Singer-songwriter Sting has partnered with Tuscan wine estate and Chiswick restaurant, Villa di Geggiano, to distribute his Il Palagio wine range in the UK.
Owned by the Bianchi Bandinelli family, Villa di Geggiano, which has exported its Chianti Classico wines to the UK since 1725, has faithfully recreated its sprawling Tuscan estate in restaurant form on Chiswick High Road in west London.
In search of a small scale distributor with a shared ethos, Sting and his wife Trudie Styler decided to partner with their Tuscan neighbours at their London address.
As part of the partnership, Villa di Geggiano has become the exclusive UK distributor of the Il Palagio wine range, along with the olive oils and honeys made at the estate.
To celebrate, Villa di Geggiano will be hosting a food and wine pairing dinner on 20 November, hosted by Trudie Styler and Il Palagio’s communications director, Tony Sasa, to present the wines to the UK press.
A number of the wines in the range, from Roxanne and When We Dance (pictured) to Message in a Bottle, are named after Sting songs.
Born Gordon Sumner, Sting and Trudie bought the 350-hectare Il Palagio estate, in the Chianti DOCG, in 1999 while searching for a holiday home in Tuscany rather than a wine project. At the time the villa and grounds were in a state of disrepair.
Having enlisted the help of US biodynamic winemaking and viticulture consultant Alan York, Sting set about replanting the vineyards from 2001 to 2003.
His first wine was a Super Tuscan-style blend called Sister Moon, inspired both by one of his songs and the significance of the moon in biodynamic viticulture.
Today, Sting and Styler produce a range of nine wines, including a white and rosé made from a mixture of locally-sourced grapes and estate-grown fruit from 13 hectares of vineyards.
Roxanne is made from 90% Sangiovese and 10% Cabernet, while Message in a Bottle is crafted from 84% Vermentino, 14% Sauvignon Blanc and 2% Trebbiano.
One of the most recent additions to the range is an IGT sparkling wine made from a blend of Vermentino and Chardonnay.
“I love the feeling I get when I see someone taste our wine and you can tell they are thinking, ‘not another celebrity wine’, and then they find it’s good,” Sting told db in 2017.
“Wine is a great communicator – storytelling and wine drinking and song writing are pretty closely linked,” he added.
