The Ledge

Go Back   The Ledge > Main Forums > Post-Rumours
User Name
Password
Register FAQ Members List Calendar Mark Forums Read


Make the Ads Go Away! Click here.
Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 05-30-2009, 04:18 PM
michelej1 michelej1 is offline
Addicted Ledgie
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: California
Posts: 25,975
Default Mick Wine Interview (Food GPS)

Mick Fleetwood Discusses Wine
Posted May 29, 2009 at 5:49 pm on Food GPS

http://www.foodgps.com/mick-fleetwood-discusses-wine/

Mick Fleetwood hosted a wine dinner on May 27 at the L.A. Live branch of Flemings Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar. The legendary Fleetwood Mac co-founder and drummer paired selections from Mick Fleetwood Private Cellar with dishes from his favorite SoCal restaurant. Before the dinner began, Fleetwood discussed his history and approach with wine. We were joined by Jonathan Todd, who oversees Fleetwoods marketing, licensing and branding,

Whats your first wine memory?

Fleetwood: My first wine memory, unfortunately, was bad wine when I was extremely young, sort of the ripple effect, which was sort of like drinking pure sugar. So it wasnt a good one. It was instant headaches and stuff. Truly, that was many, many, many years ago, probably when I was 16 years old. Then for years it was not my choice of drink. In England it was beer and brandy.

About 20 years ago, which is quite late in the day, really, I had enjoyed wine from time to time, but I was all about the partyIn truth, my life calmed down considerably, and I started really enjoying a quiet glass of wine without all the wheres the party, the animal thing. Thats how I started understanding something that I had not a clue about, which is the ambience, the experience of eating and doing what they had done in Europe for many years, eating well with family and in a timely fashion. That became no doubt part of the wine experience. That led me to where I am now in terms of how I approach to wine and how truly it appealed to me, which is somewhat emotional. It was about not getting too complicated or highfalutinIt was about taking your time, making choices and in truth not being intimidated.

Up until the late 60s, it was not a huge wine drinking population to my knowledge in the United States. People such as myself would invariably find themselves at a special meal being presented something, which is all fine and dandy, but in truth, probably a great many had been drinking something because they probably should rather because they really liked it. The wine experience was somewhat intimidating, just like playing golf was not the done thing by someone who doesnt have a Rolls Royce. Now its an everymans game, thank god, and certainly drinking wine in the United States has become incredibly prevalent. Like that whole curve, thats why I got drawn into it, where I learned not to be intimidated and remain open, which is sort of like making music. Years later, sitting with Jonathan at home, I mentioned wouldnt it be nice if I could have my own wine. Not a complete joke, a sort of dream. It was a how on earth, as if it would never be possible type of comment, but still wanting it. Jonathan sort of called me out and said I think we can accomplish this.

I said Im not going to pretend for one moment. Im someone who knows what he likes. If you ask me to start a record company, Ill do that, but Im not about to start a winery, so we set about a different approach that has really been a great success where Im able to pick and choose and jump around and make the choices, and sort of, in many instances, blend with people, like using a great engineer in the studio. Whatever ends up here, for better or for worse, has been not just sticking my name on it at all. Its been very in the trenchesA lot of people in the early days thought it was not possible, because we did it on our own in a very boutique approach with those rules. It didnt interest me in doing this unless I could take full responsibility for whats in my private cellar.

What is your goal with the private cellar?

Fleetwood
: Weve progressed from to a boutique to a believable platform where people have not only accepted what Im doing, as another celebrity doing his whatever. Weve had the honors put upon us to a degree to where its more than just a fleeting moment, which is great, and weve built the company to a point where we feel this slightly unbelievable way of doing it is totally believable because its so involved around my tastes. It could definitely go wrong if my taste was taste was really, really lousy, in how it was accepted, but its been accepted on a noticeably, pretty damn healthy platform which gives us comfort to go forward and have an umbilical connection (me) through all the relations of wines that were going to be bumping into on our journey. Its been a really interesting 8 years, a lot of hard work. Ive been very involved, as you can see. Our whole situation with Costco was very hands on, in presenting the wine, and it was a great success. We learned a lot. We learned things not to do. In the process, when you said, What was your vision? My vision was fairly selfish, was about what fun it would be. Its like somebody saying, what fun it would be to have a boat, until you realize you spend all your money keeping the boat going. My version of that with this, it was a lot more work than I ever imagined. It was not a problem, because I like seeking the actual work to enjoy all the intriguing parts of it have been paid off in terms of wanting to do it.

