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NBA star and Canton native CJ McCollum has been crushing it on the court and in the vineyard. The Atlanta Hawks star and his wife Elise recently hosted a launch party at their 318-acre vineyard in Carlton, Oregon, to welcome friends, fans and family to taste the first release of their estate-grown McCollum Family Vineyard wines.
Currently, McCollum Family Vineyard produces four wines; a rosé of pinot noir, chardonnay, pinot noir and a Blanc De Blancs sparkling wine. Adelsheim winemaker Gina Hennen currently makes about 2,500 cases at a local custom crush facility called the Carlton Winemaking Studio. The champagne-method sparkling wine is currently produced at Argyle Vineyards for the McCollum Family.
Sean Cunningham: Domantas Sabonis and his wife Shashana are launching their new wine brand created in the Napa Valley. It’s called “Ones” & the first bottle is a 2022 (the year Domas was traded to the Kings) Cabernet Sauvignon. OnesBySabonis.com for more info.
What piqued your interest in wine? Donovan Mitchell: I was always curious. Obviously, my teammates in Utah. You had Ricky Rubio, Joe [Ingles], Rudy [Gobert], those three, just hearing them talk about it. And obviously, my relationship with [former Utah Jazz assistant coach] Johnnie Bryant, he talked about wine nonstop. So, hearing it at a younger age in the league, you don’t really think too much of it. You hear about it. You have some concept of what it is and what it does. But at that point it’s not really in my palate. And then as I got older, I started to grow a liking for it, kind of starting to drink some red wine, some pinots, some cabs … understanding when to drink a white, when to drink a red. And I’m at a point now where I’ve always wanted to go to Napa.
Mitchell participated in a one-day apprenticeship with The Prisoner Wine Company in St. Helena, California, on Aug. 26. The five-time NBA All-Star learned about the process of making and blending wine, pairing it with food and branding in the company’s barrel room. With the aid of the company’s winemaking team of Chrissy Wittmann and Todd Ricard, Mitchell made a barrel of The Spida Blend, which is 60% Syrah, 30% zinfandel and 10% cabernet sauvignon, all from the 2023 vintage with Mitchell’s Spida logo on The Prisoner label. “I can’t wait to get a few bottles,” Mitchell told Andscape in a phone interview on Thursday morning. “And for me, just seeing how the process made it, I didn’t even understand how in-depth all this stuff was. I didn’t understand that you make these bottles two years out. I didn’t know it was even that long. I’m thinking you make these two, three, four months in advance and you put them out there. So just understanding that there is time put in, effort.
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Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell is accustomed to spending time in the lab, fine-tuning his explosive game. But this offseason, the five-time NBA All-Star was introduced to a new kind of lab at The Prisoner Wine Company in Napa Valley. Mitchell spent a day immersed in a wine education experience as part of what the winery calls an "NBA star wine apprenticeship," learning about branding, blending and pairing wine with food.
For Mitchell, the hands-on experience was a big step in broadening his wine knowledge, which he admits was minimal coming in. "I started with Moscato—not one of my better decisions," he jested. "But, for me, it's ok that I don't know." Mitchell noted that it was only a few years ago that he started discovering wine. "This is my first time in Napa Valley. Two years ago, I knew what I liked but couldn't put words to it. Now younger guys are asking me [about wine]. I knew I needed to learn what's behind the wine."
To honor the day's experience, Mitchell and The Prisoner will donate $25,000 jointly to the Alliance for Higher Education in Prison, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding access to quality higher education for incarcerated people.
Burgundy’s finest winemakers play centre stage in a long YouTube video posted on the popular channel of the Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler. The video posted on the channel, which currently has more than three-quarter of a million subscribers, sees Butler visiting Burgundy and trying some of the best wines on offer from the region.
Marc J. Spears: Apparently, USA Basketball wasn’t enamored with the wines at their hotel in Paris. So @usabasketball sponsor @KJWines sent a major drop of some of its most elite wines in Verite, Cardinale and Lassegue from Bordeaux.
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Carmelo Anthony’s name is the headline underneath the VII(N) The Seventh Estate wine brand that features the label of Ode to Soul, the marque’s first release. However, it is a joint partnership among him, his former assistant Asani Swann, and Constellation Brands’ Robert Mondavi Winery.
"I don't think there's such a thing as a perfect wine. I think it's whatever wine that matches well with your palate," James said, later adding, "I love to drink it. It's a beautiful thing." San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich -- the league's most notable wine connoisseur -- recently quipped about his own wine collection in responding to a question about being excited to coach 20-year-old Spurs rookie Victor Wembanyama for several more years. "I only get excited when I have an older French Bordeaux that I was worried it might be over the hill and I find out it was really perfect -- then I get excited," Popovich said, later adding. "All of my best wines are older than Victor. That's a true statement."
Wade hopes that more African Americans can find success in the wine world. “We all drink, we all enjoy a nice glass of something at the festival,” Wade said. “And I’ve gotten a chance to experience wine and experience where wine has taken me in the rooms that I’ve been in. And I’m like, ‘Man, we need to get in these rooms. We need to understand what this industry is.’ Not only are there a lot of jobs created and opportunities within this space, but it’s also a beautiful space to be in when it comes to connecting.”
Frye had become an oenophile during the last decade. He had developed a taste for it, sure, but it also had become an emotional language. It connected him to friends and served as a souvenir of different experiences. It helped to bring the 7-footer closer to his Cleveland Cavaliers teammates — a bond forged by both rough times and a 2016 championship, all shared over many glasses of wine. In 2020, he launched Chosen Family Wines and then partnered with Kevin Love, his former teammate and a close friend, along with two others. The pandemic brought time and opportunity, and the group decided to go through with a plan that had been fermenting for a while. In the first year, Chosen Family sold 850 cases; this year, it projects to move 5,600.