It seems that, sooner or later, every celeb with a few million to spare is seduced by the idea of looking across the manicured rows of their very own vines, sipping a glass of wine made from their very own grapes.

Francis Ford Coppola spent the proceeds from The Godfather on his first chunk of vineyards – 2,000 acres of the old Inglenook estate in Napa – back in the early Seventies, and immediately had to put the whole lot up as security for a loan to make his next movie, Apocalypse Now.

“Now people say the film is a great success, but it was almost a big flop and I was heartbroken at the idea that I might lose this beautiful place,” he told me once, when we met to taste his wine. “Financially, it was tough.”

Coppola is not the only movie name in the game, however. Gérard Depardieu has an estate in the Loire, and jointly owns vineyards in Argentina, Bordeaux and Italy. Antonio Banderas co-owns a winery in Ribera del Duero. Sam Neill is proprietor of Two Paddocks in Central Otago, New Zealand, which makes very good pinot noir.