Winery Wins the Game of Product Placement

In the script for "The Terminal," the character played by Tom Hanks woos a flight attendant during a romantic dinner with Champagne on the menu. Director Steven Spielberg decided that was too pretentious.

Happily for prop master David Harlocker, Napa Valley winery Clos du Val had hand-delivered several bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon to the set in Palmdale in anticipation of such an opportunity.

"We offered up a bottle," said Harlocker, "and Steven said that would work fine."

It was a move worthy of an Oscar. The Clos du Val Cabernet -- with its lens-catching terra-cotta-colored label -- will be easily visible to viewers when "The Terminal" opens June 18. Already, the bottle stars in the movie's trailers and promotional stills.

Clos du Val, a small maker of premium wine, could never afford to hire a star of Hanks' stature as an endorser. But by devoting 240 cases of its 65,000-case annual production as freebies for Hollywood, the winery has won dozens of stealth product placements near big-time celebrities.

In last year's Academy Award-nominated film "21 Grams," Sean Penn contemplates death over a bottle of the Napa winery's Cabernet. James Gandolfini serves Clos du Val in the HBO mob drama "The Sopranos." Ray Romano pours it on the CBS sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond." Malinda Williams sipped it in the Showtime series "Soul Food."

No one tracks wine placements in films and television programs, but Aaron Gordon, president of the Set Resources entertainment marketing firm in Santa Monica, believes that Clos du Val appears in more shows than any other brand.

The winery pays Gordon's firm a fee "somewhat south of $5,000 a month" to keep Clos du Val in the minds of Hollywood bigwigs, primarily by figuring out which directors, actors and prop masters should get free wine. Set Resources also offers up cases of Clos du Val to be served at premieres and other showbiz galas. But unlike with many product placement arrangements, the winery doesn't pay the studios to include its products in their productions.

All told, Clos du Val gives away about $36,000 worth of wine at wholesale prices.

Over the last year, Gordon said, Clos du Val wine has appeared in about 100 films and television shows, including "The O.C.," "Judging Amy," "Las Vegas" and "Two and a Half Men." Although there's no way to measure the effect on the company's revenue, wine sales in the first quarter of this year were almost 50% higher than a year ago, said Brooke Correll, a former MTV executive who is vice president of marketing for the privately held winery.