The first barrel of vino I produced at Bacchus a few years ago turned out so great that I decided to give the ancient art of winemaking another shot. This time I partnered with my good friend George Zampelli, whom I met 18 years ago when I first moved to Cleveland to coach the Cavaliers.

George and I decided to produce two blends: an 80/20 Napa Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot and a 70/30 Amador Sangiovese/Napa Cabernet Sauvignon. We named our red collaboration Fratelli, a fusion our surnames Fratello and Zampelli, which means brothers in Italian.

After aging both batches in oak for two years, George and I returned to Bacchus to bottle the wine with some friends this summer. It took us hours to label and cork all 500 bottles, but we had a lot of fun sampling the fermented fruit of our labor while we worked.