Of all the drinks in this series, wine is the one athletes talk about with genuine, unguarded love. Tequila and whiskey ventures are businesses; wine, for a striking number of elite players, is a hobby that got completely out of hand. And no athlete has done more to make wine cool in the sports world than LeBron James, whose fondness for serious bottles is one of basketball's best-documented off-court storylines: teammates, opponents and journalists have all marveled at the cellar-level labels he posts and shares, and his wine appreciation became a running theme of NBA media coverage throughout the late 2010s.
The wine bug spreads through locker rooms like a zone press. Dwyane Wade went furthest: after falling for wine country during his career, he partnered with Napa's Pahlmeyer family to create Wade Cellars, a label serious enough to earn respect from critics who could not care less about basketball. In China and Napa alike, Yao Family Wines — founded by Hall of Fame center Yao Ming in 2011 — makes cabernets that have scored impressively in blind tastings. And in Canada, Wayne Gretzky Estates in Niagara-on-the-Lake produces everything from icewine to whisky under the name of the greatest hockey player who ever lived, complete with a tasting room where the memorabilia is as carefully cellared as the vintages.
Tequila ventures are businesses. Wine, for a striking number of elite athletes, is a hobby that got completely out of hand.
Why wine wins the locker room
The affinity makes sense on three levels. First, moderation: a shared bottle over dinner fits a professional's regime far better than spirits-driven nightlife, and red wine in particular carries a (heavily debated, frequently overstated) halo of respectability. Second, study: wine rewards exactly the obsessive, detail-hungry temperament that makes someone great at sport — regions, vintages, producers, the endless film-room of the palate. Third, longevity: a cellar is a project measured in decades, which appeals to people whose first careers end at 38.
There's also travel. Athletes see Bordeaux, Tuscany and Napa on sponsor trips and offseasons, and wine estates are very good at hosting famous guests. Many a label partnership began as a vacation.
Wine cocktails that respect the bottle
Wine purists flinch at mixing, but three serves have earned permanent immunity. The spritz is the offseason in a glass. The kalimotxo — red wine and cola — is the beloved terrace drink of Basque football culture, proof that football fans invented low-ABV drinking long before it was a trend. And the New York sour turns a whiskey sour into something cellar-worthy with nothing more than a red wine float.
- 3 oz (90 ml) dry prosecco
- 2 oz (60 ml) Aperol
- 1 oz (30 ml) soda water; orange slice
Build over plenty of ice in a large wine glass: prosecco first, then Aperol, then soda. The 3-2-1 ratio is the whole recipe. The offseason in a glass.
- Equal parts young red wine
- …and cold cola
- Optional: squeeze of lemon
Fill a tumbler with ice, pour half and half, done. The beloved terrace drink of Basque football culture — low-proof, refreshing, and far better than it has any right to be. Use cheap wine; that's the point.
- 2 oz (60 ml) rye or bourbon
- ¾ oz (20 ml) fresh lemon juice
- ¾ oz (20 ml) sugar syrup
- ½ oz (15 ml) dry red wine, floated
- Optional: ½ egg white
Shake and strain a whiskey sour, then pour the red wine gently over the back of a spoon so it floats. The cellar and the clubhouse in one glass.
Building a rookie cellar
You don't need superstar money to drink like the wine wing of the locker room. Start with the regions the athlete labels themselves chose — Napa cabernet, Niagara riesling and icewine — then branch by producer rather than price. Buy six bottles, drink five, keep one for five years: that last bottle teaches you more about wine than the first five combined. And if a bottle of Wade Cellars or Yao Family crosses your path, taste it blind against its neighbors. The point of athlete wine, done right, is that you shouldn't be able to tell.
From still to sparkling: chapter five covers the most famous wine ritual in all of sport — the podium spray.
Next — Chapter 05 / 10The Spray Heard Round the World