His interests include film (he’s produced some of most successful movies ever), art (a collector and patron) and wine (proprietor of a flourishing winery). What’s in his future?
Proprietor: Michael Lynne
What is next for Michael Lynne, now that he has left New Line Cinema, the highly successful movie production company of which he was co-chair and co-CEO? The most credible theory is that Lynne and his partner Bob Shaye, executive producers of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and a host of other hit films, will transition from the business they started (now part of Time Warner) and start a new production company with offices in New York and Los Angeles.
You’d think Lynne might have cashed out. He certainly must have enough money. And he has a very full life outside of work. Besides the day job, he is the proprietor of Bedell Cellars in Cutchogue, by any measure one of the most important wineries on Long Island. But Lynne is not a typical 67 year-old mogul—and his drive and creativity only seem to increase with the years and the successes.
With his impressive collection of contemporary art, his prominent place in the New York art and business and worlds, and a weekend home in East Hampton, it is no surprise he has been able to get artists like Eric Fischl, Ross Bleckner, Barbara Kruger and April Gornick to create a series of original images for Bedell and its Corey Creek label. (Mouton Rothschild first conceived the idea of an art label, and each year since 1945 one of the international art world’s top names has produced an image for that Chateau’s label. Lynne now appears to be making a bid to come close, even if on a much smaller scale, to the extraordinary pre-eminence of Mouton.)
The newest Bedell label features a ravishingly beautiful and haunting daguerreotype by Chuck Close. Utilizing this intricate, laborious and now rare photographic process, Close was able to give a conventional image of a bunch of fresh grapes the sublime, elusive, ethereal quality of a Renaissance painting. Could this radiant image really be mechanical? I’d have guessed it was a detail from a Caravaggio.
It was important to Lynne to have a label that was not just current and stylish, but truly gorgeous, because it graces his best achievement to date in winemaking, appropriately named Musée. “I wanted something very special for the label of Musée,” Lynne told me, “and was hopeful that Chuck Close would agree to do the label art. I was confident that Chuck would create something thoughtful, original and timeless and, as you’ve seen, his wonderful portrait of merlot grapes sends the perfect message about the quality of the wine in the bottle.”
Produced from the excellent 2005 harvest, it is a blend of mostly merlot, with some cabernet sauvignon and a bit of petit verdot. The bouquet is sensual, and the taste rich, velvety and textured. The wine, like the art, has depth and has soul. The complexity and flavor will remind you of top quality Bordeaux, exactly what we might expect from Bedell’s consulting oenologist, Pascal Marty, who for fourteen years was Director of Winemaking for Baron Philippe de Rothschild.
When asked about the future, Lynne responded, “Our vineyards at Bedell, Wells Road and Corey Creek are now showing the results of techniques instituted by Pascal Marty over the last several years. We are getting wonderful fruit from all of our varietals, which is raising the quality of all of our wines, from the entry level First Crush wines to Gallery and Musée. We’re also lucky to have Kelly Urbanik as our new head winemaker. She brings her special talents to bear as she works with Kip Bedell.”
It looks as if Michael Lynne has some good years and good vintages ahead of him.
