These days, you can't be an A-list celebrity unless you have your own wine label or, for that matter, your own winery. Sting has his vineyards in Tuscany; Francis Ford Coppola has operated Niebaum-Coppola (now Rubicon Estate) in Napa, Calif., for decades. Even the Rolling Stones, Madonna and Kiss have gotten into the wine business — or perhaps more accurately, the wine endorsement business.

But you don't have to be among the living superstars to have your name or likeness emblazoned on a wine bottle. Many deceased cultural icons have gone on — post-career — to sell some pretty good wine. The world's most iconic sex symbol, the late Marilyn Monroe, for one, has her face and a few other body parts on a line of wines. At first blush, you might think a wine named Marilyn Merlot might be more of a novelty item, but Nova Wines of Napa Valley has been making Monroe-themed wines for more than 20 years to critical acclaim.

"There are still some people who see it as a novelty," says Bob Holder, president of Nova Wines. "A lot of people are more familiar with the wines now, but I'll still meet people every once in a while who, when I tell them I make Marilyn Merlot, they snicker a little."

But truly the wine came first with Marilyn Merlot. "A small group of three or four friends were making wine in our carport in Rutherford [Calif.]. Mostly cabernet sauvignon," recalled Holder. "We planted some merlot in our backyard and we were trying to come up with a name for those wines. One evening, we were together with a fourth friend who is not in the winemaking business—Denys Cazet and his wife, Donna—who said, 'Why don't you call it Marilyn Merlot?' The name just kind of hung in the air and we said, 'Yeah, that's it.' "

Now, in addition to Marilyn Merlot (a bottle of the 1985 vintage, by the way, goes for nearly $4,000 at auction), Nova produces a cabernet sauvignon, an easy-drinking Norma Jeane merlot and a limited-edition, ultra-sexy line called the Velvet Collection. The Velvet Collection not only features some of the best barrels made by veteran winemaker John McKay, it also has a peel-and-peek label showing the vivacious Monroe in her famous 1953 Playboy centerfold pose stretched out on a red velvet drape.

While Marilyn Monroe naturally plays to a male audience, the oh-so-cool James Dean offers a little vino for the ladies. Robert Ferguson, one of the founders of V V Wines and an avid Marilyn Merlot collector, recalled how the idea for James Dean Rebel Red sprang forth. "We were all having a glass of wine when we saw Marilyn Monroe on a bottle of wine and we said, 'Sheesh, we could make a little money on something like this!' "

Ferguson, his wife, Patsy, and an anonymous partner (an executive in a large, nationally known winery) started throwing names of male counterparts to the sultry Monroe merlot. The iconic Dean came naturally. "We knew Marilyn Monroe was the No. 1 female icon, and we thought James Dean was the No. 1 male icon, so we contacted his estate and were able to get the licensing rights."

Ferguson faced the same skepticism confronted by the makers of Marilyn Merlot early on: a cute, collectible bottle, but how good can the wine be? "All celebrity wines get looked at as a novelty, except for the Marilyn wines, which have had a long presence," said Ferguson, who has nearly every vintage of Marilyn Merlot. "A lot of people look at [James Dean] wine as a novelty. When we got started, we wanted to do something special because we were wine drinkers before we were wine producers. We wanted to make something that we wanted to drink."

A much more modest operation than Marilyn's wines, Rebel Red, now on its third bottling, currently offers 1,000 cases for $24 to $40 a bottle, depending on the vintage. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the automobile wreck that took James Dean's life in 1955, V V Wines is releasing 112 cases of 2005 reserve wine. And for another commemorative touch, Ferguson has changed the blend of the Rebel Red wine to include grapes grown about three miles from the crash site.

Ferguson hasn't ruled out making more wine, but the 1,000 or so cases is about all his three-member team can handle without giving up their day jobs. He is a vice president for a faucet manufacturing company, and his wife, V V's CEO, is a teacher in Southern California.

Novelty act the first year

Any wine producer with a celebrity on the front of the bottle will tell you that the wine is pretty important but the brand name is the thing. And there could be no bigger name in the celebrity wine world than Elvis Aaron Presley; Signature Wines of Hayward, Calif., makes wines under the Graceland Cellars label.

Back in 2003, Signature had agreements with 44 universities to make wines with the school logos on them. Scott Cahill, Signature's CEO, wanted to expand by shooting for the stars and land the holy grail of licensing: Elvis. "We traveled to Memphis and met with representatives of Elvis Enterprises and explained what we wanted to do," Cahill said. "They liked what they saw, and Lisa Marie [Elvis Presley's daughter] signed off on it."

