Comedian and actor Cedric the Entertainer didn’t grow up around wine. But he did grow up around books—lots of them—thanks to his mother, Rosetta Boyce Kyles, a longtime educator and well-regarded literacy specialist in St. Louis. But Kyles, who passed in 2015, did always enjoy a glass of red wine at the end of a long day, to “toast a glass with a touch of class,” as Cedric says she loved to say.
And it was that nightly indulgence that inspired Cedric to create a wine in her honor, one that would both raise awareness of her mission and benefit the Kyles Family Foundation’s Red Rose Reads literacy initiative. Named in Boyce Kyles’ honor and made by Napa winery Smith Devereux, Setta debuted with a 2018 Napa Valley red blend ($74, 125 cases made) and raised over $5,000 for Red Rose Reads.
“My mom was a school teacher, and it was just my younger sister and myself,” Cedric told Wine Spectator. “My mother was very sharp. She was the youngest of her siblings, and she was the one who really was about education. She went and got her degree and went on to get her master's, and then became a reading specialist and went back to get certificates to teach reading. She was a person that was always driving forward.”
“She loved reading,” he adds. “Whenever we traveled, she made sure there were plenty of books in the car [for me and] my sister, who is a professor at Pepperdine now.”
Cedric took his time getting into wine, however. Not only did he not want consumers to think he’d just created a celebrity wine, but he recognized that Black wine consumers in particular are savvier than ever, and know how to spot a fraud. “Especially in the NBA, there has been this forward attitude of those guys who drink wine. Guys like Dwyane Wade and Carmelo [Anthony] are really into wine, and LeBron [James], of course … and [Setta] is about my mom, and I'm proud of it. So when you taste it, you know, I don't [want people to] tell me I'm doing something wack.”
To help him achieve those not-wack wines, Cedric turned to Smith Devereux co-founder and vintner Ian Devereux, who invited Cedric to visit Smith Devereux’s Oak Knoll District Cabernet vineyard in Napa. The two hit it off over sack lunches among the vines.
“There's definitely a language in the wine world that you have to catch up to—the people that do it, they care so deeply about it,” says Cedric. “I try not to ever put myself in this situation to talk as though I know more about wine than I do. And you know, that's what I think I like about working with Ian, because it becomes a lot more fun in the flow of it, and you learn and he doesn't [make it] feel snobbish, right? And that's what I've really come to embrace.”
Cedric the Entertainer Meets Ian the Vintner
It’s that welcoming and inclusive spirit that Devereux has come to embrace as a relative Napa newcomer himself; he left his career in travel writing about a decade ago to pursue wine with a philanthropic mission.
”[A few years ago], we were hosting a tasting for Black Girls Wine Society, and they're like, ‘Ian, we just want to thank you so much. We’ve been in Napa for three days, and everywhere we go, people offer us rosé and white wine, and sometimes they offer us reds, but rarely are we even offered the opportunity to join wine clubs. It’s assumed that we aren't interested in the more expensive wines, and it feels uncomfortable. So much so that we've decided that Napa stands for No African People Allowed.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, that is terrible.’
”So I developed a relationship with the Black Girls Wine Society, hosting them many times and really doing my best to do my part in saying everyone is welcome in Napa Valley. There are lots of places you can go to. [Smith Devereux is] one of them, and I'm happy to make introductions to other wonderful people. And so that sort of got around a little bit. So when Cedric asked one of his friends who was in the industry, they said, well, there's a dude I know named Ian …”
The Setta lineup has since grown to include a lower-priced 2020 California red blend ($30, 400 cases made) and a 2022 Setta California Sauvignon Blanc ($25, 400 cases made). The wines are available through Smith Devereux as well as at limited retailers, with all profits benefiting Kyles Family Foundation’s Red Rose Reads program.
Which Grapes Are in Cedric the Entertainer's Setta Wines?
Cedric's Setta Napa Valley Red Blend includes 65 percent Merlot with 33 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and 2 percent Syrah. The Setta California Red Blend is 34 percent Merlot, 29 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 20 percent Syrah, 10 percent Petit Verdot and 7 percent Syrah.
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