Sports Licensors Win with Wine

Historically, sports viewership has been much more associated with the consumption of beer than with wine. But that situation has been changing over the past few years as sports leagues, teams, and governing bodies have increasingly paired with wine marketers, opening up a new category for promotions and, in some cases, licensed products: 

• In July of this year, USA Pickleball launched its official wine partnership with Bandit Wines. Bandit is positioned as perfect for an adventurous, active lifestyle and is packaged in eco-friendly, portable cartons. Pickleball is often played outside and is typically a social activity, sometimes capped off with a friendly drink at the end of a match. Bandit will sample its wines on-site at USA Pickleball’s 2024 BioFreeze Nationals Championships in November as part of the deal.

• The National Basketball Association announced in April of this year that it was pairing with the California winery Kendall-Jackson to make Kendall-Jackson the official wine of the NBA, USA Basketball, and the USA Basketball men’s national team, and La Crema the official wine of the Women’s National Basketball Association and USA Basketball’s women’s national team. The deal marked the first wine collaboration for the NBA. Some of the elements of the partnership include tastings, immersive fan events, and commemorative bottles and player gifts. Kendall-Jackson and La Crema are part of Jackson Family Wines.

• In April of 2024, news came out in the world of global soccer that the Mexican National Teams (men’s and women’s) had partnered with Casillero del Diablo, through a deal with the Federación Mexicana de Fútbol and Soccer United Marketing. Casillero del Diablo, a Chilean label that is the number-one wine brand in Mexico, became the teams’ official wine in the U.S. market. Limited-edition branded wine bottles are part of the initiative, in addition to fan experiences, signage at arenas, and other promotional elements. The MexTour, in its 21st year, pits the Mexican clubs against elite soccer teams across the U.S.

• In March 2024, mixed martial arts organization UFC said that Australian wine label 19 Crimes—which has previously collaborated with Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart—would become its official wine partner in the U.S. Components will include on-site and broadcast integrations and original content including “Bold Finish of the Month” videos for digital distribution. 

• The NFL’s New York Giants paired with Mano’s Wine in 2023 for a collection of hand-painted and etched, Giants-themed wine bottles, starting with six editions. Fans also had an opportunity to create their own limited-edition jersey bottle with a custom name and number through a print-on-demand option on the Mano’s website. The collection is still available for sale and includes a helmet-shaped box in addition to the bottles. Varieties include sparkling blanc de blanc, chardonnay, and cabernet sauvignon. 

• Italian football club Internazionale Milano, or Inter Milan, renewed its partnership with Italian wine label Santa Margherita in 2023, keeping the brand as its official wine for two more years. Santa Margherita signed the initial deal in 2021 and had previously worked with the team to provide bubbly for celebrations. The partnership led to the creation of a capsule collection of Nerazzurri prosecco; Nerazzurri is one of Inter Milan’s nicknames, meaning “the black and blues.”

• The National Football League in the U.S. named E. & J. Gallo Winery as its official wine sponsor in 2022. Elements such as local team activations, player appearances, on-site presence at major events, and content for broadcast, digital, and social platforms have incorporated several Gallo brands, starting with Barefoot. Among the company’s many other brands are Ecco Domani, Carlo Rossi, Da Vinci, Gallo, Manischewitz, Paul Masson, and Apothic Red. Previously, the NFL’s wine partner was Babe Wine, in a deal announced in 2019. 

• The Cleveland Cavaliers of the NBA paired with Nocking Point Wines in 2021 for an original wine blend called Cavs Cab. The Washington State cabernet sauvignon blend—curated by former Cavaliers great Austin Carr, “Mr. Cavalier,” with a label designed by a local artist—became the official wine of the team. The collaboration was the first sports partnership for Nocking Point, which has worked on a number of celebrity wines.

• New Mexico State University paired with Lescombes Winery in 2020 for Pistol Pete’s Crimson Legacy, a cabernet sauvignon named for the NMSU Aggies’ mascot. At the time, eight colleges and universities in the U.S. had licensed wines in their portfolio. The first run—sales of which support student-athletes at the university—was 1,888 bottles, to mark the 1888 founding of the school, which has also lent its name to beer and whiskey. 

• The NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles partnered with Winc in 2020 for a Broad & Pattison wine collection. Consisting of three varieties, a cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, and rosé, the name commemorates the site of now-gone Veterans Stadium, where the Eagles played in the 1970s through 1990s. 

These and other examples of wines tied to sports leagues, teams, and governing bodies join the phenomenon of individual athletes such as Dwyane Wade and Charles Woodson creating their own wine brands, usually with them owning or investing in rather than collaborating with a wine maker. Athlete-branded wines have been ongoing for some time as part of the well-established celebrity wine trend.