Veteran Catcher Chris Iannetta Chats Jack Winery And LeBron James’ Taste In Wine
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00:00 I'm Jill Painter Lopez for Sports Illustrated and today we have a
00:04 conversation with Chris Iannetta, a longtime catcher in Major League
00:07 Baseball and when the pandemic hit he was trying to catch on with the Yankees
00:11 having a good spring training there but he is also co-founder of Jack Wine. So
00:16 one thing he and LeBron James have in common is their love for wine. So Chris
00:20 is gonna join us today from his offseason home in Massachusetts to
00:24 discuss the kind of wine LeBron likes, his wine, and the kind of wine he likes.
00:28 So Chris we know you're joining us today from Massachusetts and thank you so much
00:34 for your time and first of all how are you and your family doing? First of all
00:39 thanks for having me I really appreciate it. Yeah like the rest of us I think
00:42 we're just waiting for baseball and sports to resume. We're all kind of in a
00:46 holding pattern right now but we await the day when it comes back and we're all
00:50 excited for that. Thankfully my family's doing well, everybody's safe so that's
00:55 all that really matters at this point. All right good we like to hear that so.
00:59 And Chris as the co-founder of Jack Wine we see your Jack label right there and
01:05 we'll get to your wine in just a minute but as a wine expert I wanted to have
01:09 you on and talk some some wine and LeBron James. We know he likes his wine a
01:15 lot of athletes seem to either have wine labels or certainly love to take part in
01:21 drinking wine so LeBron has posted wine sometimes and wanted to see if you would
01:27 go over a couple of the wines that he's posted for us today. One of them, thank
01:32 you so much, one of them was a 2016 white wine a Shannon from Santa Barbara. What
01:38 does this wine say about LeBron? I think it shows that he's not just a
01:42 casual wine drinker. You know if you look at the post and he's talking about
01:47 pairing white wine with fish and you know he's very cognizant of his palate
01:50 he understands what he likes to and what foods he likes to pair his wines with. I
01:55 think it really shows that he's kind of elevated his love for wine just like his
01:59 game and really is he's done the research in Hallmark to understand what
02:03 he likes and what will pair well with certain foods. Okay very good and we all
02:09 know most of us like tacos and LeBron James certainly loves Taco Tuesday. He
02:14 tried to get that trademarked at one point. We think of margaritas and beer
02:19 when we think of tacos usually but what wine would you say pairs well with Taco
02:23 Tuesday? Man I don't know you know for me it's everyone likes to go down that
02:28 rabbit hole of like I want to pair wine with food and that's great and there's a
02:32 lot of really good wine and food pairings but for me it's all about what
02:36 do I like you know I want to drink what I like and if I'm having tacos or if I'm having a hot dog, if I'm having a steak, no matter what it is I want to drink what I like and you know I'll pick the wine that I truly enjoy drinking to that really
02:49 complements the meal. There's some chefs and there's some salmonellas that are
02:52 really good at making those pairings that can accentuate certain things and
02:55 certain flavors out of both the food and the wine but for me it's I just like to
03:00 enjoy what what I want to drink and that's what I usually go with so if
03:04 you're thinking about tacos if you're thinking about making a meal don't
03:07 overthink it just enjoy the wines that you really like to drink. Okay good
03:12 advice. Lebron also had a post of a group photo a lot of wine bottles that
03:19 he liked was there anything in there particular that stood out to you about
03:22 those wines? Yeah for me it was Asakaya. It's an Italian wine, it's one of the best wines in Italy you know I've had the
03:30 opportunity to to try that one and it's phenomenal so that you know that
03:36 picture just really speaks to you know his level of commitment is the level to
03:39 to try in different regions to try and try different wines and he's definitely
03:43 trying some of the best wines from some of the best regions for sure. Okay
03:48 speaking about wines a Jack wine is the label that that you co-founded tell us a
03:53 little bit about that the label what Jack wine is all about and and maybe your
03:58 favorite bottle. Sure for me Jack wine is all about all about family and
04:03 conversation. I grew up in an Italian American household my parents were born
04:07 in Italy and and wine was always a part of the Sunday dinner and was always on
04:11 the table followed by a bunch of conversation and that's what kind of
04:14 inspired me to start our label you know when I when I met Vern when I was with
04:18 the Angels we wanted to start something and we had both developed a level of wine
04:21 I got my love of wine from you know being always being around it in my
04:25 family and obviously my connection with my grandparents who made their own wines
04:29 in their garages at home, belonged to their Italian social clubs and you know
04:34 what banter about who had the best wine. For me it was a way to reconnect with
04:38 them every time I had a glass of wine and made me remember them and the
04:41 stories and life lessons that they told me. So for me wine encompassed family in
04:45 that conversation you know we got to like I said when I was with the Angels
