McCollum will be present at a Saturday meet and greet with Adelsheim Vineyard, with which he has had a partnership since 2017.
C.J. McCollum will return to Oregon Saturday to for a meet and greet and wine tasting at the Adelsheim Vineyard.
McCollum, who played for the Portland Trail Blazers from 2013 until last year, when he was traded to the New Orleans Pelicans, first partnered with Adelsheim in 2017 to launch a 2018 pinot noir under his McCollum Heritage 91 label.
Saturday’s event — held in two sessions of 75 guests each — will include a meet and greet with McCollum, as well as tastings of a new 2022 rosé, a 2020 chardonnay and an Adelsheim pinot noir. The team will also distribute copies of of Oregon Wine + Food: The Cookbook, a newly released cookbook in which McCollum’s personal chef has a recipe, which he thinks pairs really well with the McCollum Heritage rosé.
Tickets for the event are free, but attendees must commit to purchasing at least three bottles of wine for curbside pickup at the winery.
“My wife introduced me to wine back in college,” McCollum tells Oregon Business. “As I continued to learn and grow, I just I began to explore why more the process of it, how it’s made, the taste of it — all those things — and how location, how the which the rows are planted, how those things are done shifts the taste.”
Part of the idea behind the partnership is to make wine more accessible, McCollum says.
“I wish I would have known that it’s OK to not know anything about wine and it’s okay to explore. It’s OK to be curious. It’s OK to not like things. Everybody’s taste buds are different,” McCollum says.
“You don’t have to be celebrating to enjoy wine,” he adds. “You can just enjoy wine in the comfort of your home or with friends and family and not be celebrating anything going on. I think that’s a cool part about wine that I think more people should follow and enjoy.”
