Sportscaster Jim Nantz on his second calling: winemaking

(CBS News) CBS announcer Jim Nantz is one of the most familiar faces in sports. He's hosted everything from the Super Bowl to the Masters. For 30 years, sports fans have heard a familiar voice deliver some of broadcasting's most memorable lines.

"I have been in people's living rooms for half my life with a blue blazer on. I think people think I sleep in that blazer, I go out to dinner with that CBS coat on - and that is my life and I am so proud of that life," he said. "But this truly is my life right here."

Nantz's "here" is northern California. He has found his second calling - making wine.

He told CBS News' Jeff Glor that there are some similarities between the two jobs.

"I think every time I go into the booth I have to have my research down cold and I want to be able to be there to tell a story about a big sporting event," he said. "Now on the wine side I was researched - I spent a good 10 years combing through valleys, talking to vintners, meeting with people and reading all about it to try and understand the business and I wanted our product to something be authentic

Nantz's dream to create his own wines became a reality in 2009, after a chance meeting with Peter Deutsch.

"I was in a restaurant in Greenwich, Conn., when this towering 6'5'' guy came up to me and interrupted my dinner and he said 'Excuse me, I am Peter Duetsch. I just read your book and I wanted to say hi.' I said 'Thank you - and what do you do?' And he said 'I am in the wine business.' And I said 'Really.'"

Deutsch, along with his father, built one of the most successful wine companies in the country, responsible for more than 30 brands of wine, including Yellow Tail.

Deutsch's relationship with his father drew him to a copy of Nantz's book. He told Glor that if Nantz hadn't written that book, they would not be where they are today.

That chance meeting became an opportunity to make a new product, just as soon as Nantz answered one pressing question.

"I asked him point blank 'Does your name have to be on the label?'" said Deutsch. "His answer was on the money 'If it can help us let's do it, but I'd rather it be off in the background' and that fit with my vision of this brand as well."

"Thankfully I knew enough about the business to know that could be a disaster," said Nantz. "You could be the most beloved singer, golfer, whatever but if you put your name on the label, it's a tough sell. The graveyard of celebrity wines is running out of space and that was the answer he wanted to here."

"It's not a vanity plate. I am lucky enough to have the dream job. Truly since I was 11-years-old I wanted to work for CBS," he said. "I always wanted to call the great sporting events."

The name they settled on was "The Calling."

Along with Nantz's wife Courtney, the two men have partnered with some of the best vineyards and winemakers in Calif.

Last month, in the Nantz's hometown of Carmel, Calif., they launched their fifth product, a pinot noir.

Today their wines are available in more than 2,000 restaurants across the country. Starting at $30 per bottle retail, the wine is not cheap. But Nantz believes the quality exceeds bottles that cost twice as much.

"You know I look at it like this: I didn't grow up with a family that had an endless supply of money. I grew up in a modest loving family environment," said Nantz. "I wouldn't want to put something on the market that my parents in their time couldn't go to a restaurant and afford to buy it."

Family ties are the reason this wine was launched in the first place and they're the reason Nantz hopes it will last.

"This was an opportunity to try to take something that I taught myself a level of expertise and then could apply that passion and energy into something that could become a company that stays into my family for generations to come," he said.