Some celebrities enter the wine industry simply because they can. Others like the challenge of a new enterprise. Some, such as the British singer Cliff Richard, have been lifelong wine enthusiasts and enter the wine industry in order to do something that they enjoy. Some celebrities, such as the Italian-American director Francis Ford Coppola, come from a family with a long history of winemaking. Starting a winery or vineyard, as with nearly any business, can offer some tax benefits. There are many reasons that celebrities gravitate to the world of wine. Usually celebrities have a large amount of wealth accumulated, which makes the significant investment of opening a winery or vineyard negligible. In ancient Greek and Roman times, the leading philosophers, playwrights, politicians and generals of the day often owned vineyards for personal use. The trend of celebrities owning wineries and vineyards is not a recent phenomenon, though it has certainly garnered more attention in today's Information Age. New Zealand actor Sam Neill owns a winery in the Central Otago region of New Zealand. Our advice? Listen to Robert Parker and Jeb Dunnuck, and share in the spoils of Stack House.Cliff Richard promotes his wine in Denmark, 2015. We did the hard work: We staked out the bar at TORC so you don’t have to. The result is a luxurious and brooding Napa classic Cabernet that shows blackberry and blueberry, cassis, clove, and toasted oak. Stack House receives the kind of elevage that befits wines of two and three times the price: an incredible 23 months in French oak aging, 40% of which is new. Reading between the lines, it’s safe to assume that the fruit that Jones delivers into Anna’s hands is top-notch.Īnd that’s exactly how Monticelli treats it. is just as impressive: He credits her with representing “many of the best producers” in California: names like Ad Vivum, Blankiet, Fait-Main, Hourglass, Kongsgaard, Scarecrow, Maybach, O’Shaughnessy, and Ovid. Finally, she joined cult Cabernet producer Bryant Family, where she worked alongside the 100-point legend Philippe Melka (Dana Estates, Lail), an experience that permanently gilded her Napa Cabernet card.Īs Robert Parker has noted, Jones’s C.V. From that point on, Anna sought out the best training, which took her to Château Cheval Blanc, then to work as assistant winemaker at Seavey Vineyard. She went to UC Davis seeking to follow in her physician father’s footsteps, but changed paths when an Intro to Winemaking course wooed her to the wine world. Luckily for our members, we scored a few cases.Īnna Monticelli’s path did not always lead to Napa. Because Napa has a million excellent Cabernets, but a precious few come in under $50-let alone $30. In a region that is long on cachet but tends to be tough on the wallet, it’s wise to pay attention when two of the most influential critics in the world use the V-word. The biggest surprise of the night came when Anna and Kimberly, whose portfolios include some triple-digit-priced icons, told us that this opulent blackberry-and-chocolate Cabernet was just $35 per bottle. In Stack House, Monticelli and Jones have combined forces to create what Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate calls “a classic taste of Napa Valley,” and “a great value." Parker’s longtime critic Jeb Dunnuck agrees, praising Stack House’s “layered, elegant style," and dubbing it-here’s that word again-a “killer value.” That was after Anna’s stint in Château Cheval Blanc’s legendary cellars, and as assistant winemaker at Seavey. She spent five years assisting Philippe Melka at Bryant Family where they turned out several perfection-chasing 97+- and 98-point wines. Monticelli is a winemaker of spotless credentials. Needless to say, we took them up on a taste. The surprise came when they told us that the bottle of red accompanying their dry-aged NY strip, the 2015 Stack House Cabernet Sauvignon, wasn’t just theirs-it was theirs. The Napa wine world is tiny, so we weren’t too surprised to run into two excellent vintners, Anna Monticelli and Kimberly Jones, sitting together at the bar at TORC in downtown Napa.
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