Another celebrity wine? Yes, but maybe not what many might think. 

I was recently invited to participate in a twitter tasting of Jeff Gordon's wine, "joie de vivre." The red blend is Cabernet, Merlot, and Syrah from Napa Valley. Throughout the twitter conversations I was amongst other participants and famous race car driver Jeff Gordon (@jeffgordonweb and @jeffgordonwine), most kept focus on the wine, but some were a bit star struck even in twitter-land.

Matthew (@mmWine) asked how the well known August (AKA Joe) Briggs was selected as the initial winemaker. Jeff said, 

 Jeff Gordon ‏@JeffGordonWeb .@mmWine @JeffGordonWine "Lots of research & word of mouth when looking 4 quality boutique winemaker. His name came up a lot."#JeffGordonJDV

It has been long said, "There is wisdom with many counselors." It appears as Jeff Gordon is one that believes in putting this wisdom to practice. 

Jeff Gordon partnered with August (Joe) Briggs because "of his focus on producing quality driven small lot wines" according to their media release. Jesse Inman and nephew to Briggs has taken over title of winemaker in 2011 with Briggs continuing to offer consulting.

Something I felt intriguing was Jeff Gordon's perspective on celebrity brands, here is what he said when I asked him about it - 

Jeff Gordon ‏@JeffGordonWeb.@awanderingwino @JeffGordonWine "Think u get what u put into it. Dont agree w/ putting a name on a bottle & filling w/ juice."#JeffGordonJDV

Celebrity products have not always had the greatest reputation as a whole and reason for some initial skepticism on my part. 

 I then asked what he told August Briggs that he was looking for in this particular wine, joie de vivre.

Jeff Gordon ‏@JeffGordonWeb.@awanderingwino Like my wines w/ interesting character, well balanced, smooth w/ a great finish…just like at the track. #ha#JeffGordonJDV

I am a believer in tasting the evolution of a wine sample from initial opening, decanting, proper pairing, followed by a second day revisit. My bottle was decanted at 1:00 PM to allow ample time prior to our evening tasting and tweeting.

I tasted immediately upon opening and was glad that I decanted it as early as I did as it showed (often typical with many reds) initially with tight tannins. After four hours decanted, I could really see the complexity shine. A nose full of beautiful black fruit, charactoristics of casis, plum, and black-cherry. The big tannin showed structure that this wine was built to last, but softened with decanting. Many of us tweeted about how fun it would be to see some additional age on this very well made wine.

Jeff Gordon's wine production is currently very small lot hand-crafted. This botique wine only had 254 cases produced.The joie de vivre was aged for 20 months in 30% new French oak and 70% American oak that was 2-3 years old. The Jeff Gordon wines are available through his website http://www.jeffgordonwine.com/ and priced right at $65. This is a winner and one to stash in the cellar for a few years. As I am not a race car fan, I did mention in the twitter session that it may just be Jeff Gordons wine that gets me interested in his driving too.

Much appreciation to Jeff Gordon Cellars and Bill Eyers AKA @cuvee_corner. (Please forgive the delay in post as I am proud to say I am a new daddy again)