Joe Blanton’s career as a major-league baseball pitcher introduced him to a passion that would become his next one: winemaking.
“It was honestly baseball that got me into wine,” Blanton said. “I know that sounds a little weird, but when I was a younger player and we used to travel a lot, the older guys would pick up the dinner and we would usually go to steakhouses and they would always order wine.”
Blanton, who won a World Series ring in 2008 after his first season with the Phillies and pitched for the team until 2012, purchased a vineyard on Howell Mountain in Napa Valley in 2014.