Carmelo Anthony, One Of The NBA’s Biggest Oenophiles, Releases His Debut Label, The Seventh Estate

Photo Credit: Andreas Branch

CARMELO ANTHONY IS TOASTING THE RELEASE OF HIS VERY FIRST WINE LABEL. THIS IS THE STORY OF HIS JOURNEY.

BY LAURA SCHREFFLER
PHOTOGRAPHY ANDREAS BRANCH
STYLING KHALILAH BEAVERS
GROOMING JUANITA LOPEZ
SHOT ON LOCATION AT THE ASTER, LOS ANGELES

Photo Credit: Andreas Branch

For years, Carmelo Anthony was a relative anomaly in the NBA. He was that guy who, after a game, would choose to grab a glass of Bordeaux at the bar, and whose teammates all thought he was a little weird and very bougie for it. But these days, it’s a whole new ball game, and Melo, with his refined palette and taste for vintage Petrus, is a king among players in the NBA’s wine revolution.

He, along with veterans like Chris Paul, LeBron James, Kevin Love, and Jimmy Butler have been instrumental in creating a whole new generation of imbibers, with younger players like Bam Adebayo, Devin Booker, and Josh Hart all having recently become nouveau connoisseurs. For his part, Melo is more than happy to have played a role in their education. “Wine is truly a part of the NBA culture. If you ask 30 different people, they will probably have 30 different taste profiles, but it goes to show that they do know what they want, right? They’re drinking it, so that’s a good thing. Getting a glass of wine is the thing to do now after a game. I love that, because it’s 360 degrees from where it was before,” the now-38-year-old LA Lakers power forward shares over Zoom from New York in early May. “For years I’d be drinking wine, and the guys would be like, ‘What are you drinking that for? Have a shot!’ I’d be like, ‘I’ll take that later, but right now, I’m drinking wine.’ They’d all be like, ‘Man, you bougie.’ Now it’s all, ‘Hey, Melo, here’s the wine list: Pick for us’ — every single time. It’s truly the evolution of wine, sports, and culture; it all intertwines.”

But like really Melo, are you bougie? Even a little bit? He looks a little embarrassed, because he knows that there are certain perceived pretentions that accompany an oenophile’s ritual of swirling and sipping. “No, I’m not that,” he protests. “But I can do that. It depends on what the environment is, if that’s what that environment calls for. Yes, I do feel like I’ve educated myself enough to be able to sit down and look confident, comfortable, and sophisticated while swirling my glass. For me, it’s all about the experience: [the best part about drinking wine] is actually drinking the wine and loving who you’re drinking it with. But also, being able to educate those guys — whoever is asking me for a recommendation — feels good.”

While he may not love the ostentatious elements of wine consumption (though, ahem, he does travel with his own six-bottle wine suitcase), he is damn proud of his palette — as well he should be. Melo’s come a long way from ordering whatever was open behind the bar while playing for the Denver Nuggets back in the mid-aughts. Now his tastes are worthy of his 10-time NBA All-Star, three-time Olympic gold medal status: He can pick out at least three notes in any glass, pair any bottle with any dish, and make suggestions at every price point.

Melo is about to have one major recommendation to make this month, one that’s very close to home: his own. At long last, the league’s leading nose has created a wine worthy of his A-list palette in VIIN — The Seventh Estate.

He first teased the news of his imminent global estate brand in 2020 during an episode of his YouTube series “What’s in Your Glass?” — a labor of love undertaken to pass the time, drink some wine, and engage in thought-provoking conversations with special guests such as Jamie Foxx, Snoop Dogg, and Tiffany Haddish, during the early days of the pandemic. But now that long-awaited dream is a concrete reality, and he can’t wait to show the world how hard he’s worked to make it come true. But let’s be really clear here: This, as he says, was an evolution. He didn’t start off automatically knowing why a Dominus was spectacular, how hard it could be to get his hands on Screaming Eagle, or any of the agricultural techniques that went into producing a subpar bottling, never mind a stellar one.

“Ten-plus years ago, I didn’t even know what to order, to be honest with you,” he confides. “I was just trying different wines. I would go, ‘Let me get into whatever is already open.’ If it were open, I’d sit at the bar and drink it. That’s how I started realizing what I liked and started building a taste profile without knowing anything about wine.”

