Carmelo Anthony: Wine Connoisseur

The Syracuse legend was recently featured on a wine magazine cover.

Mike McAllister | Apr 14, 2021

Carmelo Anthony: Wine Connoisseur /

Former Syracuse and current NBA star Carmelo Anthony is featured on the May issue of Wine Spectator Magazine. Melo has become quite the wine aficionado, which led to being put on the cover of the latest issue. Not only does Melo collect win, but he is also creating his own.

In addition, Melo has a YouTube series called "What's In Your Glass?" where he interviews celebrities about wine and a variety of other topics. Guests in the series include Patti LaBelle, Candace Parker, LL Cool J, Chris Paul, Damian Lillard, Snoop Dogg, Tiffany Haddish and many others.

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"During quarantine, I remember being in Zooms all day long, talking to people, and people sharing photos of bottles of wine and saying, ‘Hey, this is what we’re drinking,’" Anthony said in the Wine Spectator article. "I thought, let’s share a toast. Quarantine is stressful, the pandemic is crazy, let’s sit back and have a glass of wine. I started doing it every Monday, just friends and family.

“It was supposed to be just about wine, but so many other things were happening in our community and society and that led to, ‘OK, we’re talking about wine but we’re also going to address the issues happening in our community and our country…And what better way to discuss what’s happening in our world than over a glass of wine?”

Melo traces some of his passion for wine back to a 2015 trip with LeBron James, Chris Paul and Dwayne Wade.

"We had so many conversations about wine," Anthony told Wine Spectator. "So much was spurred by that trip…I think that was really the start of the wine culture in the NBA. Other guys saw and said, ‘Oh sh*t, I see. It’s cool to drink wine. Look at what they’re doing. They’re having a good time, eating good food, drinking good wine.'"

Anthony is averaging 13.3 points and 3.2 rebounds per game for the Portland Trail Blazers this season while shooting over 38% from beyond the arc.

Published Apr 14, 2021

MIKE MCALLISTER

Title: Publisher All Syracuse Education: Roberts Wesleyan College Location: Syracuse, New York Expertise: Syracuse basketball, football and recruiting. EXPERIENCE Mike McAllister has been covering Syracuse basketball, football and recruiting for more than a decade. Mike's career started with his own free blog as a way to vent following sporting events. Shortly thereafter, a network of basketball sites called Coast 2 Coast Hoops asked him to run their Syracuse site. That site was called Nation of Orange, and Mike quickly established it as a go-to for Syracuse fans. After running Nation of Orange for several months, a position with the Syracuse site on the Scout network became available. After one year as the recruiting expert with Cuse Nation, he was named the publisher. Mike oversaw the transition from Scout to 247Sports, and ran the site on that network for years. Presented with the opportunity to join one of the biggest names in the sports journalism industry, Sports Illustrated, Mike jumped at the chance. All Syracuse was started from scratch by Mike and the Fan Nation team. It has now become a staple for Orange fans of various sports. Mike has broken news on recruiting, Syracuse basketball and football team information and has established himself as the top recruiting inside in the market. He has appeared on local radio shows, television broadcasts, national radio shows and much more. Mr. McAllister has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting and Information Management from Roberts Wesleyan College.