Operation: Winecrime

Following in the footsteps of Maynard from Tool andLil Jon, Geoff Tate from Queensrÿche is now producing wine, and his reasons for starting the project were somewhat amusingly told to the Salt Lake City Tribune. Plus, Friday seems like an excellent day for some “Silent Lucidity”!

Hush now, wine drinker, don’t you cry: you can be assured Geoff Tate has only the most oenophilic intentions with his new venture.

Tate’s touring to promote Insania, a Bordeaux-style wine he developed at Three Rivers Winery in Walla Walla, Wash. “I’m a wine collector but not a wino,” Tate said in an interview from his home state of Washington. “I’ve tried it in so many countries that I’ve come to appreciate it.”

Several years ago, Tate met Holly Turner, a winemaker at Three Rivers Winery. They struck up a friendship, and eventually Turner offered the singer the opportunity to try his hand at crafting a wine blend.

After trial and error, Tate said, he found a flavor that “expresses how I feel about wine,” which he said was a great dark fruit, with a nice, long finish. “When you taste it, you’ll know why it’s called Insania,” Turner said.

Insania. A wine called Insania. Just take a moment and take that in.

In other Geoff Tate news, his solo touring band features a member of Third Eye Blind. (Guess which one!)

I wish I could have my own wine brand. I don’t drink a lot of wine, but I do cook with it sometimes. They don’t seem to just hand those things out, however–you might need to have had a No. 1 Mainstream Rock single to qualify. Bad news for me, but great news for the members of Shinedown.

Geoff Tate uncorks new wine and music projects [Salt Lake City Tribune]