If you tried to visit Napa Valley’s Chimney Rock winery in spring 2022 and couldn’t get a reservation, it was for a good reason: The Stags Leap District winery was the backdrop for a recent episode of Fox’s Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars.
In this competition series, contestants vie for a $250,000 investment from chef Gordon Ramsay to bolster their fledgling food start-ups. In addition to using the winery as the setting for the episode, Chimney Rock winemaker Elizabeth Vianna also played a key role.
For the episode, which aired earlier this month, contestants were split into two teams and challenged to create a bespoke-themed gift basket—including a custom-blended wine. It was a marketing and branding challenge, however, not winemaking. And that’s where Vianna came in. When the producers approached Chimney Rock about filming on the winery grounds, they began chatting with her about winemaking, and the challenge evolved to include the teams creating their own wine.
Vianna said the contestants got a short off-camera crash course. “I showed them what a graduated cylinder is and gave them a cheat sheet,” she laughed. Vianna said she was familiar with the process because they’ve done similar blending events with wine club members. “It’s about bringing it down to a simple level,” she explained, noting that blending starts with 60 components for her, whereas the contestants only had three.
One team chose a red wine to go with a spa-themed basket, and the other a white for a picnic theme. And the results? A guest audience of locals—keen eyes may spot a Wine Spectator senior editor among them—rated each basket’s theme and tasted the wines, providing feedback. Ramsay and Vianna had tasted the contestants' first attempt the day before and found faults in both, but the final products were received much more favorably. However, during the final judging, Vianna pointed out that both teams should have taken advantage of an opportunity to put Napa Valley on their label, a huge misstep in a contest about marketing and branding.
Vianna said working behind the scenes and seeing her and her team become an active part of making the show come together was exciting. And of meeting Ramsay, Vianna said that despite his crunchy TV persona, he is quite lovely and polite. “It was great to hang out with him and see him thinking, and understand what kind of person builds an empire like he has.”
Enjoy Unfiltered? The best of Unfiltered's round-up of drinks in pop culture can now be delivered straight to your inbox every other week! Sign up now to receive the Unfiltered e-mail newsletter, featuring the latest scoop on how wine intersects with film, TV, music, sports, politics and more.