As with Marilyn Monroe and James Dean, you're guaranteed a plethora of first-year novelty purchases; the second vintage is the challenge. Cahill has taken care to put quality wine in the bottle, which has become a little easier as Elvis wines have grown to 20,000 cases of chardonnay, merlot, cabernet and a sparkling wine. "As you grow as a negociant, your ability to get better grapes improves."

Cahill reinforces the idea that Elvis wines are for collecting and for drinking wherever he can, such as Elvis Week, held every August in Memphis. Cahill sponsors events including wine dinners featuring his wines. "What I hear Elvis fans saying is, 'I would buy this wine consistently rather than just buy it to put on my shelf,' " Cahill said. "And that's what we're shooting for. We want this to be something that they can be proud to serve at their dinner table or take to a dinner party."

And to up the "wow" factor, Cahill has just released Velvet Elvis, a superpremium red blend that goes for $100. Encased in a velvet box with a velvet label, the high-class 1.5-liter bottle gives a playful wink to Elvis' renowned lowbrow velvet portraiture.

Different Dead approach

While Elvis, James and Marilyn wines rely on their likenesses to catch the collective eye of consumers, makers of J. Garcia wine use original artwork by the Grateful Dead's Poppa Bear, Jerry Garcia, to sell wine commemorating the band leader, who died in 1995.

"J. Garcia is about the wine, but it also is very much about the artist," says Limeng Stroh, senior director of marketing for Beam Wine Estates, which produces J. Garcia and numerous other well-known labels. "It's a combination of the music and the art Jerry did in his lifetime."

Garcia, who grew up near wine country in California's Marin County, produced more than 500 paintings in his lifetime. Deborah Koons Garcia, Garcia's third wife and manager of the $15.4 million estate, approached Beam (then known as Allied Domecq) to see if it could produce a tasteful wine that would also be a platform for Garcia's artwork. Allied Domecq jumped at the chance to produce a wine with ready-made brand recognition.

Of course, the family didn't want anything tacky or ill-suited for the label. They consciously left Garcia's image off and also went with the more subtle initial "J" rather than spelling out Jerry. As for the artwork, which changes with every vintage, Beam and members of Garcia's estate hunt through the hundreds of canvases for the image that best reflects the wine inside.

The wine had to live up to the family's expectations, too. "The estate wanted to make sure that the wine was made well, and once we showed them Erik's work with Simi, Chateau Ste. Michelle and with Clos du Bois, they were very impressed," Stroh said, referring to J. Garcia winemaker Erik Olsen, who also makes Clos du Bois wines. "Still, they blind-tasted his wines against some top competitors. They wanted to make sure that his wine came out on top."

Like the Grateful Dead, with its legions of fans, J. Garcia has developed a strong following since its release in 2003. Sales in 2005 topped 40,000 cases of chardonnay, merlot, cabernet sauvignon and zinfandel. Not surprisingly, it can be found on the wine list of Hard Rock Cafés in the United States but also has found favor with a number of fine-dining restaurants, like Atlanta's Food 101, which held a wine dinner this summer featuring J. Garcia wines.

Ron Eyester, a card-carrying Deadhead and Food 101 chef, created signature dishes with a mischievous nod to the drug culture that swirled around Jerry's band. Nearly 170 diners enjoyed items like duck burrito with marinated mushrooms and goo-ball brownies while grooving to Swami Gone Bananas, a local Dead cover band.

"They're good wines, but not over the top," said Eyester, who named his daughter Midland after the late Dead keyboardist Brent Midland and counts several J. Garcia wines in his home wine collection. "They are very food-friendly and provide a good backdrop for lots of dishes." The J. Garcia dinner observed the anniversaries of the guitarist's death and birth, which occur three days apart in August. Eyester will reprise the event in 2007.

"The Jerry Garcia estate is happy to see how the wine is going," said Stroh, who reports that the wines, priced at $12 to $15 a bottle, don't resonate with typical caravaning Dead fans. "We see this as a baby boomer type of item. We like to think that people drinking J. Garcia might love the Dead, but they are driving around in BMWs and enjoying the finer things in life."

And Marilyn, Elvis, James and Jerry wouldn't have it any other way.

Gil Kulers writes the Kulers Uncorked wine column every Thursday in the AJC Food & Drink section. He is also the beverages instructor for the culinary arts program at Chattahoochee Technical College.