Fleetwood Pushes Chardonnay

Filed in archive Celebrities and Wine on February 15, 2007

One of my all time favorite bands way back when was fleetwood mac. I used to think they were so cool, especially Stevie Nicks of course. While they all still dabble in the music business I'm sure, looks like at least one member of the band is now dabbling in the wine business.

From Mick Fleetwood to appear in Carlsbad, Poway, Carmel Mountain to promote wine label:

As a founding member of Fleetwood Mac, Mick Fleetwood made a career of blending the right elements in music to fit the taste of a mass audience. With his latest venture, he is using the same insight with a wine label that already has captured several prestigious awards, sometimes to the chagrin of "real" wine-makers who discouraged him.

"I just stay true to what I like," Fleetwood said in a phone interview from his home in Maui.

Mick Fleetwood Private Cellar wine has been available in San Diego County since arriving at Costco stores last Friday. It also can be bought online at www.MickFleetwoodPrivateCellar.com.

Fleetwood himself will appear at six county Costcos this weekend, beginning with a stop from 3 to 6 p.m. Friday at the Palomar Airport Road store in Carlsbad. He will appear at the Carmel Mountain and Poway stores Saturday.

[...] The video and the talks answer the most frequently asked question directed to Fleetwood: Where's your vineyard?

He has none. Rather, Fleetwood blends different growers' wines to create a taste that is more consistent than what is produced at wineries, where weather conditions and other factors affect the quality of the vintage from year to year.

"The vineyard is prisoner to the weather and the market," said Jonathan Todd, Fleetwood's partner in the wine label and president of the music-management firm Sabre Entertainment in Los Angeles.

While a vineyard can only produce a wine that tastes as good as the conditions will allow, Todd said Fleetwood starts off with a taste in mind and then blends wines until he gets what he wants.

"It's pretty straight-forward," Fleetwood said. "I didn't know that hundreds of thousands of people would enjoy my wine."