Luxury, Uncompromised — Since 2004 Subscribe
The Best Celebrity Wine Brands Actually Worth Drinking

The Best Celebrity Wine Brands Actually Worth Drinking

From Francis Ford Coppola's Napa icon to Carmelo Anthony's global estate, these are the celebrity wines worth drinking.

Charles Woodson with Intercept Wine

Celebrity wine used to be a fairly predictable proposition: famous face, photogenic bottle, Provence-adjacent rosé, repeat. That era is largely over, or at least it doesn’t have to define this list. Some celebrities have gone considerably deeper, buying historic estates, planting vineyards, studying viticulture, and collaborating with serious winemakers. Haute Living first started tracking celebrity vineyard ownership over a decade ago; this list catches up on who has actually kept at it, and produced something worth drinking once the famous name comes off the label.

Charles Woodson
Charles Woodson with Intercept Wine

Photo Credit: Andreas Branch

Charles Woodson — Intercept

Hall of Famer Charles Woodson has been in the wine game much longer than many realize. After first creating the high-end TwentyFour label, he launched Intercept, making his wines far more accessible without abandoning his serious approach to the juice. Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and red blends make up the portfolio, and the wines have earned legitimate critical praise. Consider this further proof that football and fine wine make surprisingly good teammates.

Regina King — MianU

One of the newest entries on this list is also one of its most personal. MianU, founded by Regina King and inspired by her late son Ian, launched with an extremely limited-production skin-contact wine rather than the expected celebrity rosé. The low-intervention wines are unfined and unfiltered, with King’s initial orange wine, a Gewürztraminer-Chardonnay blend, followed by a limited Mendocino Syrah. It’s thoughtful, unexpected, and refreshingly uninterested in playing by the celebrity-wine rulebook.

Kyle MacLachlan — Pursued by Bear

The name may be playful (Shakespeare fans will get the reference), but Kyle MacLachlan’s Pursued by Bear is anything but a vanity project. The Washington native has spent roughly two decades making wine from his home state’s celebrated Columbia Valley, focusing on Cabernet Sauvignon alongside Syrah, Chardonnay, and rosé. MacLachlan is actively involved in the process, and the wines have repeatedly earned serious scores. Agent Cooper would approve.

Drew Bledsoe — Doubleback

Drew Bledsoe returned to his hometown of Walla Walla after retiring from the NFL and did what any reasonable former quarterback would do: started making excellent Cabernet. Doubleback has since become one of the most convincing arguments against dismissing athlete-owned wine as a gimmick. The Bordeaux-focused portfolio is polished, powerful, and very Washington, and Bledsoe’s involvement in the state’s wine industry now stretches well beyond putting his autograph on a bottle.

Maynard James Keenan — Caduceus Cellars

Calling Caduceus Cellars a celebrity wine almost feels unfair. Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan has spent years championing the unlikely wine country of northern Arizona, growing grapes, making wine, and helping establish the region’s viticultural identity. Caduceus works with varieties particularly suited to Arizona’s climate, and Keenan’s commitment to the craft is well documented. Come for the rock-star curiosity; stay because Arizona wine is much more interesting than you thought.

Inglenook
Inglenook

Francis Ford Coppola — Inglenook

Forget the supermarket bottles bearing Coppola’s name. Inglenook is the Francis Ford Coppola wine story that matters. Coppola began acquiring pieces of the historic Rutherford property in 1975, ultimately restoring both the estate and its original Inglenook name, once part of the same 19th-century property founded by Gustave Niebaum. Today the Napa icon produces serious, cellar-worthy wines, with the Cabernet-based Rubicon as its flagship. This isn’t a celebrity wine so much as one of Napa Valley’s great historic estates that happens to belong to one of Hollywood’s great directors.

Mary J. Blige — Sun Goddess

Mary J. Blige took her love of white wine to Friuli-Venezia Giulia and teamed up with the Fantinel family to create Sun Goddess. The standout is the gorgeous copper-colored Pinot Grigio Ramato, made in the traditional Friulian style, though the Sauvignon Blanc deserves attention too. Elegant, food-friendly, and blessedly devoid of celebrity-brand cheese, Sun Goddess has the range.