Fast-forward to the 2011 to 2017 window in time, where during a six-year stint with the New York Knicks, one particular 1986 vintage changed his life forever. “I remember saying that I would never, ever drink anything less than this ever again. You can’t go backward from drinking Petrus. It’s impossible to do that,” he notes, to which I (accurately) say that he was clearly setting himself up for a lifetime of disappointment.

He laughs, and admits, “I obviously know I couldn’t drink Petrus as my go-to wine every day, but I was chasing that taste profile, and it’s impossible to find it anywhere else. You just can’t. But I had to come down to earth and start figuring out what I could drink on a daily basis. I do have a very high taste profile, I must say.”

Which is when his inherent craftiness and strategic mindset kicked in. How could he learn more about this new grand passion, and still indulge that refined palette he had begun to cultivate? In the end, the answer was simple: He would create an exclusive, invite-only gathering of affluent wine lovers where he could sample, sip, and swirl to his heart’s content.

“When I got to New York, my palette expanded. I started meeting people, getting into wine circles and [eventually] I started this thing I like to call ‘two-bottle Sundays’ where everybody brings their best two bottles every Sunday. You would get rated on the bottles you brought — and everyone wanted to bring their best.”

Although he declares that it was “a friendly competition,” he’s proud to have taken home top honors more than once, especially as “a rookie among power players.” But more often than not, he just sat back, closed his eyes, sipped, and sighed in pleasure, willingly handing over the crown to some of the more established members of the crowd. And as his love of wine grew, Melo began to realize that it was more than a passing passion — it was a purpose. He could create something lasting of his own, a legacy, if you will, and one that could also have a real sense of social responsibility. So despite the advice of many to avoid getting into the wine game, he dared to be different and went about figuring out how to launch a label.

“Most people told me not to get in the business, that I’d be wasting my money,” he confides. “But I was like, ‘I’m already wasting my money — I’m drinking the wine!’” That said, he took constructive advice to heart, silencing the naysayers and going about his business decisively and deliberately.

Photo Credit: Andreas Branch  

He absorbed the bad and the ugly, but the good advice resonated much more. “The further along I got, the better the advice I received. A lot of it was ‘Take your time, don’t rush into the business;’ ‘Make sure that it’s done right; make sure it’s done the way that you want;’ ‘Don’t jump into it — educate yourself first;’ and ‘Yes, follow this tradition, but you don’t have to follow every tradition; you can break the mold. Where so many people have been afraid to do things differently, you can be that change.’ So I really had to educate myself because I really wanted to prove everybody wrong, those people who said I would be better off not getting involved in the wine industry.”

It was important to Melo that he went about things in the right way — he didn’t want to simply slap his name on a bottle and call it a labor of love — it’s clear that he’s put a lot of thought, time, and attention into his brand. This included the decision to make his premiere release a Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

A few years back he and his team visited the appellation, located in the southern part of France’s Rhône Valley, spending time with and learning from the Usseglio family, producers of some of the best wines in the region. “We had a great time in France, chatting with the Usseglios and making a plan. We tasted wines. We walked the land. I got a chance to see Châteauneuf-du-Pape myself, and just walk around — see it and feel it, get some ideas of what I wanted to add, and what this wine should be. I had a great time building the taste profile of not just this release, but also ones for further down the line,” he remembers.

But before we get ahead of ourselves here, first things first: his debut effort. Melo’s first offering, the 2017 Oath of Fidelity Châteauneuf-du-Pape, is a blend of 13 different grapes that combined the taste of bright fruit with savory earthy characteristics. The result is a wine bursting with red fruit interlaced with sage and peppercorns, classically structured with savory aromas and dry tannic structure, with a background of dried cherries and cranberries and the essence of tobacco, river stones, and dried tea leaves that work best with roasted meats (though Melo proclaims a pairing with his favorite food, pasta, to be “phenomenal”).

Oath of Fidelity — which will begin shipping this fall from ScaleWine.com — is something he’d personally drink, sure (and did, for the first time in a matter of hours), but he’s also aware that the decision to make a Châteauneuf-du-Pape as his first bottling instead of a more traditionally accepted Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, or red blend, was a bold choice. But this, too, was a strategic one.

He explains: “For the most part, I really wanted to touch into Châteauneuf-du-Pape because I felt like it was untapped territory. If you know wine, you know Châteauneuf-du-Pape, and I think that me starting there gave me some extra validity. I could have gone to Burgundy, I could have gone to Bordeaux, Napa, the Willamette Valley — I could have gone to any of those places — but I wanted to educate myself, really go to a place that was untapped.”