I dont usually choose something unless I know its going to fit the ambience of what I am. Im not someone who can get in front of 3000 wine connoisseurs and tell them when the sun was shining on the soil in 1958 in Italy on the hill of some beautiful village, but I am confident in knowing what I like. With those rules, weve plowed forward with some measurable success.

What wine reference tools have you used, and do you use to continue to use about wine?

[Jonathan Todd intercedes.]

Todd: Its just such a different paradigm. Mick just rewrote the book, under the theory that the band leader of a great band doesnt have to know how to consummately play all the instruments, but he has to know what he wants, and he has to know how to tell the musicians how to pull off what hes hearing. Hes the band leader of the winery, of the terroir, of the vintage and everything that goes with it. He will take wines that we will have sent to him in little vials in ice to hotel rooms that chase him around the country and the world

Fleetwood: Its not the idyllic way of doing it.

Todd: Its not what metrics are out there. Hes really ramped up his own pop version of approachable winemaking. Hes the band leader of the vineyard, of the winemaker of the vineyard and all the people on the marketing side to the distribution side. He wants people to pop this bottle and feel what he felt when he brought it in. Hes not holding this up against a bottle of Baron Rothschild 81 or a 94. Its his sensibilities. The same way that a great pop song has a great hook, and you dont necessarily need to know why, but if you have the magic and can build that, then you can build it. Gold, silver and bronze in his 18 varietal career so far, and millions of dollars in sales and accolades. Now one of the finest wine restaurants on the planet, with 65 locations and a following coast to coast, has come in with their head wine people and has gone, you know what, this guy fits us.

Fleetwood: Were very happy.

Todd: There are no metrics for that.

Fleetwood: You asked me, and then Jonathan jumped in

What tools or resources do you use?

Fleetwood: Those are the tools. The tools are what you see sitting in front of you [points to his wine bottles], which is sort of what I was trying to say earlier on, for better or for worse. We have situations, understandably, where we were about to work with some wineries, and it was very apparent that they werent very comfortable. Nothing unpleasant happened, but you could tell that they knew that I didnt know very much about the absolute strict heritage of what was happening and how things were done, and this, that and the other. Rather than being open to this creature here, they were very closed off, and they started this whole thing that gets back to what I dont like, the whole, getting back to the early experiences of my memoryJohn Cleese wrote about it and has a How to Enjoy Wine DVD, and its so how I feel about it, because its done with humor and its about not being intimidated. People are, and have been, generally. When I was sitting there, I wasnt intimidated, but I could have been. I understand that you won five Grammys for doing what youre doing, like me working with a great engineer, but a great engineer whos won five Grammys and a really, really great engineer that has those accolades, is about proving how he bring that to you in an open way without saying, dont come in here. As an artist, come in here and bounce off what I have to offer. Anyone that didnt do that obviously were not people that we ended up working with. I do want to say, well, what about a tincture of this or that, rather than saying, youre a damn fool, you dont know what youre doing. Which is fair enough. I wanted that process to take place. That is how we got together. We worked with people who would work with me. Some of our wines were, I dont want to touch it. Probably over 50-60% of our wines were battled out. A record companys nightmare is an artist finishing an album, the babys ready, you hand it off, and then you get a call from the artist saying hold the press. Then they say weve already printed out 300,000 copies. Believe me, its happened with Fleetwood Mac. You say, no, no, no, we have to get it right. It hasnt happened that often.

Todd: Once.

Fleetwood: Maybe a couple other nearly but not quite times. Its no, no, no, Ive changed my mind. Im just trying to demonstrate in terms of how hands on I am in this venture. Those are the tools, really. I appreciate what Jonathans saying, it is a way of describing the bandleader says, Thats it. Thats the song, but having worked in my band, where you basically have four bandleaders, you listen and get used to listening and you draw down whats going on and take it on board. People with that attitude are the people that we worked with. But the bottom line, this is truly, unlike Fleetwood Mac, a bandleader.

It is absolutely my solo excursion, if you like, where you go off and make a solo album, which Ive done, and everybody else has done in the band. You know thats their thing. This is definitely my thing, drawing down on some of my very similar experiences with music. It really is a great way to explain, for me, when Ive spoken with people about how my sensibilities are. We do draw down on musical formulas because there is an uncanny amount of similarity: the patience to do it, the constant looking for the right song, and then presenting the baby, if you like, and somebody god forbid such as yourself says, I hate it. Like I dont like the music. You hand off this creature, just like you do an album, when its gone, it has gone, and you know you have done everything to it you can dream of doing, including stopping it, a couple of times.

