Wrestler Chris Jericho’s Wine Fires Up Fans … and Enemies - 6th December 2019

The champ is making a bubbly called A Little Bit of the Bubbly. But what does the reigning villain of wrestling-winemaking think of that?

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Will it come down to the dreaded Hell in a Cellar match? (Courtesy of Nocking Point Wines)

By Shawn Zylberberg, Peter Lane

Howls, threats and taunts are the long-cherished language of pro wrestling, but in 2019, macho doesn't sound quite how it used to. So after winning the first AEW (All Elite Wrestling) World Champion title in September, ring legend Chris Jericho triumphantly strode backstage covered in sweat, bruises and blood and, on spotting a table of victory spoils, growled, "Ooh! A little bit of the bubbly!"

It took just three months for Jericho's much-memed expression to get slapped on a bottle of "A Little Bit of the Bubbly" bubbly, and Le Champion's enophilic enthusiasm has already sold 1,000 cases of the Columbia Valley sparkling wine. A Little Bit of the Bubbly is a collaboration between Jericho, AEW and Nocking Point Wines in Walla Walla, Wash. “It came together remarkably fast for anything to do with alcohol,” Nocking Point co-owner (and star of the TV superhero series Arrow, and occasional pro wrestler) Stephen Amell told Unfiltered. “This thing went from a viral sensation to wine being finished and television being produced around it within six weeks."

Jericho was jazzed about the bubbly from the start, but a previous attempt at creating a wine had put him on the ropes. “Getting your own spirit is not easy,” Jericho told Unfiltered. “It was not something I wanted to go down the same road again, so there were certain specifics I was looking for,” which the winery met, with the help of Rotie Cellars winemaker Sean Boyd.

And with that, Jericho becomes the undisputed heavyweight champion of wrestling wine—wait, what's that noise? A cello? Bah gawd, that's Niles Plonk's music!!! “If he wants to bring me in, I’d definitely give him a lesson or two on class and educate him on the finer points of drinking his bubbly wine,” the Missouri winemaker by day and wine-snob–wrestler by night told Unfiltered when he heard about Jericho's entry into the vino arena. Or, The Connoisseur suggested, they might work as a tag-team pairing—if they could keep their tempers corked. “It’s a matter of who sets the other one’s ego off the most, then it could probably come to blows.”

Jericho, for his part, dismissed the idea of allowing his rivals even a little bit of the bubbly. “I wouldn’t share it with them," he said. "I’d sip it myself.” Folks, this one might have to be settled in a steel tank match—or even the grueling Hell in a Cellar.—S.Z.

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(Wine Spectator)