“I’ve wanted to work for CBS since I was a little boy,” Jim Nantz told the Wine Experience audience, “because CBS broadcast the Masters Tournament, and I wanted to be one of those voices.” Nantz got his wish: For 39 years, the acclaimed CBS sportscaster has been calling PGA, NFL, NBA and NCAA basketball games and championships. Along the way, he developed another calling … .
“This wine part of my life had been stirred since the late 1990s,” recalled Nantz, who was heading to a Green Bay Packers practice later in the day. “Lo and behold, I got a little bit more involved in it: stepped into it, met vintners, met great people, figured out the process, how [starting a winery] might work. And I just needed the right things to land in my lap.”
In 2012, he started a California wine label, The Calling, after a chance meeting in Connecticut with Peter Deutsch, CEO of wine importer Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits. “I had been seeking a partner to go on this next calling,” Nantz explained. “[Deutsch’s father, Bill,] had recently been featured in Wine Spectator, so I was familiar with the family.”
And Peter had recently read Nantz’s 2008 book, Always By My Side, which not only covered his career but also explored his late father’s struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. (That experience led Nantz to partner with Houston Methodist Hospital to found the Nantz National Alzheimer Center.)
“The Calling is central in my life,” Nantz added. Today, the winery makes Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon from different Sonoma appellations and is led by winemaker James MacPhail, whose role Nantz described in Kansas City Chiefs terms: “If he wants to be the quarterback, he’s our Patrick Mahomes; if he wants to be the coach, he’s our Andy Reid.”
The audience tasted Nantz’s Chardonnay Russian River Valley Dutton Ranch 2022 (93 points), from one of California’s best Chardonnay vineyards. “We’re the second-biggest producer at Dutton Ranch and we’re proud of that,” said Nantz. “It speaks to [our] relationship-building, teamwork, passion, energy and trust that people have in us.”