One last quick questionIf you could only drink one more bottle of wine, what would it be, and how come?

Fleetwood
: The 92 Cuvee with Cab Franc and MerlotThats the one.

Todd: Its not available anywhere and if it is we want to buy it.

Fleetwood: All thats left is in my cellar.

Why that bottle?

Fleetwood: Bottles. Many bottles. I love it. I truly love it. In truth, it was incredibly important and sort of indicative of what this is. It was my first, well you better put your nuts on the line and tell people around you say, Well, what do you like? Thats what we ended up with. Thats part of our equation. Now that were talking about it, its probably that, but I really, really love it. As much as some of the legacy in terms of where the taste of the private cellar goes. It has to be connected. People get confused and say you have to do this. Were both going, if the same guys really taking this journey, there has to be some umbilical connection through all of the wines. There may be changes, but if youre not part of the story, its not going to suddenly turn into a bottle of vinegar overnight. People now understand that, and I could never figure that out in terms of a blueprint. This was apparently a little confusing. Its like someone saying to Fleetwood Mac, you have three lead singers, youre never going to make it because who are you? The very thing that we were told, because Fleetwood Mac has always had three powerful members, even when we started back in 67. We had three very different guitar players. We had Stevie, Lindsay, Christine. We had this threesome. For years, people said, we dont know what to focus on. Of course later it became the very thing, once people began to understand the tastebuds of that music. They became familiar with it and said, we love that, because it goes here , and theres a connection to that. And that what it ended up being.

Todd: It started when we were researching and wanted to buy a vineyard. Micks tastes are eclectic and very varied. How do we get a vineyard and have consistent good years?

Fleetwood: It was terrifying, and in truth, getting into that thing, none of this might have happened. I might be digging my first trench and waiting for a grape to grow. This was really not what this was about.

Todd: Learn more. Go to www.mickswines.com.
Reply With Quote
.
  #2  
Old 06-05-2009, 12:27 AM
sjpdg's Avatar
sjpdg sjpdg is offline
Addicted Ledgie
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: San Jose, CA
Posts: 513
Default

Maybe its just me but as much as I love Mick, he's not making a lot of sense in this interview. He seems to be talking in circles and is a little hard to follow. Particularly in that section about "tools and resources" he uses in selecting the wines. His recent interview in "Modern Drummer" is much clearer.

Thank you for posting this though. I did enjoy reading it, despite it being a little confusing.
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 06-05-2009, 12:31 AM
michelej1 michelej1 is offline
Addicted Ledgie
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: California
Posts: 25,975
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by sjpdg View Post
Maybe its just me but as much as I love Mick, he's not making a lot of sense in this interview. He seems to be talking in circles and is a little hard to follow. Particularly in that section about "tools and resources" he uses in selecting the wines. His recent interview in "Modern Drummer" is much clearer.

Thank you for posting this though. I did enjoy reading it, despite it being a little confusing.
I almost wonder if he seemed confused when the question was first asked and if that is why Todd jumped in and answered it initially.

Michele
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 04-28-2014, 12:23 PM
michelej1 michelej1 is offline
Addicted Ledgie
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: California
Posts: 25,975
Default

[From a June 2014 Wine magazine article on celebrity wine]

Bottle Rockers 4/28/2014

http://www.winemag.com/June-2014/Bottle-Rockers/

Mick Fleetwood

Merlot freak Fleetwood entered the celebrity wine game with Mick Fleetwood Private Cellar in 2001, and he maintains a large collection at his Maui home. He told Rolling Stone, While wine is certainly as competitive as music, the boundaries are clearer, and its probably a healthier business, ultimately.
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 04-30-2016, 07:28 PM
michelej1 michelej1 is offline
Addicted Ledgie
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: California
Posts: 25,975
Default

Oregon Wine Press May 1, 2016


http://www.oregonwinepress.com/last-call-mick-fleetwood


Fleetwood You Believe?

OWP drums Up Q&A with the legendary Mick Fleetwood

Mick Fleetwood is a rock and roll icon, famous for his tremendous success as the drummer of Fleetwood Mac, the legendary band he co-founded in 1967 with John Mayall, Peter Green and John McVie the bands name is a combination of his surname and McVies. Fleetwood would remain the only member to remain with the band through its multiple incarnations.

