We might say that winemaking’s a job, or a hobby, that requires time, patience, passion, and… lots of money. So, where would one get it to fund a vineyard, you might ask? Well, the answer for Maynard James Keenan was quite apparent as he revealed that he was making music to fund his passion during a recent chat with Jancis Robinson.
Being a musician is surely beyond a usual occupation for Maynard, as the singer’s been into tunes, melodies, chords, and all the things a musical genius might be interested in from a very young age. Winemaking, however, might be considered a more recently found passion, as the Tool icon has been growing crops and harvesting for two decades.
And luckily, Keenan has found a brilliant way to bring together his two pursuits. So, although winemaking’s indeed an expensive hobby, the singer is able to create funding through what he enjoys the most, which, you might guess, is making music and touring. Well, when the host jokingly pointed out how Maynard had been touring to fund his vineyard, Keenan also amusingly replied that he was.
“Yeah, it’s a hundred-percent true because it’s very expensive, and it’s not all successes,” Maynard said, admitting to making music to finance his modest vineyard. “We have as many failures as we have successes. When it comes to sites, varieties, and approach, it took us four years of growing Nebbiolo to realize that it wanted to be cane-pruned.”
So, even though Maynard initially made a few mistakes, he learned from them and improved. The rocker recalled, “We’re like, ‘Why isn’t this shoot producing? Oh, look, this book that we should have read that Jancis [the host] wrote [Wine Grapes] told us that, and we didn’t read it.’ So now we’re making a lot of mistakes, but we’re learning from them. So I think that’s the bigger hurdle.”
Like with music, he was also experimental in winemaking and always wished to try out new varieties. Keenan noted, “So the next step is we’re trying to find that other couple white grapes in Arizona, other than Malvasia, that expresses differently to see what we can come up with as far as a variety of white for the whole state.”
Maynard James Keenan half-joked and half-embraced how it was true that he made music to fund his vineyard and passion for winemaking. So, the singer’s undoubtedly a lucky fellow since not everyone’s fortunate enough to work in another occupation to support the other.