Sarah Jessica Parker — Invivo X, SJP

Carrie Bradshaw may have been a Cosmopolitan woman, but Sarah Jessica Parker knows her Sauvignon Blanc. Her collaboration with New Zealand’s Invivo has turned into one of the most critically convincing celebrity wine projects around. Parker participates in the blending process, and the resulting Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc has repeatedly earned strong professional scores. Crisp, zippy, and genuinely delicious, this is one celebrity bottle that needs no explanatory disclaimer.

Kurt Russell — GoGi Wines

Kurt Russell fell hard for the Pinot Noirs of California’s Sta. Rita Hills and eventually started making his own. GoGi Wines, named for a childhood nickname, focuses on small-production Pinot Noir alongside Chardonnay and other bottlings. Russell has been hands-on with the project from the beginning, and the wines have earned the kind of critical scores that make his acting career largely irrelevant once the cork comes out.

P!nk — Two Wolves

Alecia Moore, better known as P!nk, didn’t simply decide she wanted a wine label. She bought property in Santa Ynez Valley, planted vines, studied winemaking and viticulture, and created Two Wolves. The estate works with varieties including Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, Grenache, Syrah, and Graciano, and production remains decidedly boutique. She’s a farmer and winemaker here, not merely a famous shareholder, which is precisely why Two Wolves belongs near the top of this list.

Sting
Sting and Il Palagio

Photo Credit: JAIME TRAVEZAN

Sting & Trudie Styler — Il Palagio

If retirement means a 16th-century Tuscan estate, organically farmed vineyards, and a wine named Sister Moon, congratulations, you’re Sting. He and Trudie Styler purchased the 350-hectare Il Palagio in 1997 and spent a decade restoring both the buildings and the vineyards before releasing their first estate wine in 2007. The portfolio includes Sister Moon, When We Dance Chianti, Message in a Bottle, and Roxanne, because if you’re Sting, you absolutely should name your wines after your songs. The difference is that these aren’t novelty bottles; Il Palagio is the real Tuscan deal.

Dwyane Wade — Wade Cellars

Dwyane Wade caught the wine bug during his NBA career and turned it into Wade Cellars, a California-focused project created with the help of Napa veteran Jayson Pahlmeyer. The Three by Wade Chenin Blanc is particularly worth seeking out: bright, versatile, and a welcome departure from the wall of overpriced Cabernet that can dominate celebrity wine. Wade has also used the brand to make wine culture feel considerably less intimidating, which earns him extra points.

Brad Pitt — Château Miraval

Yes, Miraval is famous, and yes, its ownership has generated enough drama to fuel its own prestige miniseries. The wine itself, though, holds up. Pitt’s Provence estate works with the Perrin family of Château de Beaucastel fame, giving the project formidable winemaking credentials since production began under the property’s original Jolie-Pitt ownership. The signature pale-pink Côtes de Provence rosé remains the obvious buy: crisp, elegant, and proof that sometimes the blockbuster celebrity wine deserves its blockbuster status.

Zac Brown — Z. Alexander Brown

Country star Zac Brown teamed with Napa winemaker John Killebrew to create Z. Alexander Brown, and the resulting wines punch well above what you might expect from their accessible pricing. Cabernet Sauvignon and bold red blends are the wheelhouse, and several releases have received impressive critical scores. Save the chicken-fried jokes; the wine is better than that.

Idris Elba — Porte Noire

Idris Elba went straight for Champagne, which feels entirely appropriate. He co-founded Porte Noire with wine entrepreneur David Farber after developing a relationship with Champagne Sanger, and the portfolio includes serious bubbles such as a Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs alongside the more accessible Petite Porte Champagne. It’s polished, glamorous, and considerably more substantive than simply putting Idris Elba’s face on something fizzy, which probably would have sold just fine anyway.

