Jessica Biel launches Prophet & Poet wine range
The actress has released a range of California wines made with some serious big-hitters in the trade. And she intends to pour them personally at this weekend's BottleRock festival in Napa. The post Jessica Biel launches Prophet & Poet wine range appeared first on The Drinks Business.
The actress has released a range of California wines made with some serious big-hitters in the trade. And she intends to pour them personally at this weekend's BottleRock festival in Napa.
A thoughtful wedding gift from a friend ended up birthing new wine label Prophet & Poet, the latest business venture from Hollywood star Jessica Biel.
Winemaker Jesse Katz, a childhood friend of the Biels, had gifted a barrel of wine uniquely blended to suit Biel and husband Justin Timberlake's tastes when they wed in 2012. Seven years later, Katz made the same gesture for the actress' brother Justin Biel and his wife.
Katz, who is both owner and winemaker for Aperture Cellars and Devil Proof wines in California, became the youngest head winemaker in the US when he joined Lancaster Estate in Alexander Valley in 2010. He's been busy acquiring wine estates across the state, including snapping up prime Malbec terroir Farrow Ranch in Sonoma county in 2021.
Having revisited the Biel siblings' wedding wines in the years since their nuptials and discovered how well they'd matured, Katz suggested using them as the jumping-off point for a permanent collection.
“I know I like to drink wine, and I know what I like,” Jessica Biel told In Style. “I don't know what everybody else is going to like or even, of course, how to make wine, how to market that kind of thing.”
Fortunately, the Total Recall star has connections with some well-known faces in the wine world.
"The plan is to just keep keep blending away and every year have a vintage," Biel told In Style. "The cool thing about this particular adventure with this company is there are no real guidelines. We can kind of produce whatever we want.
"I think also we're kind of curious about what our clients and customers might say after we get some feedback. [Katz and Jackson] can play, and they can really be inspired by anything and everything. None of us partners are going to tell them no."
The Prophet & Poet collection officially launched on 22 May and Biel is due to personally pour the wines in the VIP area of Napa Valley's BottleRock festival on 24 May. Bottles include: Black Crown Cabernet Sauvignon, Mountain Sage Proprietary Red, Mourning Cloak Proprietary Red, Ghost Cat Chardonnay and King Bird Chardonnay.
Wine royalty
Calling the brand Prophet & Poet, Biel and Katz enlisted Christopher and Ariel Jackson to select grapes from Jackson Family Wines vineyards, while Katz produced the wines at his Aperture Cellars winery. The final expressions of the brand's first commercial vintage (2021), are "unfiltered, unacidified, unfined, and none manipulated", according to Katz, with the range largely focusing on Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay. Prophet & Poet wine labels feature motifs from the art of Tarot, which Biel says "is a big part of my life and my community".
"The plan is to just keep keep blending away and every year have a vintage," Biel told In Style. "The cool thing about this particular adventure with this company is there are no real guidelines. We can kind of produce whatever we want.
"I think also we're kind of curious about what our clients and customers might say after we get some feedback. [Katz and Jackson] can play, and they can really be inspired by anything and everything. None of us partners are going to tell them no."
The Prophet & Poet collection officially launched on 22 May and Biel is due to personally pour the wines in the VIP area of Napa Valley's BottleRock festival on 24 May. Bottles include: Black Crown Cabernet Sauvignon, Mountain Sage Proprietary Red, Mourning Cloak Proprietary Red, Ghost Cat Chardonnay and King Bird Chardonnay.
