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The Loop

Butch Harmon enters wine business, introduces Butch Harmon Wine Club

February 24, 2015

The wine business is popular among those in golf, foremost among them vintners Ernie Els, Greg Norman, David Frost, Cristie Kerr, Luke Donald, Annika Sorenstam and Jack Nicklaus.

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Now Butch Harmon can be added to the list. Harmon has teamed with the Broken Earth Winery in Paso Robles, Calif., to form the Butch Harmon Wine Club that debuted last week.

The winery, through an association with PGA Magazine, was introduced to Harmon, and "we seemed to hit it off pretty well," director of winemaking Chris Cameron said. It likely helped that the winery's owner, Jerry Forsythe, was there as well. Forsythe had a golf course, Canyata, built on his estate in Marshall, Ill. Canyata ranked 60th on Golf Digest's list of America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses.

"We got to talking about putting something together," Cameron said. "Butch is a pretty good wine connoisseur. We brought him out to the winery to see what we dod and how we do things."

Harmon has input into the wine, Cameron said. "We sit down with him, talk about blends, and have a look," Cameron said.

The introductory cost of the club is $299, which includes two bottles of Butch Harmon Reserve Cabernet (one of them signed by Harmon), a Harmon golf instructional video, a Harmon Wine Club putter cover and invitations to wine club events that will be wine and golf driven, Cameron said. After that, two bottles (one of them signed by Harmon) are shipped four times a year with different Harmon wine labels. The wine will be available only to club members.

As for the quality of wine from the Paso Robles region on the central coast of California, the renowned wine critic Robert Parker Jr. called "one of the most exciting wine regions in the United States, if not the world."