Sven-Göran Eriksson takes sip of heady wine industry in Sicily
LONDON – He’s got the 12-bedroom mansion, the swimming pool, the private gym, the younger woman who was once an exotic dancer. What more could Sven-Göran Eriksson possibly want? Why, his own wine label, of course.
It seems that, sooner or later, every celeb with a few million to spare is seduced by the idea of looking across the manicured rows of their very own vines, sipping a glass of wine made from their very own grapes.
Francis Ford Coppola spent the proceeds from The
Godfather on his first chunk of vineyards in Napa – back in the early ’70s, and immediately had to put the whole lot up as security for a loan to make his next movie, Apocalypse Now.
“Now people say the film is a great success, but it was almost a big flop and I was heartbroken at the idea that I might lose this beautiful place,” he told me once, when we met to taste his wine. “Financially, it was tough.”
Coppola is not the only movie name in the game, however. Gérard Depardieu has an estate in the Loire, and jointly owns vineyards in Argentina, Bordeaux and Italy. Antonio Banderas co-owns a winery in Ribera del Duero. Sam Neill is proprietor of Two Paddocks in Central Otago, New Zealand, which makes good pinot noir.
And Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt took control of a whole vineyard when they bought Miraval, a chateau and estate near the village of Correns in Provence, two years ago.
I could go on. But beyond the obvious, what is the appeal to celebrities? Well, partly, it’s simply that they can. “How do you make a small fortune in the wine trade?” the old joke goes. “Start with a large one.”
Not only can stars afford to invest a few million in a vineyard and a winery, their kudos means they can also charge a couple of quid more for every bottle – which goes some way towards helping to pay the bills.
One crooner who makes quite serious wine is Simply Red’s Mick Hucknall. He has a vineyard on the slopes of Mount Etna, currently one of the most fashionable places in Europe in which to grow grapes. His three wines, two red – a nero d’avola and a blend of nerello mascalese and nerello cappuccino – and a white blend of indigenous white grapes, are bottled under the label Il Cantante. No prizes for guessing what that means in Italian.
It’s in Sicily, too, that Sven’s wines are made – though in his case, the venture is more of a business proposition than a “Buy the vineyard!” dream.
The Sven white and red are made by a company called Casa Girelli, using grapes mostly from their Santa Tresa estate (for the red), and grillo grown in Marsala and fiano from Trapani (for the white).
They’re sold in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland. If they do well, perhaps it will help recoup some of the £10 -million (R180-million) he allegedly lost through the actions of his former financial adviser. And if not, well, I bet that house has space for a few nice big wine fridges – so at least he can enjoy drinking it himself. – The Telegraph