04:49 and I met Vern and we're able to start this venture and really to showcase what
04:53 an applicant do in terms of the boutique high-end winery and Ohio wine label. We
04:58 named our bottle Jack it's our kids initials he has Jason Christian I have
05:03 Ashton and Kylie so we really wanted to pay tribute to our kids and how much
05:07 they meant to us and you know showcase some really boutique wines and really
05:11 high quality wines and I think we're able to do that with our label. Such a
05:15 special connection you have many connections with your grandfather and
05:19 your kids and wine and growing up so I think that's that's pretty neat. Now you
05:24 post a lot on social media about wine of course not just your wine but other
05:28 wines that you like. I know LeBron does that, D-Wade, so many professional
05:32 athletes seem to post about their wines at least for you why do you like to post
05:37 about wines that you like and share with others? I just like to show people what
05:42 I'm drinking you know what I enjoy everyone thinks that you know I only
05:46 drink Jack wines. That's not true but I want to show everyone you know this is some of the
05:50 things that I'm drinking this is this is a Tuesday night and this is decided to
05:54 have a glass of wine this is what I'm enjoying right now and probably showcase
05:58 some of the things that I like and let people know that there's many many
06:02 high-quality wines out there. You know obviously a bit near Napa Valley with our
06:07 label so this is what I like to drink and maybe you can go ahead and check
06:10 some of these out and kind of go down that line. Okay very good and I usually just look and see
06:17 how much the bottle of wine cost is that bad? Yeah no you know everyone tries to
06:22 overthink wine in a lot of ways I think you just drink what you'd like it
06:26 doesn't matter if you're spending five dollars or ten dollars a bottle on wine or if you're
06:30 spending a thousand dollars a bottle. If you like it it's good it doesn't matter
06:34 what it's rated it doesn't matter you know what what other people say about it
06:38 if you enjoy drinking it then that's the best wine in the world. If you enjoy
06:43 drinking it and you have a great conversation with someone you make a
06:46 great connection or you fortify a relationship then that is hands-down the
06:51 best wine in the world. Okay and then you obviously this is a side business for
06:58 you when you're during the baseball season but of course with the stay-at-home
07:02 orders and everybody waiting for things to get restarted you've had more time to
07:06 work on Jack Wine something you do year-round but certainly now much more
07:10 time you've even pivoted and I see you're doing virtual wine tastings what
07:14 has that process been like for you? Yeah it's actually something we started last
07:18 fall we just had the idea of you know that travel is getting so expensive Napa
07:23 Valley is is an awesome place I fell in love with the valley and that's why I
07:27 really wanted to start this and it's getting more and more expensive to come
07:31 out to Napa and there's people there's two kinds of people I think there's
07:34 probably more but I think there's people that come to Napa as a vacation and
07:36 there's other people that come strictly to buy hard-to-find wines to go on a
07:40 journey and find some wines off the beaten path that you can't buy in your
07:44 local store and you know I started thinking you know how can we reach more
07:48 people how can we bring Napa to you and it started with the virtual tastings so
07:52 we started last fall of saying you know what if you just want to invest all your
07:55 money in wine and not spend it on a trip then we'll bring we'll bring our vineyard
07:59 our we'll bring our winery to you and that's what we did and we started then
08:03 and it kind of was a jumpstart into this this pandemic it's obviously been a
08:08 really hardship for a lot of people our hearts go out to the families that are
08:11 really struggling over it but you know it's also for us it's been a way to
08:14 connect with new people I've had some awesome zoom and FaceTime and Skype
08:18 calls of you know just great groups that are enjoying wine and telling stories
08:23 and we share what wines that we like and they tell us about the wines that they
08:27 like and we ask questions about how the winery started how we get into wine and
08:31 it's just a really fun time you know and we get to experience high-end Napa wines
08:36 that you wouldn't normally have access to in your grocery store your liquor
08:39 store and you're looking in your backyard so it's been good we just go on
08:42 our website if you want you can pick our virtual tasting pack and once you buy
08:47 that we'll ship you each one of our varietals and then we'll contact you and
08:51 we'll set up a date that we can do a virtual tasting or if you want to
08:54 contact us directly we've had groups of up to 30 40 people do it all at once
08:58 some sometimes people will buy wine for their clients just to wait just to get
09:03 some FaceTime with them and reconnect with them and it was great we had this
09:07 one where we did I think it's like 35 people over zoom
09:11 actually that purchased a line for his first clients and as a way for him to
09:16 connect with his clients in a time where everyone's kind of staying home
09:20 lockdown and for us it was a great way to introduce Jack wine to a bunch of
09:23 people so it's just a really fun night and a really great experience