It seems as if everyone’s in the winemaking biz these days. And you have to wonder what has turned Scottish monks and American Pro Football players–both–into oenophiles.
In a recent article in The New York Times, Sarah Lyall writes about Buckfast Tonic wine, made by Benedictine monks, and “a symbol of Scotland’s drinking problem.”
Super charged with 15 percent alcohol by volume and a sweetened recipe loaded with caffeine, it’s no surprise that the younger population is drinking heavily (according to Lyall’s piece, on average, Scots age 16 and older drank the equivalent of 12.5 quarts of pure alcohol each in 2007, the eighth highest rate in the world). When faced with a potential ban of their beloved monk-made wine, the youths shouted in protest: “Don’t ban Buckie! Don’t ban Buckie!”
In the U.S., wine makers are not shedding shoulder pads and helmets for long black robes, but they are entering similar entrepreneurial territory. Joe Montana (aka “Joe Cool”), a winner of four Super Bowls as the quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers–so conveniently located to those nearby Napa vineyards–has joined forces with one of Napa’s classic vintners to make a wine from a Howell Mountain vineyard owned by Montana himself.
To learn about more ventures by pro football players-turned-winemakers, Drew Bledsoe and Charles Woodson, check out the Daily Sip by Bottlenotes.
