SCENE EVERYBODY’S TALKING ABOUT IT…
ACTOR KYLE MACLACHLAN TALKS HIS NEW ROSÉ, ‘TWIN PEAKS’ REBOOT & WHERE HE HANGS IN THE HAMPTONS
July 21, 2016 | People
Give yourself a present every day? With the reboot of Twin Peaks and a new rosé from his wine label, Kyle MacLachlan is giving himself two.
“Wine has always played a significant part in my life,” says actor Kyle MacLachlan, “even when I was auditioning for the role in Dune, the first film I ever did and my first film with David Lynch. During our interview, before he even put me on film, we talked about being from the Northwest, and we talked about our shared love of red wine, and so after my first screen test, David sent me a bottle of red wine as a gesture, and we didn’t really know each other that well. I had met him and auditioned with him, and he very graciously sent over this bottle of wine. It’s kind of figured into my life.”
The maverick director and wine are converging once again for MacLachlan, who is gearing up for Showtime’s reboot of Lynch’s iconic 1990s series Twin Peaks, while Blushing Bear, a rosé from the actor’s wine label, is set to debut this summer.
MacLachlan launched the label, Pursued by Bear, in 2005 with a Cabernet-Merlot blend, and three years later he added a Syrah called Baby Bear to celebrate the birth of his son, Callum. The new rosé is made from three varietals, Grenache, Mourvèdre, and Cinsaut. “All three are part of a classic blend of what I think makes a great rosé,” he says. “I like a blend for my rosé.” He describes it as pale pink, refreshing, and beautifully aromatic, with strawberry and melon overtones.
Even though Long Island has excellent wineries, MacLachlan produces his in the Columbia Valley of Washington, his home state, because he wanted to involve his father. “He loved the whole idea of making wine and drinking wine,” the actor says, “and he was a gentleman farmer, so that’s a big reason why I chose to return home to do it there.”
His father has since passed away, but the family tradition lives on: His 8-year-old son loves going to the winery each summer. “It’s fun for a kid because there’s all sorts of things that are different to look at,” MacLachlan says. “The barrel rooms are wonderful and cool, and they have the smell of this beautiful oak combined with the fermenting wine, and there’s always a few dogs wandering around, because wineries and dogs just go together, so he loves playing with the animals.” The Walla Walla area is fairly rural, he adds, so they also go fishing and visit the goats on a friend’s farm. “It’s really a chance for Callum to get into rural nature in the manner in which I grew up, and being a kid in New York City, he doesn’t have that opportunity much, so I look forward to it every summer.”
Twin Peaks, of course, is set in the Northwest as well. “I’m very excited about Twin Peaks,” MacLachlan says, “and I’m very excited to see what the reception is going to be, because it’s David Lynch, I think, at his best. Right now he’s really in a place that’s just wonderfully creative and inspirational, so he’s at the top of his game.”
MacLachlan and his wife, Desiree Gruber, get out to the Hamptons each summer from their home in Manhattan. They met in 1999 while living in Los Angeles. “Shortly thereafter, I started filming Sex and the City,” he says, “and so there I was, working in New York, and she brought me out. We would go to visit her brother, who would get a house every summer. It’s such a great escape from New York.” Blushing Bear is available at Amagansett Wine & Spirits, 203 Main St., Amagansett, 267-3939