Everything I Learned During a Wine-Filled Dinner With NBA Hall of Famer Tony Parker

Within ten minutes of meeting Tony Parker for dinner at his San Antonio home last winter, it became abundantly clear that he pursues his love of wine with the same drive that he applied to his Hall of Fame career in the NBA.

The passion with which he speaks about both is contagious, and listening to him discuss the ways in which they’ve intersected over the years made me realize that his transition to the world of wine was more or less preordained.

“When I started tasting and drinking wine, I was 17 and loved it from day one,” Parker told me. “And when I got drafted by the Spurs at 19, I was very lucky that my coach [Gregg Popovich] loves wine. I remember being on the first road trip and seeing him reading a wine magazine, and I knew then that we were going to get along fine because he knew his wine, he had a huge collection. And me, I wanted to develop my knowledge of wine.”

To do that, Parker began hosting educational wine dinners at his home in 2009, relying on contacts that he already had in the French wine world – during summer breaks from the basketball season, he and his friends would visit châteaux throughout France, and he maintained and built on those relationships with the owners – as well as creating new ones. He would reach out to the great estates of France, arrange to have a high-ranking representative of the property fly to San Antonio, and host a dinner featuring numerous important vintages of that particular producer for his friends and teammates who shared his interest in wine.

“They'd bring crazy vintages and educate us on the [estate] that I invited that particular night…At first it was more like for me to educate myself and build good relationships with all those wine people, because I knew I wanted to invest in wine. And because I'm from France, I knew they were going to be real tough if I'm not legit.” Parker, in other words, didn’t want to just drink the good stuff — he wanted to immerse himself in its minutiae, its history. “And then,” he added, “in the summer, I [would] just go see them.”

It’s that last step that speaks to his dedication to the world of wine: It’s one thing to host a wine dinner at home, but another level entirely to then make a point of crossing the Atlantic and visiting the property in person to understand the history and terroirs of wines more intimately.

“They really appreciate when you come all the way to them, and spend time to know about their project or their families or whatever they're doing,” he continued, adding: “And that's how I started. I always knew that when I retired, I would like to invest in wine because I love this world. I'm passionate about it and I love doing dinners.”

Not long after he retired from the NBA, Parker connected with Michel Reybier, the French entrepreneur who is now Parker’s partner with Château La Mascaronne and Champagne Jeeper, the Provençal rosé estate and Champagne house, respectively. They met through mutual friends approximately eight months after Parker retired, and it turned out that they had a great deal in common: Both have homes in Lyon, both have been investors in the Lyon Basket basketball organization, and both love wine. What began as a friendship blossomed into a business partnership.

Michel Reybier is the owner of Bordeaux icon Cos d’Estournel, and a respected force in the world of French wine and hospitality. The two didn’t know each other well personally at first, but their circles had overlapped through the years. Parker had been a long-time collector of Cos d’Estournel; Reybier, at the time, owned the French basketball team that Parker ultimately purchased.

“I was very lucky to connect with him,” Parker continued, “and we talked for eight, nine months before we decided to do something together.”

For Parker, his work with and investment in the wine world is no vanity project. He’s intimately involved in — and utterly fascinated by — every aspect. Investing in La Mascaronne and Champagne Jeeper wasn’t just a savvy financial move, but also provided him with the opportunity to get even more hands-on about wine. 

“The good stuff is owned by families, generation after generation,” he explained. Either that, or the large groups like LVMH or Picard have snapped up many of the best estates. “So for me,” he continued, “I was trying to find a happy medium where I can partner with somebody and make sure that I can have the full effect of…going to the harvest, participating when they [blend], and tasting all the parcels. I was very lucky to have an opportunity with Monsieur Reybier, who let me invest with La Mascaronne and Jeeper, but [also] let me be part of the process and really enjoy all the aspects of the wine business.”

To that end, Parker has made it a point to be on hand for harvest at La Mascaronne for the past three years. He wants to understand not just the nature of the vintage, but also take part in blending the wine — he does the same with Jeeper. His sense of enthusiasm and respect is impressive, an extension of the same dedication that he showed on and off the basketball court during his storied career.

“For me, it's the same formula [as basketball],” he said. “It's just the work ethic…and discipline and just [being] passionate about what you're doing.” He added: “I was very successful in my first life and it finished unbelievably with the Hall of Fame. Now, in my second life, I want to do the same thing. I want to use the same passion.”

The wines embody that motivation. The Champagne Jeeper Brut Grande Assemblage is a generous and toasty wine crafted from 60% Chardonnay, 25% Pinot Noir, and the rest Pinot Meunier. The four years on the lees, and the further richness imparted by undergoing malolactic fermentation, has lent it lovely depth; Persimmon, nectarine, and citrus notes are layered with lemongrass and ginger and linger through the finish. The 2022 Château La Mascaronne is just as impressive, its blend of Cinsault, Grenache, Syrah, and Rolle structured and vibrant with flavors of cherries, stone fruit, and spice, a citrus and mineral spine, and the suggestions of flowers on the peppercorn-laced finish.

Over the course of the dinner at his home, we tasted several bottles of Champagne Jeeper and Château La Mascaronne. Listening to Parker discuss them, it was hard not to become just as enthusiastic as he is. The effort he put in on the basketball court and the work he’s doing now in the world of wine both come from a place of personal connection, determination, and passion, all of which are evident in the wines themselves.