Sacramento Kings star Domantas Sabonis turns love of wine into business venture
By Lindsay Weber, Sean Cunningham
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SACRAMENTO (KCRA) — Sacramento Kings star Domantas Sabonis is known for dominating the basketball court, but he’s now taking on a new venture with his wife, Shashana Sabonis.
The couple announced the launch of their own premium wine brand, Ones by Sabonis. It’s harvested and produced in their community, one of the world’s most famous wine regions, the Napa Valley.
Since being traded to the Kings, the family began setting down roots and is now seeing the fruits of their labor of love.
“Being able to pick the grapes, doing the smashing, our experience with the harvest this past summer was really cool,” Domantas said. “You see the hard work, you see how much goes into wine.”
The couple said the trade to Sacramento helped fuel their love of the craft and their love of California’s wine region.
“The second that we heard, ‘You’re a king,’ I said, ‘Okay, and we’re moving to Napa,'” Shashana recalled. “We absolutely love it here. We got super involved with the community.”
The pair began a deep education on winemaking and farming. Sacramento’s farm-to-fork culture resonated with them.
“And this has been a project that we get to do together and grow together. And we both have like equal input. And it’s such a creative outlet for us,” Shashana said. “It’s also a great way to decompress from the stress of a basketball game, and you can put your mind somewhere else. Sometimes, some guys like to play video games and we like to discuss our wine.”
While it’s been a passion project, it hasn’t been a smooth journey.
“It’s a lot of hard work and it’s a lot of luck,” Domantas said. One of the biggest hurdles is the weather—including a fire that sparked in the region this past summer.
The couple acknowledges that planting roots in an NBA career can be difficult. But to that end, Domantas praised Shashana for helping him keep the balance.
“She’s always pushing me on and off the court to do more and really enjoying things,” he said.
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