Anyone for Celeb Wines?
Would you buy a wine made by a celebrity? Or put it another way, if there are two bottles on the same shelf, both from the same area, using the same grape and at the same price, one with a celebrity label and the other without – would curiosity tip you to buy the first?
If you do, then you will be fulfilling the marketing experts’ prophesies: when all things are equal, you will have opted for the wine with the name on the label. Moreover you may even be prepared to pay extra for it – but not much.
Whereas film stars and the like were once happy buying private islands and football clubs, the trend of late is to acquire a vineyard in order to make ‘your own’ wine. Much more sensible in my opinion – as when you are no longer paid mega-bucks to star in box office blockbusters, your name and (hopefully) your cashflow will still flow, and even when you finally shuffle of this mortal coil the wines will still keep coming off the bottling line.
Frances Ford Coppola was the first big name in the film business to do it; he bought a California winery 30 years ago that is still going strong and makes a (very expensive) wine that can be judged highly on its own merits. Meanwhile, Gerard Depardieu has his name on bottles of wine from Bordeaux, the Languedoc, Algeria and Morocco, so one can assume that his participation is more bottle-dressing that hands-on-the-grape sort – something he denies.
Simply Red singer Mick Hucknall is a more adventurous investor in vineyards. He makes wine in Sicily in the shade of Mount Etna; Sting is making wine in Tuscany and Cliff Richard in Portugal, all on their own estates. Sir Cliff’s Vida Nova seems to be a hit – although what motivates his fans to drink it is not clear!
Olivia Newton-John has her own strange, blue-bottled wine called Koala Blue made in New Zealand originally, but now being extended to Australian Shiraz and Chardonnay – and two other film world celebrities, Sam Neill and Michael Sereresin, have also opted for New Zealand as a location to make their own wines.
In Spain, the custom is well-established and apart from show biz celebrities getting in on the act, big names in the business world have caught the bug. A quick trip around La Rioja and Ribera del Duero is enough to realise that most of those big, shiny new wineries are owned by captains of industry, more often than not from ‘el mundo del ladrillo’ (real estate).
Stars of the stage and usually the small screen including Joan Manuel Serrat, Lluis Llach, Miguel Bosé, Imanol Arias, Bertín Osborne, and Emilio Aragón are among those who have invested in wine-making. Businessmen and sportsmen such as Alfonso Cortina, the Entrecanales family, Roberto Verino, Amaya Arzuaga, Carlos Sainz and Emilio Butragueño can all be added to a very long list. And of course Antonio Banderas has just joined the club.
In March of this year Banderas bought 50% of a bodega in Villalba de Duero, in the heartland of Ribera del Duero. The winery, belonging to an ex-architect turned winemaker from Burgos, is now known as Anta Banderas (‘AB’) and, not surprisingly, the business objective is to export wine to those countries where Antonio’s films are most appreciated – South America and the USA.
As with all such things where celebs are involved, smoke and mirrors are not absent. Banderas is rumoured to have acquired the winery partly because wife Melanie Griffith’s brother-in-law is an oenologist and egged him on. He is said to have bought the property sight unseen but that is disputed. Anyway, the important thing is this is not a sponsorship or ‘name’ exercise, Antonio has actually put his money where his mouth is and is even considering buying a house in the area so he can spend time there.
While the fanfares about Banderas buying into a wine company ricocheted around the celeb world, the story behind the bodega itself has received little coverage. Started by Burgos businessman Teodoro Ortega ten years ago, with an initial investment of 30 million euros, and now run by architect son Francisco, the original 70 hectares has grown to 235 hectares.
The vines that were planted initially were original clones of tempranillo originating from the Duero but brought from California and grafted. Neighbouring producers thought they were mad to carry out as many as five ‘harvests’ each season that produced no useful grapes in order to perfect the vines, but five years ago they did start making wine and almost immediately were awarded prizes at international tastings that led to success in export markets. In one decade the bodega, originally named Anta Bodegas (and now Anta Banderas) reached a level of quality that centuries-old wineries had yet to attain.
Antonio Banderas and Ortega were introduced by mutual friends and negotiations soon started. The complete Banderas team, led by Antonio’s brother, descended on the winery and did its due diligence. Once the deal was signed five of the existing brands were adapted to the new AB label; (Ortega totally discounts any suggestion that the labels will bear the actor’s image). He would like to produce a million bottles yearly, but this is a target that may be hard to achieve; this year they lost 30 hectares of grapes in a hailstorm.
The AB range is made up of four reds and a rosado, which rather surprisingly has won a Bacchus prize; at €6.25 retail you may want to try it but there are many better rosados on the market. The reds however are interesting. The flagship is the A de Anta, price and production still not published, followed by the Anta 16, (such imaginative names, reminiscent of Habla 1, 2, 3 etc, yawn…….), which is low production, 16,000 bottles, 18 months in wood, mainly tempranillo with a bit of merlot and 17% cabernet sauvignon. A nice drink but pricey at €22, particularly when the Anta 10, at €13, with a similar blend but more merlot and less CS, is far better value.
Frankly, the Anta 4, 100% tempranillo selling at €6 is as good a straight Ribera del Duero as you will get, and at a price that cannot include any premium for the Banderas factor: a good all-round wine.
Plans are underway to make two whites, and there is a premium olive oil also on sale.
Bodegas Vera in Malaga has the distribution of the Antonio Banderas range, and in Marbella La Vinacoteca La Cartuja stocks the full selection.
