Kathie Lee Gifford

• Most of America is familiar with Kathie Lee Gifford from one of her endeavors -- TV host, commercial spokesperson, producer, singer-actress, and so forth. But, now she has loaned her name to a line of wines produced by Scheid Family Vineyards of Monterey, CA. Here are a couple of her comments in an interview with Connecticut Magazine.

Q: You have had so much success, but is this a case of getting better with age?

A: It has nothing to do with age, but an opportunity to do something new. I was approached about getting involved in working with the Scheid family and its wines, and I thought “Why not?” But, I am not the kind of celebrity who lends my name, takes the money and runs. I wanted to be a partner in it and be part of it. The Scheids make excellent wines, although honestly, I wasn’t familiar with them at first. I had given up on California wines. The California chardonnays that I had loved had become so oaky, thick and heavy, they looked like a urine specimen. When we talked about it, the Scheids said, “We can make a chardonnay wine like you remember.” They did and we came up with a label and then we went on to do something again, this time a red blend. And have just kept going.

Q: Do you consider yourself a wine expert now?

A: No, not an expert, but I know what I love and I don’t compromise on that. It’s a hard business to break into. And, most celebrity wines aren’t successful. I was excited with the pinot grigio we introduced last year and then a pinot noir that is very unique. The new craze is a white blend with like 10 wines in it, and that’s our new baby coming. The name will be Bountiful. ... Because of the shortage of cork, our wines have screw tops. Our tagline is “Too easy to open, too hard to put down.”

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