Emilio Estevez Is 'Real Passionate' About Winemaking

," says Meal. "The real challenge is to get a crop, especially since we don't get enough heat. That's the challenge. The mountains are good for cabs, but Emilio is way out near the ocean and that has its challenges. And, of course, the lack of land is an issue."

That said, Malibu Village Wines always sells out of Casa Dumetz stock. "Some people want it because they know Emilio. It's unique in that way and it sells because of the name. A lot of people don't know this, but back when he was in the Brat Pack, he was into wine. He knew his stuff."

Estevez started the business in 2005 while working on the Robert F. Kennedy biopic 'Bobby.' His fiancee Sonja Magdevski returned home to find the actor-director ripping up the grass in his 1-acre backyard in Malibu to make room for 800 vines. "We were just a couple of rubes," Estevez told The New York Times. "Now, I'm a zealot."

The director calls the venture "a meditation" that helps him write scripts and negotiate the turbulent movie business. "I write a lot of dialogue out there," he says about a recent project. "I'd do a row and then back inside to write and then back outside. It was this wonderful exchange."

Despite Malibu having perhaps one of the worst environments for growing grapes -- winters are too warm and heavy fog destroys crops, while mold, mildew, skunks, raccoons, gophers, deer, birds, bees and wasps pose a constant threat -- Casa Dumetz is expanding this year, tripling its output to 624 cases. The vineyard's wines are priced at $30 to $40 per bottle.

Estevez isn't trying to cash in on his fame, as only the name "Don Emilio" appears on the bottle. The 'Mighty Ducks' star has kept a low profile on his passion project, and was only recently spotted by a reporter pouring his wine at a local tasting. Magdevski, Estevez says, makes the decisions while he's happy to toil as a farm hand.

He's not the first to cultivate the tight, sloped terrain of Malibu. Following in the steps of Catholic priests who planted grapes in the area hundreds of years ago, Michael McCarty, owner of the restaurant Michael's in Santa Monica, planted a 2-acre vineyard in 1985. Twenty-five years later, dozens of popular wines are now produced in Malibu.

"There's like 28 vineyards here now," Meal says. "Everybody is planting grapes. In the last five years it's taken off. And they get better every year."Filed under: Celebrity Eats - Highbrow - Movie News - Top News Tags: Emilio Estevez
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