A Very Good Year

WHEN HE entertains at home these days, Manny Ramirez keeps quiet about his wine. "When friends come over, we pour them a glass and wait to see what they think," says the Red Sox slugger. "So far everyone seems to like it."

The selection is Manny Being Merlot, one of three Chilean wines marketed by Ramirez (far right and above) and fellow Red Sox Curt Schilling (center and bottom of page) and Tim Wakefield to raise money for charity. Manny's houseguests are among the few who've tried it—the wines, imported by Massachusetts--based Charity Wines, hit shelves in June—but that hasn't stopped besotted Red Sox fans from pre-ordering 264,000 bottles. "It blows me away," says Wakefield, whose selection is a cabernet sauvignon. "It's not like it's a Bordeaux from France, but it's for a great cause."

Each player earmarked a charity and each helped select and name his wine: Wakefield, a knuckleballer, came up with Caberknuckle, while Schilling's wife, Shonda, suggested her husband's be called Schardonnay. Ramirez, a budding oenophile, named his based on a catchphrase in Red Sox Nation. "I always hear, 'That's just Manny being Manny,'" he says. "I thought Manny Being Merlot—now that's a fun name." How do they taste? We asked an expert.