Message from a bottle

You sometimes hear the phrase ‘rock-star winemaker’ – usually referring to a producer with slightly-longer-than-usual hair and a slightly-bigger-than-usual personality. But in this case it’s true. Sting, the ex-frontman of world-famous band The Police, who has enjoyed an extraordinarily successful solo musical career since 1985, is also a winemaker.

In 1997, Sting and his wife, the film producer, actor and director Trudie Styler, purchased a run-down 16th-century Tuscan villa, 45 minutes south of Florence. The estate, Il Palagio, came with about 350 hectares largely of forest, with vineyards, olive trees and lakes.

Trudie, whose father was a farmer, was desperate to restore not only the villa but the land too, to bring the ‘depleted and neglected’ vineyards and olive groves back to life.

Now, the couple produce about 150,000 bottles of wine a year – a sparkling, a white, a rosé and three reds – made using