and then another 18 months in the bottle before being offered for sale.

Fleetwood's newfound love of wine may be attributed to singer-songwriter Al Stewart, known for his hit "Year of the Cat," introducing him to Gewürztraminer with Indian food and teaching him about other food-and-wine matches.

Fleetwood, a self-proclaimed party enthusiast early in his career, has turned his attention from beer to wine- often a smooth, supple Merlot. Unlike Matthews, Fleetwood does not claim to be a wine aficionado, but simply wishes the experience to be fun, both for himself and his fans.

Jonathon Todd, Fleetwood's business partner has seen a different creative process in the 59 year-old musician than in years past. When recording artists through the ages have produced songs in mere weeks, Fleetwood is requiring himself to 'live with the wine' for several months before committing his name to it, a practice in patience and reflection, secondary opulence associated with both winemaking and enjoying.

Most recently, the Wall Street Journal reported that Fleetwood's Private Cellar was awarded 'Best Wine by a Living Musician' in a blind taste test of over 50 celebrity wines. As unique as his music, Fleetwood has entered into a fun and successful artistic chapter as a vintner. You can see some of his wines here.

Wine from the Watchtower

Bob Dylan has also recently started a career as a vintner in teaming up with an Italian winery to produce on his Planet Waves signature label. The label, which is named for a 1974 Dylan album, is a 2002 vintage blend of 75 percent Montepulciano and 25 percent Merlot grapes grown by Fattoria Le Terrazze winery in Italy's Marche region.

Winemaker Antonio Terni is partly responsible for Dylan's new venture. The partnership began when Terni gave Dylan a few bottles of his own red wine at a concert, along with a note asking if Dylan would be interested in producing wine together.

Terni had never missed a Dylan European concert and had already named one of his wines (1997) "Visions of Johanna," awarded top prize in 2001 at Italy's Slow Food festival, after a Dylan song from the Blonde on Blonde album. In 2004, floored by Dylan's interest in the venture, Terni and Dylan quick became busy in restoring some of the then lackluster Italian wine industry that had taken a hit due to the weak American dollar and international competition by producing Planet Waves.

Proof in the Wine

Musicians have long since found wine a suitable subject for songs. Perhaps prophetic were the words from Dylan's version of John Wesley Harding's "All Along the Watchtower": Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth / None of them along the line know what any of it is worth. And from Matthews' song "Two Step" from his Crash album: Hey, my love, you came to me like wine comes to the mouth / Grown tired of water all the time / You quench my heart / And love, you quench my mind. Search popular artists' lyrics and you will discover myriad references to the wonders of wine. In today's high profile status of so many celebrities, again it is perhaps fitting that wine is being made by musicians, who draw from these wells of fruit as they do rich lyrics. And for the most part, they do not seem to be in the business for monetary gain, they seem to truly want to try their hand at making these fruity, smoky and earthy libations for the sake of expanding the depth of the wine community.

Others have taken the plunge into this domain, from Sting, Mick Hucknall (Simply Red) to Olivia Newton John. Some have chosen, like Matthews, to remain behind the scenes and others harvest as a business proposition. Regardless, these artists are helping to break through the stereotype and reservoir of age, experience and status via the art of winemaking.

Flavorful and artful, the songs and wines dance into our ears and onto our palates, offering a reprise from the chaotic race of humanity. The artists who have found a way into our souls through music are now daring to dance into the wine arena. And from what we can see, they are, indeed, wildly successful. Try them and be the judge of this.