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Bob Dylan Inspired by Italian Red Wine
Staff Writer - April 17, 2004

At 63 years of age Bob Dylan, the raspy-voiced singer and poet, did yet another unexpected thing: he went into winemaking in partnership with Antonio Terni, an Italian vintner to produce "Planet Waves", a new red wine named after his 1974 album.

Terni, a true fan who has never missed a European concert by Dylan, said that the wine, produced in the Marches region by the Adriatic coast of Italy, is a "Dylanesque cross between the strength of the noble Montepuliano d'Abruzzo and the softness of the Merlot."

The story started when Antonio Terni presented Dylan with a few bottles of his own red wine at a concert, along with a note asking if Dylan would be interested in producing wine together.

In the past, Terni had already named one of his wines "Visions of Joanna", after a Dylan song from the "Blonde on Blonde" album.The wine was presented at Italy's Slow Food festival in 2001 where it was awarded the top prize.

When Dylan's manager confirmed the author's interest, "I nearly fell off the chair," said Terni. "It was an intense, deep emotion," he commented.

The wines made by the joint venture will be mainly "Rosso Conero" and the expected production is of 90,000 bottles per year, 5,000 of which will carry the "Planet Waves" label.

Dylan's decision injected confidence to the anemic Italian wine industry after a 16 percent decline in 2003 exports because of the weaknes of the American dollar and the stiff competition from new players in the international wine arena, such as Chile, Australian and Argentina.

The lyrics from "All Along the Watchtower", one of his biggest hits ever, from the John Wesley Harding album now sound somewhat prophetic:

"Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth,
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth."

Dylan is not alone, nor is the first rock star to appreciate Italian wine enough to decide to get into the business.

In fact, Sting, who lives in Tuscany where he owns vineyards, already produces a Chianti named "Il Serrestori", and Mick Hucknall from the '80s British group, Simply Red, owns a vineyard on the slopes of Mount Etna, in Sicily.

With the new millennium, it seems that the old Rock 'n Roll tagline is changing from the provocative "Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n Roll" to the healthier "Grapes, Wine and Rock 'n Roll"

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