Norah Jones returned to familiar territory at Electric Lady Studios in New York City, where she recorded portions of her 2020 album Pick Me Up Off the Floor. The album topped the Jazz chart and featured her deeper cut “This Life,” which was never released as a single but became the namesake of her new wines, launched at the iconic studio.
Produced by Maison Wessman, founded by the Icelandic businessman Róbert Wessman, Jones’ inaugural This Life wines mark the first brand partnership in Jones’ career and feature a 2024 Rosé, produced in the Bergerac region in Southwest France, and Crémant sparkling wine made from Chardonnay, from the Languedoc region of Limoux.
“The name was the hardest part,” said Jones of her This Life wines. “We tried a lot of different song titles, and then we Frenched them up a little bit, and it was kind of weird. It’s literally like naming a band. Everything’s taken. So we found an obscure song of mine [‘This Life’] that … nobody knows.”
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Located nearly 15 miles from the Saint-Émilion region of Bordeaux, Maison Wessman launched in the early 2000s after Wessman purchased a 12th-century castle, Château de Saint-Cernin, based in Saint-Cernin-de-Labarde in Périgord. Maison Wessman had its first vintage in 2016, a N° 1 Saint-Cernin Rouge, which won “Best Regional Winegrower of the Year” in the Bergerac and Duras appellation. Today, Maison Wessman is the largest producer in Southwest France, with more than a million bottles produced.
Alongside Wessman and oenologist Michel Rolland, who has been advising Maison Wessman since 2016, Jones, who is also part-owner of the winery, has been involved in the blending process for the wines, including the Rosé, which is a blend of Grenache and Syrah.
“During the winemaking process, it’s like music—you have notes, bass, a singer,” said Wessman during the This Life launch. Wessman purchased 45 hectares in Limoux and another 50 hectares in Bergerac, where Maison Wessman has its home base. In mid-June 2025, Maison Wessman opened a new restaurant helmed by Michelin-star chef Thierry Marx. Along with an organic vegetable garden supplying the kitchen and guest houses, which are part of Wessman’s grander vision, the winery also holds concerts twice per month in the cellar.
“It’s a small eco-village in France,” Wessman added. “It’s not just selling bottles of wine.”
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Maison Wessman is also working with another musician, Kaleo frontman JJ Julius Son, on a wine collection. Both grew up in Mosfellsbæri, Iceland, a small village 20 minutes outside of the capital of Reykjavik.
Coincidentally, Jones will kick off the European leg of her Visions tour, supporting her 2024 album of the same name, in Reykjavik on July 2. Once the tour concludes, Jones will return to Bergerac to work with Wessman and his team to finalize the blends for the next vintage.
“I went to school for music and learned a lot cerebrally, but I play music from a place in the heart, and the blending process felt very natural in that same way,” said Jones, who gained a deeper appreciation and knowledge of wine from years of touring. “I gravitated to the flavors I liked in different [tank] samples, and then we combined them.”
During her This Life launch, Jones also shared a sample of a new song she recently recorded at Electric Lady Studios. Commissioned by Jimi Hendrix, designed by architect John Storyk, and audio engineer Eddie Kramer, the studio opened its doors less than a month before Hendrix died in 1970.
The studio, where countless albums were recorded from Patti Smith’s Horses, KISS’s Destroyer, and Chic’s eponymous debut, both from 1977, along with everyone from David Bowie, Stevie Wonder, and Led Zeppelin, to Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, and the Rolling Stones, will celebrate its 55th anniversary in August 2025.
“Sometimes you get tapped on the shoulder to do something interesting,” added Jones of her venture into wine. “Wine is a whole new world for me, and it’s really fun to do something different.”
This Life launch at Electric Lady Studios, New York City, June 2025.
Photos: Katy Andrascik
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