For years, wine and Hollywood have shared a festive evening at the annual American Cinematheque Award (ACA) ceremony. On Dec. 6, that tradition continued in Beverly Hills, Calif., when Academy Award–winning actor Jessica Chastain was honored as the 38th ACA recipient.
The Interstellar and Scenes from a Marriage star celebrated the honor with Bordeaux from the event’s wine sponsor, the Bonnie family’s Château Malartic-Lagravière. Like past ACA recipients, Chastain signed an engraved, special-edition magnum of the château’s Pessac-Léognan, in this case the 2016 vintage (the same vintage signed by ACA honoree Helen Mirren earlier this year.)
“It is always our family’s pleasure and honor to be a part of the American Cinematheque annual event and have our wines served at the gala dinner,” Malartic co-owner Véronique Bonnie told Wine Spectator via email. Along with the magnum, Bonnie brought bottles of her family’s 2019 white and 2016 red for ACA guests to enjoy. “Jessica told me that she loves wines, so I hope she enjoyed both our red and white.”
Coinciding with the event, Malartic has made a donation to Chastain’s preferred charitable organization, Women for Women International, and the autographed bottle has returned to the château, where it will sit among other magnums signed by ACA honorees.
“The highlight of this year’s event, for me personally, was [Chastain’s] speech, which touched me emotionally,” said Bonnie. “I realized that acting can be very challenging, for that matter the whole cinema industry is challenging, just as winemaking [is]. We always face challenges with Mother Nature, constantly adapting to it and striving to make the best wine … a wine that brings together and provides unforgettable emotions, just as cinema does!”
Malartic on the Red Carpet
With this year’s ceremony, Chastain joins a prestigious group of past magnum signers, including Ryan Reynolds in 2022, Scarlett Johansson in 2021 and Charlize Theron, the first honoree to sign, in 2019.
Like those stars, Malartic has had its fair share of Tinseltown moments: It was the wine sponsor for the 2023 Santa Barbara International Film Festival and has lent its support to the Film Independent and Tribeca Film Festival ceremonies in Los Angeles and New York, respectively.
In recent years, the Bonnies helped promote Kenneth Brannagh’s A Haunting in Venice, after their wine was featured in the director’s previous Hercule Poirot movie, Death on the Nile. Their Bordeaux also had roles in Taken II (written by vintner Robert Kamen) and on Netflix series Emily in Paris.
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