Metrokane has paired up with PBS to become a sponsor of a new show launching this month.
Called “Vine Talk,” the half-hour weekly program is hosted by actor Stanley Tucci, who will lead a panel of celebrities from the culinary and acting worlds through blind taste tests to select their favorite wines. Filmed in front of a studio audience, which also gets to participate in the blind taste tests, the show will include such guests as the actors John Lithgow, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, and Nathan Lane and chefs Daniel Boulud, Jonathan Waxman and Lidia Bastianich for its first season.
“We’ve been approached by other shows, but nothing has hit me quite like this,” said Riki Kane, president, Metrokane. “Stanley Tucci is exactly the right person—he’s well known, likeable and an oenophile.” The show is not just about wine, she added, but “about the world of entertaining. It’s like a fun talk show. There’s a wonderful mixed bag of guests.” Plus, “public television is suffering—it needs private support,” she said. “So it works for me on that level as well.”
Metrokane will air 15-second spots at the opening and closing of the show, which features its Rabbit wine accessories.
All 80 PBS stations nationwide have committed to airing “Vine Talk.” It first launches in the New York market on Thursday, April 7, at 10:30 p.m.
While this is Metrokane’s first television sponsorship, it has sponsored the radio program Wine & Web with Gary Vaynerchuk since it launched on Sirius XM last August.–Andrea Lillo