San Francisco Giants Team Manager Bruce Bochy may seem to be caught up in baseball 24/7, but when he’s off you might just bump into him in Wine Country.
Of course Bochy wouldn’t disclose much about where he roams when he was at AT&T Park on Monday. He only said that he frequents this area and he’s a wine guy who drinks red, white and champagne.
“I have to be careful,” Bochy said. “I don’t want to leave anybody out. I spend time in Napa Valley. Yes, Sonoma and Healdsburg, as well.”
Bochy, who is 6’4”, towered over the curious who came to sample the sparkler that Mumm Napa produced in collaboration with the Giants. But they also came, no doubt, to catch a glimpse of Bochy, who was at the helm during the Giants’ 2010 and 2012 World Series wins.
It’s not every day you get to meet up with the mastermind of victories who made the entire Bay Area go crazy for a spell. And a World Series win is just that – a spell – an intoxicating spell, with confetti flying and an endless uncorking of frothy sparklers.
Of course when Bochy isn’t caught up in the spell, when he’s not consumed by baseball, he’s fishing or wine tasting, and we can expect him to continue his jaunts into Wine Country since he recently signed an extension of his contract through 2016.
Bochy is looking to have more wins and wants to make bubbly a staple. The collaboration makes Mumm Napa the official sparkling wine of the Giants, and here’s a glimpse of the two bottlings:
For sports collectors and wine aficionados, the Championship Brut ($125) is a onetime run, limited edition release of only 2,012 bottles created to celebrate the Giants’ 2012 World Series win.
The Giants Brut Prestige ($27) will be more widely available throughout the baseball season. As the name suggests, this wine is a special bottling of Mumm Napa’s Brut Prestige. The Giants have had a long standing love for Brut Prestige: during last year’s playoff series and World Series Championship, they celebrated each series win with the wine.
Can Giants fanatics become bubbly fanatics? Who knows? But there is something to what winemaker Ludovic Dervin says: “In victory one deserves champagne, and in defeat one needs champagne.”
