List of celebrities who own wineries and vineyards

The trend of celebrities owning wineries and vineyards is not a recent phenomenon, though it has certainly garnered more attention in today's Information Age.

In ancient Greek and Roman times, the leading philosophers, playwrights, politicians and generals of the day often owned vineyards for personal use.

[1] Usually celebrities have a large amount of wealth accumulated, which makes the significant investment of opening a winery or vineyard negligible.

[2] While some celebrities, such as the American actors Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp, British association football star David Beckham and his wife Victoria Beckham, own vineyards and wine estates solely for personal use, some celebrities leverage their name recognition as a selling tool in the wine industry.

An example of this is retired American football player Joe Montana, who partnered with longtime Beringer winemaker Ed Sbragia to make their joint venture wine Montagia.

While Sbragia oversees most of the viticultural and winemaking tasks, Montana is involved in deciding on the overall "vision" of the wine and participates in tasting and blending trials.

[8] While Santana helped select the final blend and received royalties for the use of his name and image, he doesn't particularly "own" the brand nor does he continue to be involved in the wine industry.

[citation needed] American musician Bob Dylan participated in a similar arrangement with the Italian winery Fattoria Le Terrazze.

[14] The brand, which is served in premium hotels and restaurants,[15] has continually sold out across Japan[13] and is referred to as a "phantom wine" due to its scarcity.