Hockey players: A bunch of rough-and-tumble guys with missing teeth and a lot of scars? Or genteel glass-swirling oenophiles who’d rather talk nose than break one? Over at the Bruins, the answer is both!
Forward Mark Recchi is featured in the new Wine Spectator maggie under the headline “From Right Wing To Right Bank: NHL Forward Saves His Petrus For Lord Stanley.”
And a picture of center David Krejci, drawn by 9-year-old Cam Rubin of Avon, is the label for Italian winery Vignamaggio’s new Chianti Classico.
“Obviously, the mentality is that most hockey players are beer-drinking kind of guys,” Recchi told the Track. “But a lot more of us are drinking wine. When you’re on the road as much as we are and you go out to dinner a lot, it’s nice to have a nice glass of wine.”
Recchi — who tells Wine Spectator that he has a 1,000-bottle cellar filled with classic French Bordeaux and California cabs — said he first started enjoying wine with his former teammate, Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Mario Lemieux. A trainer in Montreal later got him hooked.
“He had wine tastings and would serve cheese and pate,” he recalled. “It was really great.”
Wine, cheeses and pates. And here we thought hockey players were more the shot-and-a-beer and hard-boiled-eggs-from-behind-the-bar types!
Recchi said he started collecting California reds, such as Caymus and Insignia, in the ’90s and moved on to French wines from there.
“I’ve got some really good ones,” he said. “I have a 1989 Chateau Margaux and tons of ’86s and ’95s.”
Mark’s also got a 1970 Chateau Petrus, a super-rare vintage that sells for about $2,500 a bottle. He’s saving that one for something special. Like, say, a Stanley Cup!
As for Krejci, he wound up on a bottle of Italian Chianti purely by chance. Cam Rubin — whose dad, Brad, is director of sales for his family’s Ruby Wines — drew a picture of David in school and his mom, Anne, decided to have the drawing made into thank-you notes. After the family visited the Vignamaggio vineyards, Cam sent them a note and the winery promptly wrote back to ask whether they could use the drawing on one of their labels.
The Krejci Chianti is now available at restaurants and wine shops in the North End, and the Boston Bruins Foundation will raffle off some of the limited-edition vintage at an upcoming fund-raiser at Capital Grille.
Cheers!