Carmelo Anthony
Carmelo Anthony with VII(N) The Seventh Estate

Photo Credit: Andreas Branch

Carmelo Anthony — VII(N) The Seventh Estate

Carmelo Anthony didn’t enter the wine world quietly. He and longtime business partner Asani Swann Benjamin founded VII(N) The Seventh Estate as a global wine brand, starting in France rather than taking the obvious Napa route, with 2017’s Châteauneuf-du-Pape Oath of Fidelity as the label’s first release. The current portfolio roams from Bordeaux to Châteauneuf-du-Pape, with bottles ranging from the approachable Sovereign line to the $275 Ode to Soul, a Napa collaboration with Robert Mondavi Winery and former chief winemaker Geneviève Janssens using fruit from the storied To Kalon Vineyard. Anthony has been clear that he’s involved in everything from blending to creative direction, and his ambition is to build an actual wine house, not a side hustle.

Jon Bon Jovi & Jesse Bongiovi — Hampton Water

The name is a wink at how Jesse Bongiovi and his friends referred to rosé during summers in the Hamptons, but Hampton Water has become a very real wine business. Father and son partnered with celebrated French winemaker Gérard Bertrand to produce the Grenache-based Languedoc rosé, and the resulting bottle has considerably more going for it than its extremely marketable origin story. It’s summer in a bottle, but thankfully not just branding in a bottle.

George Lucas — Château Margüi

The Force is apparently also strong in Provence. George Lucas owns Château Margüi, an organic estate in the Var that forms part of his larger Skywalker Vineyards portfolio. Current releases span rosé, white, and red wines, including Château Margüi and Bastide de Margüi bottlings. The property is a legitimate working wine estate rather than Star Wars merchandising in disguise, which is good, because the world does not need a Chewbacca Chardonnay.

John Legend — LVE

John Legend’s LVE, short for Legend Vineyard Exclusive, began as a collaboration with Napa’s Raymond Vineyards and Jean-Charles Boisset, and it remains one of the more polished celebrity collections on the market. Cabernet, Chardonnay, rosé, and sparkling wines have all appeared under the label, giving LVE more range than the usual one-bottle celebrity partnership. Legend wanted something sophisticated and celebratory; the resulting wines are appropriately smooth.

Kevin Love & Channing Frye — Chosen Family Wines

Former Cleveland Cavaliers teammates Kevin Love and Channing Frye took their off-court love of wine considerably further than the usual locker-room bottle share. The idea took shape after the pair’s 2016 championship run, when Frye, grieving the deaths of both parents within a month of each other, found comfort in team dinners built around bringing a favorite bottle to the table, often something from Oregon’s Willamette Valley given his and Love’s shared roots in the state. That ritual became Chosen Family Wines in 2020, a project built around the idea that the best bottles, and people, are the ones you choose to bring to the table. Working with respected Willamette Valley producers including L’Angolo Estate and Lingua Franca, the duo has zeroed in on the region’s strengths, particularly Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, with releases earning scores well into the 90s. Consider this one more reason to stop assuming NBA stars only know their Cabernet.

For more of Haute Living’s celebrity wine coverage, check out our wine-focused cover stories on Francis Ford Copolla and Regina King.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which celebrity wine is considered the most serious?

Francis Ford Coppola's Inglenook is widely regarded as the deepest, most historically significant celebrity-owned estate, given its 19th-century Napa Valley pedigree.

What inspired Regina King's MianU wine?

MianU was created in honor of King's late son, Ian, who first introduced her to orange wine; the label's name reflects their bond.

Which athletes have serious wine labels?

Charles Woodson (Intercept), Drew Bledsoe (Doubleback), Dwyane Wade (Wade Cellars), and Carmelo Anthony (VII(N) The Seventh Estate) are among the athletes with critically recognized wine projects.

Which celebrity wines are best for a wine-skeptical guest?

Sarah Jessica Parker's Invivo X, SJP Sauvignon Blanc and Mary J. Blige's Sun Goddess Pinot Grigio Ramato are both critically credible enough to serve without caveats.

The Haute List

Openings, cover stories and city intelligence — weekly, from the editors.