After several albums and line-up changes, the group moved to the U.S. in 1974 in an attempt to boost success. Stateside, Fleetwood invited Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks to join the band. The two contributed to much of Fleetwood Macs later commercial fame, including celebrated albums Rumours (1977), Tusk (1979) and many others. Fleetwoods determination to keep the band together has been essential to the groups longevity and legacy. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.

Besides a successful solo career in music, Fleetwood has published written works and acted in movies and television. He also is a restaurateur as the owner of Fleetwoods on Front St., located in Lahaina in West Maui. Diners can enjoy fresh seafood, live music and a glass of his namesake wine, Mick Fleetwood Private Cellar.

The wine, produced in Santa Barbara County, also can be purchased inside Fleetwoods General Store, which includes signed albums, an art gallery showcasing Fleetwoods photography along with fellow artists work and more.

For more about Fleetwoods on Front St., visit www.fleetwoodsonfrontst.com. If you are interested in becoming a Fleetwood wine club member, log on to: www.fleetwoodsgeneralstoremaui.com.

How did you first become interested in wine?


MF: I started with enjoying wine privately at home and sharing wine socially with friends. Wine has a social aspect, an enjoyable ambiance that was always attractive to me.

What (if any) is your opinion of Oregon wine?


MF: A lot of things that are happening in Oregon are on par and in the same breath as the great wines of Burgundy and of the world. Theyre not second class by any means, and I believe theyre getting the respect they deserve on a world scale.

What made you want to create your own wine label?


MF: Really, its the romance of it all that appealed to me. You never know what youre getting yourself into when you start a venture like this, and we really started from the ground up. Like a million wine advocates, we experimented, and then we shared. The only difference is that youre more involved with the process and you really take responsibility for the results. It was very private to start, a sort of organized passion. The desire to find ways to become more involved in wine is an ever-growing story for me.

Whats the most surprising aspect of having your own wine?

MF: I guess out of all the adventures of presenting wines over the last 15 years or so, I would have to say the kind of feedback that you get from the public is the most surprising and is usually very gratifying. Its just like writing a song. It so reminds me of my journey with Fleetwood Mac, where I am blessed to meet people who really love what we do. More often than not, I meet people who generally enjoy my wine, and thats as great a feeling as you can get.

Name (and describe) a wine that blew away your palate.

MF: Back in the day, I fell in love with Frogs Leap Merlot. Twenty years ago on the road with Fleetwood Mac, it was one of the only pieces of comfort we had. You always knew it was going to be good. We were hooked, and we started requesting it to be everywhere we were: on our jet, in our dressing rooms and at the shows themselves.

What is it about Merlot that you love?


MF: Merlot always reminds me of the country table wines that I loved so much in France. The wines are so drinkable and complement whatever fare youre enjoying. I prefer wines like this that are not aggressive.

If you could pair wine to instruments, which varietal would you pair with the drums?

MF: Well, it may seem surprising, but the drums would really equate to supporting role grapes, like Pinot Meunier is to Champagne. The role of a drummer is really to support and create a safe space for the rest of the band. You have to be open and perceptive, and you really have to listen.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On

Forum Jump


Mick Fleetwood - Celebrate The Music Of Peter Green And The Early Years of Fleet picture

Mick Fleetwood - Celebrate The Music Of Peter Green And The Early Years of Fleet

$23.69



MICK FLEETWOOD & FRIENDS Sealed 2024 PETER GREEN TRIBUTE BLU RAY & 2 CD BOXSET picture

MICK FLEETWOOD & FRIENDS Sealed 2024 PETER GREEN TRIBUTE BLU RAY & 2 CD BOXSET

$36.99



Mick Fleetwood

Mick Fleetwood "My Twenty-Five Years in Fleetwood Mac" book w/ CD. VG+

$29.00



FLEETWOOD MAC - RUMOURS [35TH ANNIVERSARY DELUXE EDITION] [DIGIPAK] NEW CD picture

FLEETWOOD MAC - RUMOURS [35TH ANNIVERSARY DELUXE EDITION] [DIGIPAK] NEW CD

$24.97



MICK FLEETWOOD BAND “SOMETHING BIG” CD 2004 NEAR MINT CONDITION picture

MICK FLEETWOOD BAND “SOMETHING BIG” CD 2004 NEAR MINT CONDITION

$4.00




All times are GMT -5. The time now is 07:36 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
© 1995-2003 Martin and Lisa Adelson, All Rights Reserved