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Sting claims that he and his wife, Trudie Styler, were deceived when they bought a Tuscany vineyard in the 1990s from an Italian Duke.
The Police frontman explained in a recent interview with the Italian magazine Sette (as reported by Food and Wine) that they were interested in buying the 865-acre estate after visiting it in the late-'90s.
The owner, Duke Simone Vincenzo Velluti Zati di San Clemente, endeavored to close the deal with a drink.
"He offered us a glass of red from a carafe during one of our early visits to Il Palagio," Sting recalled. "We were negotiating the purchase. We liked the property a lot, even though it was in ruins. The duke asked me if I wanted to taste the wine produced by the estate and I said yes. It was an excellent wine and that convinced me to buy the vineyards as well."
But as you've probably figured out by now, the wine offered by the duke was not at all from Il Palagio, or even Tuscany, was a Barolo, produced in a region about 250 miles northwest of the estate — according to Sting.
He says he didn't learn the truth until much later, after tasting the vineyard's lackluster yield from the source and sharing it with friends.
"When we served the wine from the estate to our guests, I saw that someone was emptying their glass into a flowerbed," Sting said of the vineyard's yield at the time. "It was then that we decided to avenge ourselves and to show that it was possible to produce excellent wine from the vineyards at Palagio. Our whole Tuscan adventure has really been a way of getting our own back."
The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer has spun the tale into one of his many triumphs, but the Duke's son, Simone San Clemente, Jr., and many familiar with the rich history of the estate say the story is insulting. Speaking with the Italian newspaper Correiere della Sera (per Page Six), San Clemente, Jr. called the story "false, poisonous slander" and assailed Sting for only uttering it publicly a bobbo morto, after his father passed away.
“Apart from the fact that an internationally experienced gentleman like Sting should not confuse Barolo with Chianti [produced by Palagio], Nebbiolo with Sangiovese, nothing could be more alien to my father’s character, habits, behavior, in one word, to his spirit, than to behave like a swindling innkeeper," San Clemente, Jr. said in response.
He continued, noting that his father lived for more than a decade after selling Il Palagio to Sting and Styler. If the couple truly felt swindled, they could have done something about it.
The issue is personal for San Clemente, Jr. on multiple levels, as Sting also uses the San Clemente coat of arms on his wine labels.
“But above all, isn’t Sting afraid that the karma he holds so dear might come back to visit him? When he wakes up in the morning, can’t he think of anything more enlightening to say? Or is it just about selling his pizza and wine, because after all, there will never be enough money in his portfolios.”
Nowadays, Sting's winery produced around 150,000 bottles a year, including a sparkling wine, three reds, a rosé and a white.
San Clemente, Jr. and his family would like ifthe vineyard to also produce an apology.