NFL legend Charles Woodson fell in love with wine three decades ago, but it’s only in recent years that wine has become a cornerstone of his career. He partnered with O’Neill Vintners & Distillers for the 2019 launch of Charles Woodson’s Intercept Wines, a super-premium line from Paso Robles that last year crossed the 1 million bottle mark, according to the company. Blaire Fraser, vice president of marketing at O’Neill Vintners & Distillers, says Woodson “wanted a new way to connect with his fans,” and given his passion for the product, a partnership made sense. It wasn’t Woodson’s first foray into wine— in 2005 he launched Charles Woodson Wines, a Napa label with a hefty price tag—but the Intercept brand, at $20-$30 a 750-ml., was more in tune with the demands of his fan base.
For its part, O’Neill Vintners & Distillers, which co-owns and produces Intercept, wasn’t seeking a celebrity brand. “When you get someone like Charles, you realize there’s a true partner, and that matters,” Fraser says. Woodson is one of several celebrities who have lent their names, their marketing prowess, and sometimes their expertise to wine brands. Some, like legendary movie director Francis Ford Coppola, go all-in with a winery and wine line rivaling some of the biggest names in the industry. Others take a more austere approach with partnerships that involve the use of the famous name and some marketing and promotional material to catch the attention of fans, but not much else.
No matter how the partnership is structured, quality is crucial to carrying a brand long term. If there isn’t a quality liquid in the bottle, then people will buy it once and never try it again,” says Jesse Bongiovi, who with his father, singer Jon Bon Jovi, founded Hampton Water wine in 2018. “We’ve taken many steps to ensure that every bottle of Hampton Water is delicious and that it is much more than just another celebrity vanity project.”
Retailer Josh Hammond, president of Buster’s Liquors & Wines in Memphis, Tennessee, notes that “consumers will always care more about quality versus vanity.” Still, he says “if they can have both, then [the wine] can be very successful.” But Jack Backman, owner of Cheers Liquor Mart in Colorado Springs, Colorado, says the celebrity factor only goes so far. “It’s mostly confined to the younger portion of our consumers, and it’s only true fans who have interest,” he says.
The list of celebrity-backed wines is long and growing, with star appeal that touches virtually every segment of the population. Among musicians, rapper and record producer Jay-Z purchased Armand de Brignac Champagne, nicknamed ‘Ace of Spades’, and subsequently sold a 50% share to LVMH. Sting purchased Il Palagio Winery in Tuscany more than 25 years ago, and Zac Brown of the Zac Brown Band partners with Delicato Family Vineyards for the Z. Alexander Brown wine brand, among many others. Actors are also in the mix, ranging from Château Miraval, owned by Brad Pitt and ex-wife Angelina Jolie; to organic wine brand Avaline that was co-founded by Cameron Diaz; to California’s Gogi Wines, co-founded by Kurt Russell. Sports heroes, designers, and other well-known individuals can also be added to the list. The level of involvement varies, but all start with a passion for—or at least interest in—wine.
A Second Act
After nearly four decades as a rocker, Jon Bon Jovi stopped performing due to vocal cord issues. While surgery may have helped—a new Bon Jovi album, called Forever, was released in June in celebration of the 40th anniversary of his band’s first album—the singer is also pursuing another interest: wine. Hampton Water is a passion project for Bon Jovi, his son Bongiovi and third partner Ali Thomas. The team tapped French winemaker Gérard Bertrand and set to making the now-popular rosé brand, which ranges from $20 a 750-ml.
“We have been incredibly hands-on with everything,” says Bongiovi. “Not only with the design of the label and the bottle, but my dad and I spend a lot of time with Gérard making the blend and have done so almost every year since. It has been incredible working with him and getting to learn what makes Hampton Water so special.” He adds: “For us, Hampton Water has always been a family business and we show up to put in the work.”
Emmy Award winning sportscaster Jim Nantz is building his second career in vineyards in California. He met Peter Deutsch of Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits in a restaurant in 2009 and the two eventually partnered to create The Calling line of wines ($30-$82 a 750-ml.). Nantz says he and Deutsch aspire to craft the next great American premium wine. “The Calling is not a vanity project to gain publicity, which is why you don’t see our names on the front of the bottle,” Nantz says. “We’re passionate about wine and are proud of the partnership with our winemaker, James MacPhail, and family-owned growers.”
