Alexandra Grant says her life might still have been creative even if she had never become a visual artist.
In a new PEOPLE interview, Grant said she would probably have become a winemaker if her career had taken a different path. The answer came during the Los Angeles launch of the latest LOVE Wine release, her collaboration with J Vineyards & Winery and her grantLOVE project.
Grant has built her work around visual art, books, language, and philanthropy. Her answer pointed to another field where craft, patience, collaboration, and place all shape the finished work.
Grant’s Interest in Wine Started in Paris
Grant told PEOPLE that her interest in wine began when she was 12 and living in Paris with her mother, whose diplomatic work brought them to the city for a summer.
She remembered exploring Paris during the day and going out to dinner with her mother at night. One early restaurant experience introduced her to the way wine could be part of food, conversation, and culture.
The childhood memory gives the LOVE Wine project a personal starting point. Grant’s connection to wine did not begin with a celebrity partnership or a brand launch; it began with travel, restaurants, and the kind of sensory memory that stayed with her.
LOVE Wine Connects Art, Winemaking, and Philanthropy
J Vineyards describes LOVE Wine as a limited-edition California Brut Cuvée created with grantLOVE, Grant’s art and design initiative. Estate Director and Head Winemaker Nicole Hitchcock leads the wine side of the collaboration.
The project is built around women in wine and art. Each bottling features label artwork created with a female-identified artist.
The first LOVE Wine release featured work by Genevieve Gaignard. The second bottling features a label by Sonoma-based graphic artist Blanca Molina, according to J Vineyards and a May 19 announcement from the winery.
The New Bottle Highlights Blanca Molina’s Sonoma Story
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The second LOVE Wine label draws from Molina’s Mexican heritage and California upbringing. The May 19 announcement said the design references papel picado, Mexican tile art, embroidery, florals, and regional imagery.
Molina was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, and moved to Sonoma County as a child. Her design background brings the bottle back to the region where the wine is made, while also reflecting the visual language of her family and cultural history.
Grant told PEOPLE that Molina “knocked it out of the park” with the label design.
Grant Compared Winemaking to Painting
Grant told PEOPLE that art and winemaking both involve experimentation and forces outside the creator’s control.
That comparison fits the way LOVE Wine is structured. The project is not only about putting an artist’s label on a bottle. It brings together winemaking, visual design, philanthropy, and a rotating group of women artists.
Grant is still rooted in visual art. Her own site notes that she created grantLOVE and has used the project to raise funds for arts-based nonprofits. She also co-founded X Artists’ Books in 2017, a Los Angeles-based press focused on artist-centered books.
Her Work With Keanu Reeves Also Started in Books
Grant’s wider creative career includes publishing as well as visual art. X Artists’ Books was created by Grant and Keanu Reeves as a small Los Angeles-based press focused on artists’ books and collaborations.
Grant and Reeves had already collaborated on the 2011 book Ode to Happiness, with Reeves writing the text and Grant creating the illustrations.
The wine project now extends Grant’s collaborative work into another field. She is not leaving art behind; she is using LOVE Wine to connect artists, winemakers, and nonprofit support through a bottle designed to carry more than a label.