Sports Illustrated

Complementary

Peggy Fleming was in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., at a luncheon for breast cancer survivors on Sept. 11, 2001. With all commercial aircraft grounded, the 1968 Olympic figure skating champion was stranded for five days in a hotel, 2,500 miles from her Los Gatos, Calif., home. Working out in the hotel gym got old fast. "I was on the verge of taking a Greyhound across the country," says Fleming, now 59. But fate, in the form of an aviophobic NFL commentator with a well-known luxury bus, intervened.

Fleming and John Madden both worked for ABC Sports at the time, and when her agent learned that he'd be departing the next day from New York City for his home in Livermore, Calif., a plan was hatched. The Maddencruiser detoured to Wilkes-Barre to pick up Fleming, and the two had 52 hours to get to know each other. She mentioned that she and her husband, Greg Jenkins, a retired dermatologist, had planted 650 chardonnay vines in 1999 on an acre near their home. Madden replied that he had his own 100 acres of grapes. Three years later Fleming Jenkins Vineyards & Winery bottled its first commercial vintage, a Syrah using grapes from the Madden Ranch.

Last year Fleming and Jenkins, who work in the vineyard along with three staffers, produced 2,000 cases of wine, from the $50-per-bottle Choreography Cabernet (aromas of cherry and leather with a touch of mint) to the $17 San Francisco Bay Syrah Rosé (peach and honeydew with a hint of cinnamon). Closest to Fleming's heart, though, is the $20 Victories Rosé, also fermented from Madden's grapes. "It's pink and it's beautiful and I love it and John loves it," says Fleming. Best of all, the profits from this wine go toward charities that support research into and awareness of breast cancer, of which Fleming is a nine-year survivor.

On the last Saturday in May, Fleming trotted out the rosé to complement the cream chicken with artichokes and tarragon she was serving to relatives. Tables were set up in her vineyard, near the swings that dangle from oak trees. She and Greg were celebrating the high school graduation of the younger of their two sons. "It'll be an empty nest," says Fleming. "But it's not really going to be empty. We've gone on from kids to grapes."