For the label, Melo paid homage to the traditional presentations of the region — which are typically packaged in heavy, dark bottles embossed with papal regalia and insignias — while still putting his own, unique spin on it: his Oath of Fidelity has a modern wrap around the label and is sealed with wax instead of a traditional capsule, engraved with the cross keys of St. Peter.

Photo Credit: Andreas Branch

But what’s in a name — or, should I say, what’s in a number? Seven has a special number for Melo, given that he’s worn it throughout his career while playing for the Knicks, the Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets, and Lakers; the only exceptions being the No. 15 he was given after being drafted by the Nuggets in 2003 and the 00 he wore while playing with the Portland Trail Blazers from 2019 to 2021. “We didn’t want to use the Carmelo Anthony Estate, or the singular seven. We did extensive research and came up with the name VIIN, that is another way of saying ‘wine’. And then we have the Roman numerals that equate to seven, which all ties back to the old world meets new world vibe we’re going for. That’s actually the concept of this project, and what I’m trying to accomplish here,” he elucidates.

The old-school component has some historical gravitas courtesy of 18th-century general Toussaint L’ouverture, the most prominent leader of the Haitian Revolution, a man who was critical in establishing Haitian independence. Although Melo himself is not Haitian — he was born in Manhattan to Puerto Rican parents — he identifies strongly with L’ouverture’s story and always knew that he would be the one to tell it. “We were just playing on that, what Toussaint did for his country, for his people, and how he led them. I wanted [this to be named in his honor because] his story has never been told, and I always wanted to tell it in some way, shape, or form. For him to fight for his people and his country was powerful, and in the end, they had to sign an oath of fidelity to him, his people, his country. This is my way of gathering my fan base, the people who are going to enjoy this wine, and having them make an oath to the wine, to the brand, to me — and everything else that we have to come.”

The “new” is where he himself comes in. Melo is ready to bring a fresh perspective to the millennia-old industry. “You have the traditional wine industry, right? The old world, the old guard, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but things are changing, technology is changing, winemakers are changing the way they’re doing things, the storytelling is changing. You see the trend, that the amount of people who are drinking wine now are not just a certain age group. You have young guys, young women, young ages who are going to restaurants and asking for wine over cocktails, over beer. So I feel like I’m connected to that, and I want to bring a new aura, some new energy, to the game — something that merges both the old and the new,” he declares.

Bottom line for his brand? “We want to be fun. We want to be vibrant. We want to make good wine, but we don’t want to stick to the rules. We don’t want to go by the traditional rules. We want to make our own rules in the wine game.”

Does that include becoming a 100-point winemaker? Surprisingly, not really. “Listen, if I could get 100 points, that would be unbelievable. If I could get 95, 96 points, that would be unbelievable. When it comes to the point system, I’m a big 99-pointer. I’m not going to sit here and lie — I’m big on that. But I want you to erase that from your mind and just enjoy the wine. Don’t look at it like, ‘Oh, this is a 92-pointer.’ That’s not what this is about. You’re either going to love it or you’re not, but you’re not going to love it because of the point system. That’s nothing against the point system, but again, this is old world versus new world. We’re trying to change the way people process the art of drinking wine. I want people to know like, ‘OK, we’re becoming a part of Melo’s community. We’re becoming a part of the Oath of Fidelity, part of the Seventh Estate.’ I want my community to understand what my taste profile is when it comes to Châteauneuf-du-Pape, and as we graduate to another region, be able to follow me on this journey. As I build this community, that means I get to follow you, as well.”

Photo Credit: VIIN

Points aside, the real goal, he says, is to break barriers for people of color in the wine community, the way his best friend Dwyane Wade is doing. “For so long, Black winemakers haven’t gotten a fair shake; they haven’t gotten their shot. I’ve tasted some great wines by winemakers of color, and nobody’s really doing anything substantial in that lane. So that was a goal that we talked about constantly from the beginning, about what we want this brand to be and that was the first thing that came to mind. We have to support winemakers of color. We have to support smaller vineyards. We have to support these people who are really out there, hand and feet, picking and going into the fields all day long because they don’t have the resources to build teams and distribution. I’m trying to bring eyeballs and awareness to a lot of these smaller winemakers, and winemakers of color at that, so I’m just creating a platform that maybe can jumpstart a lot of these smaller vineyards and give the winemakers grants. That may be phase two or three of our launch down the line, but it’s definitely something that’s on the drawing board for us.”

