We did a long piece on all the golfers who are tied in with wine

We did a long piece on all the golfers who are tied in with wine. Let’s give equal time to football stars…well, maybe not equal time since there are far more golfers than football players with ties to wineries. That may be because active players can’t promote wines…preserving the image of the league being the reasoning.
Still, there are some retired players who have the class to go with wine. Joe Montana has a wine called Montagia created in partnership with Napa Valley’s Beringer Vineyards. It is sold almost exclusively at benefit auctions. You can find it on Snooth.com, where it runs around $75.
You get to count coaches so Hall of Fame coach Dick Vermeil, who led the 1999 St. Louis Rams to an amazing Super Bowl victory, is on our list. He’s in Napa Valley where he is producing some astoundingly good Vermeil Wines from varieties like Zinfandel, Cabernet Franc, and even Charbono. Truly rare and exotic, there are fewer than 100 acres of Charbono planted in California. Charbono vines are quite stingy and usually the last variety harvested. They use traditional aging in French oak to produce a dense, purple-black Charbono wine laden with aromas of tar, violets and blueberries. His wines run around $40, with his top of the line 2006 Jean Louis Vermeil Cabernet Sauvignon priced at $85.
Terry Hoage Vineyards in Paso Robles fields award-winning Grenache and Syrah wines that are 100% organically produced. Terry Hoage was a defensive back on the Super Bowl winning 1992 Washington Redskins team. Terry and his wife, Jennifer, became the winemakers for their winery in 2005, and in 2009 Robert Parker in the Wine Advocate said: “This is the kind of wine the Central Coast should be producing more.” You can’t buy their wines online from the winery, but Snooth.com does carry many of them in the $35-$50 range.
Another famous former coach, Mike Ditka, does a Kick Ass Red in Mendocino along with some other good varietals like Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot, and Pinot Grigio. Mike’s wines range from about $15-$20, but the Kick Ass Red is his high-end wine at about $50.
Rick Mirer, who played for a number of teams in the NFL, is now in Napa Valley, where he runs the Mirror wine label. Mirror wines are known for Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc. The Cabernet comes in a three-pack for $225 or a magnum for $165, while the Sauvignon Blanc is an affordable $72 for the three-pack. Wine Advocate has rated the Cabernet in the 90s.
Last but not least is the player in my backyard. Drew Bledsoe, New England Patriots quarterback, located his Doubleback Winery in Washington. He was an award-winning player, and his wines run around the $75-$90. CellarTracker folks rate his wines an average of 91 points.