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Richard Gere buys Madrid mansion with wine cellar
Hollywood actor Richard Gere has packed up and moved to Spain to start a new life after buying an €11 million mansion, complete with private wine cellar.
The Pretty Woman star will take residence in his new Spanish property, located in the northern Madrid municipality of Alcobendas, with his Spanish wife Alejandra Silva and their two children. He makes the move from Connecticut, New England, where the family has lived for six years.
Branding the step “a great adventure”, Gere lauded Spain for its “extraordinary food’, though the country’s winemakers may not be overly impressed that he chose to partner with an Italian region with which to make his own wine.
In 2012 Gere launched a Tuscan Brunello produced by Tenuta San Filippo di Montalcino and sold under the name Bedford Post. The actor, who also starred in An Officer and a Gentleman, is said to have had a lifelong love affair with Italian wine.
Gere, who once said: “I drink an enormous amount of wine; it’s unthinkable to have a meal without wine” also ensured that a Soave made it onto the wine list of the inn he once owned with his ex-wife, actress Carey Lowell. He also met his current wife in Positano, Italy, in 2014, before marrying her in 2018.
Gere previously told The Wall Street Journal that he likes “a big oaky Chardonnay”. He has also said in the past that he doesn’t think you need to spend “more than US$85 to get a good bottle of wine”, and has supported a number of charity wine events including ‘Pneumonia’s Last Syrah’, which helped raise funds for The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation, which helps immunise children around the world.
Gere’s new neighbours will no doubt be looking to persuade him of Spain’s many vinous merits, and if he wants to keep it local there are three subzones within DO Madrid which make quality wines, largely from Tempranillo and Garnacha.
“It will be wonderful to be closer to Alejandra’s family, her lifelong friends and her culture,” Gere told Vanity Fair Spain. “She was very generous in giving me six years living in my world, so it is only fair that I give her at least another six living years living in hers.”
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