Though Melo might, at present, look casual in a black hoodie, with the hood pulled tight over his head, I’m not fooled — he’s canny. After he shares the business plan for his latest venture, I have to admit that his goals — much like his wine — have legs. VIIN is in it to win, here for the long term, and he knows that slow and steady will be the way to win this particular race.

“My goal is not to rush, and to be here for a long time. This is not something that can happen overnight. My goal is to get it right, make as few mistakes as I can, but make mistakes, because that’s how I’ll learn. I know that to start, it’s not going to be perfect. It may work, it may not, but that’s the wine game. My goal is to build a community in the wine space where we can interact with one another. We can talk, we can laugh and joke, we can sell wine, we can drink wine, and taste wine. My goal is to build my house. I’m going to build the Seventh Estate.”

Photo Credit: Andreas Branch

WHEN MELO FINALLY saw the fruits of his labor in bottled form for the first time, I can only imagine that it was a bit like giving birth. Pride, relief, and an overwhelming sense of responsibility. It’s a moment, he says, that will be forever indelibly inked on his brain.

“There were so many things running through my head,” he admits. “First was just like, ‘Damn, I’m just so happy that this part of it is done.’ And then after that, I started having flashbacks: thinking about walking through the vineyards, sitting there at the table putting the wine in test tubes, mixing the grapes. It took me back through all those moments.”

In a way, seeing those bottles, knowing the blood, sweat, and tears it took to get him here brought everything back — the full circuitous journey — that brought him here, to this very moment in time, founding his label while playing for the ultimate Showtime team after roughly two decades in the NBA. This is his moment.

From one season playing college ball in Syracuse straight to the 2003 NBA draft with a third overall pick by the Denver Nuggets (whom he led to the playoffs every year from 2004 to 2010); back to his birthplace of New York from 2011 to 2017; one season in Oklahoma; one season in Houston; two in Portland; and finally, to Los Angeles. In between, he was named an NBA All-Star 10 times, an All-NBA team member six times, won three gold medals and one bronze playing for the U.S. national team in four separate Olympics, and, during the NBA’s 75th anniversary, was named one of the 75 Greatest Players in NBA History. He also founded the investment company Melo7 Tech Partners, the multi-platform content company Creative 7, and found the time to write the New York Times best-selling memoir, Where Tomorrows Aren’t Promised.

What a strange, wonderful trip it’s been — both his road to VIIN, and the path that led him to the Lakers. “You start off one way, and you don’t know where it’s going to take you until it takes you there, right? And then when it takes you there it’s like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe that I ended up here.’ It’s the same concept with me personally. I’ve been playing for 19 years, and suddenly, I look up and it’s like, ‘I can’t believe I’m here, in LA, playing with the Lakers. It definitely puts things in perspective.”

In the same vein, as a roughly 20-year league vet, he’s had to think about what it is he wants to leave behind, what he wants the legacy of Carmelo Anthony to be. Part of that is his time with the Lakers, the Knicks, his many years in Denver. When he’s done playing ball — and that day will come in the imminent future — he wants to be remembered for his elegance, sophistication, his timelessness… and his wine.

“This is definitely a legacy project,” he says. “This is something I’m building. I want to get it right for myself first, and then I want to invite people over to it slowly [to] be part of my evolution and enjoy the evolution of my wine. Because wine, like all of us, is constantly changing. There are things that you can’t control when it comes to winemaking — the weather, fire, bugs, bacteria — and that’s the same thing in life. You can’t control everything, so control what you can control and be easy about the rest.”

At the end of the day, all he really wants for himself — and for others — is joy. “When I’m drinking Oath of Fidelity, it makes me feel good — and that’s something I want for everyone,” he maintains. “Because the greatest luxury in life is having the ability to enlighten people, bring awareness to people, uplift people, give people confidence; allowing people to be themselves and become confident and comfortable with being themselves. That’s it for me. If I can help you in any way, if I can inspire you to get up off the couch and get off the bed, then I’ve done my part.

These are the things that are important to me — being able to inspire people in a real, true, and meaningful way.”

Also, I remind him, to inspire them to drink wine.

“Yes,” he agrees, with a big, quintessentially Carmelo Anthony smile. “And to inspire them to drink great wine.”  

Photo Credit: Andreas Branch