Musician and entertainer John Legend is also on his second act. According to Lisa Brown, senior brand manager of Legend’s LVE wine collection with Boisset, Legend’s interest in wine was piqued when he was a consultant who regularly entertained clients, and it grew as he and his wife traveled globally and tasted wines along the way. Legend decided to pursue the wine business and eventually connected with Jean-Charles Boisset. “Jean-Charles always says that he was approached by plenty of other celebrities, but he’d never felt that it was right to start a venture together,” Brown says. “But with John [Legend], they hit it off.”
In 2015, Legend and Boisset launched LVE wine, starting with a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Chardonnay (the portfolio ranges from $25-$95 a 750-ml.). Brown says Legend isn’t directly involved in production for LVE but he certainly is engaged on the taste profile and direction of the wine. “He works with Jean-Charles and vice president of winemaking Stephanie Putnam—they’ll come together and blend the style of the wine,” says Brown. “From vintage to vintage, Stephanie is in charge of making sure that the style stays true to John’s taste. And he’s very involved, certainly, on the business side.”
The wine business involvement of rapper, media personality, and actor Snoop Dogg and businesswoman and television personality Martha Stewart came about in a different way. Along with being high-profile celebrities, both are felons, which fit the profile for the revitalization of 19 Crimes wine. John Wardley, vice president of marketing for Treasury Wine Estates, which owns the 19 Crimes brand, said the company sought out Snoop Dogg and Stewart. “The 19 Crimes brand had experienced really strong growth…but the brand was starting to plateau” around 2019, Wardley says. The Treasury team sought ideas on how to reinvigorate the brand, which famously profiles British convicts from the 1700s—guilty of one of 19 crimes—who were sentenced to live in Australia.
“Those profiled were more than just convicts, they were writers, they were poets, they were culture creators, and they went on to start a new society,” Wardley says. When the brand wanted to update its image via a contemporary lens, the team reached out to Snoop Dogg.” Many months of negotiations later, Snoop Dogg Cali Red was launched in summer of 2020, amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, and ended up selling 700,000 cases in its first year—the most successful launch ever for Treasury, he notes.
Snoop Dogg has “a point of view” on the flavor and style of the wine for Snoop Dogg Cali Red and the subsequent Cali Rosé, Cali Blanc, and Cali Gold, but largely leaves production up to the Treasury team, Wardley says. Snoop introduced the Treasury team to his good friend Stewart who, unlike Snoop, had significant experience with wine. They carved out a deal for a 19 Crimes Martha’s Chard, a Chardonnay that Wardley says appeals to Stewart’s slightly older fan base. Stewart, however, wasn’t as malleable as Snoop when it came to what was in the bottle.
“It couldn’t have been a more different approach,” Wardley says. “Snoop was very easygoing, and he absolutely deferred to our expertise in this area. Martha was all over the blend, and I mean all over it. She had our chief winemaker at the time on speed dial and she was calling him constantly.” The involvement paid off, with high scores for the modestly priced brand ($12 a 750-ml.). “That ended up being our No.-1 innovation for 2022.”
Beyond Image
Having big name celebrities on the label—by name, image, or both—can be beneficial to brands, but the sales, social media, marketing, events and other efforts go an even longer way toward helping a brand resonate with an audience. “Charles is magnetic,” says Fraser, noting the football player’s ongoing commitment to his namesake Charles Woodson’s Intercept Wines. “When we started, we benefited to a certain extent from the interest in both celebrity-backed brands and Black-owned brands. Charles is a wonderful salesman and he can get us in the door.”
Legend “does everything from store appearances to staff trainings,” Brown says. “He’s met with distributors, he’s met with buyers, and he takes LVE on tour with him.” In fact, Legend incorporates LVE into his tours with an LVE VIP experience before the show. “People can taste the LVE wines and he does a Q & A where he talks about making wines, his inspiration, and how he enjoys the wines himself,” she adds.
Marketers stress that while celebrity partnerships may open doors to both distributors and consumers, quality will ultimately win out. “You have to deliver on the wine,” says Fraser. “If you don’t have a good product, people aren’t going to give it a second chance.” And Wardley notes that broadly within the wine industry, some celebrity partnerships have worked incredibly well while others have started strong but faded quickly, or never managed to gain traction at all.
“The celebrity partnership is really about amplification,” Wardley says. “It’s about how you take a brand, attach a celebrity to it, and then through their social platforms and through their fan base really amplify the story of the brand. You’ve got to be very mindful how you do it. It’s not just slapping faces on labels—you’ve got to have a strategy behind it.”