RUSH Guitarist Talks Wine On 'Drink Bravely With Mark Oldman'

In episode 14 of "Drink Bravely With Mark Oldman", entitled "The Lifeson Ledge" (see clip below),Mark Oldman, lead judge in the PBS TV series "The Winemakers", takes off to the Great White North to visit with RUSH's Alex Lifeson, the legendary rock guitarist and one of the wine-passionate "Bravehearts" featured in the book "Oldman's Brave New World of Wine". We learn how Alex's wife accidentally swipes one of his cherished bottles and how the musician devises a solution to prevent future incursions — an ingenious idea Mark dubs a "Lifeson Ledge". This is cautionary tale for all drinkers interested in discouraging the unauthorized removal of their favorite vino.

In a 2007 interview with Wine Spectator, Lifeson explained how he first got into wine. "I think I started looking for wines to buy in 1975," he said. "Before that, the wines we drank were like Castelvetro, Mateus and those sort of wines. That was our basic knowledge of wine. When we started touring, we had very limited access to wine because we were an opening act. Two bottles of Blue Nun and Night Train is what we used to get in the dressing room in the early days . . . You got a loaf of white bread, some ham and some cheese, a couple of bottles of Blue Nun and a case of beer. It tasted great, Blue Nun, because that was all we knew. [Then] there was a gig in Milwaukee, and the promoter there had an interest in wine. He took us to a restaurant after a show there and he asked, 'Do you guys like wine?" We said, "Oh yeah, we love it! We drink Blue Nun all the time!' He took us to this restaurant and said, 'Now you're going to drink a bottle of Latour and a bottle of Margaux.' This was in 1975, so I don't remember the vintage but I would guess it was probably something like a '70. I was just blown away by how amazing it could taste. It had so much depth to it, and it evolved in the course of this dinner. We were there for a couple of hours at least; the wines became different — I had no idea that wine could be like that. So we got home and I would buy a bottle of this and a bottle of that, and work my way up. Maybe a grand cru if I could afford that. And I found the Riojas that were so cheap yet tasted so good."