While NBA stars enjoy some offseason vino, Portland Trail Blazer and 10-time All-Star Carmelo Anthony is hosting celebrity guests, and bottles, on his weekly What's in Your Glass? YouTube series. In his latest episodes, Anthony caught up with WNBA champ Candace Parker, OKC point guard Chris Paul, hip-hop stars LL Cool J and Snoop Dogg and other big names to talk social justice and top wine picks.
Back in August, Snoop Dogg dropped in with his personal 19 Crimes label, a blend of Petite Sirah, Zinfandel and Merlot sourced from vineyards in Lodi. Snoop talked about ditching Cognac and gin for wine when fellow West Coast rapper Warren G introduced him to Merlot. "Once I started getting intelligently together, [wine] started to enhance my thinking and my thought process," Snoop said. "As I got older, I wanted to age like fine wine."
LL Cool J answered the call by popping a bottle of 2010 Dom Pérignon. The NCIS: Los Angeles star talked about the show’s upcoming season and encouraged young people to stay strong in these uncertain times. Anthony went with his preferred Bordeaux, a 20-year-old bottle of Château Pontet-Canet.
"Pontet-Canet 2000 is a vin de garde you can keep all your life,” Sophie Marc, a representative from the Pauillac fifth-growth told Unfiltered via email. “[It’s] in really great shape."
On-court competitor and off-court friend Chris Paul joined Anthony for an Italian wine bonding session, discussing Sassicaia in particular, also a favorite of NBA superstar LeBron James. While Paul admits one of his all-time favorites is a 1985 Sassicaia, he chose a 2006 Ornellaia for the conversation, while Anthony went New World with a Realm Cellars The Absurd.
Earlier this week, WNBA star Candace Parker joined Melo and talked about getting into wine at team dinners and sharing Champagne at the NBA TV studio with Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas. Although a self-proclaimed tequila lover, Parker was among many basketball stars getting Napa Cabs and Bordeauxs shipped to the Orlando bubble.
"I have friends that have a lot of Colgin money," Parker said of the pricey cult wine producer. "I ordered it and I was like, 'Whoa, OK,’ … I gotta keep working hard so that I can keep up with the wine bill, because once you start you can't [stop]."
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