The vintner, the poet and the warrior Kenny Johnson

Kenny Johnson makes wine, writes poetry and trains mixed martial arts fighters

by Elka Worner

Kenny Johnson is the dream date. A man who can woo you with his poetry, then pour you a glass of Cabernet, which he helped make.

“My goal is to have people read my poem with a nice glass of wine,” Johnson said. “Both should be finished and enjoyed together.”

It sounds like something from another era, as if Cyrano de Bergerac and Shakespeare were reborn as a former Olympic wrestling hopeful who decided to channel his heart into verse and vineyards. Johnson, a man of contrasts, is part warrior, part romantic, and entirely devoted to the idea that love and art are timeless.

At the center of his story is The Rose and the Silver Bell, a sprawling, 78-page poem that took him seven years to write, all in rhyme and meter. Johnson believes it is the longest love poem of its kind in the English language. He calls it an epic of passion and perseverance, a story that transcends time.

“It reminds you that it’s never too late to believe in the magic of true love,” Johnson said.

The poem follows Elizabeth, a modern widowed woman resigned to solitude, and Ran, an enigmatic Scottish highwayman whose tenderness matches his strength. The pair blur the boundaries of time in their quest for a connection.

“He needs her softness. She needs his toughness,” he said.

Johnson’s own journey to the page was nearly as winding. He first put pen to paper at 12, about the same time he began wrestling competitively. Inspired by the film Somewhere in Time with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour and captivated by H.G. Wells’ tales of time travel, he began sketching out the bones of a story that would take decades to complete.

“I’d write whenever I had a spark of creativity, on napkins, scraps of paper, even one of my T-shirts,” he said.

Wrestling eventually carried him through high school, college, and to the Olympic training center in Colorado. He went on to coach at Mira Costa High School, then opened two South Bay gyms where he has trained dozens of athletes, including 31 UFC fighters. But even amid the physical grind of sport, Johnson kept a poet’s heart.

Twice married and divorced, the 53-year-old Rancho Palos Verdes resident insists he is still a believer in love. He’s unashamed of his vulnerability, a quality he believes is more strength than bravado.

“So many men want to show how macho they are,” he said. “But truly, being soft is a strength. You have to be willing to take the hit.”

It was this spirit that led him to wine. A few years ago, while tasting in the Santa Ynez Valley, Johnson wondered: What wine was she drinking? He was referring to Elizabeth, the heroine of his poem, and the glass she lifts within its pages.

Raised in Racine, Wisconsin, Johnson knew little about alcohol beyond the beer culture of his youth. But the question stayed with him until fate and a friend provided an answer. Paul Mack, a longtime acquaintance in the wine distribution business whose son trained with Johnson at Mira Costa, introduced him to a vintner in Paso Robles. Together, they crafted a Cabernet Sauvignon that Johnson immediately recognized.

“When I tasted this wine, I believed it was the one,” Johnson said. “This is the wine she was drinking in the book. It came full circle. The book inspired the wine.”

Nine months later, Johnson had 66 cases, 700 bottles in all. He glued the labels on himself and delivered the cases to stores and restaurants in Southern California. At less than $40 a bottle, the wine quickly found fans. “Kenny puts the same passion into winemaking that he does into wrestling and poetry,” Mack said.

At the 31st Annual Manhattan Wine Auction, at the Manhattan Country Club this past May, Johnson’s booth overflowed with curious tasters. Mack’s son helped pour while Johnson charmed guests with stories of love, time travel, and verse. For Mack, the response was no surprise.

“He has such drive and authenticity,” he said. “People can feel it. That’s why they line up.”

And just as he did with his poetry, Johnson refuses to treat the wine as a mere product. For him, it is a vessel for romance, a way to bring people together.

“Nobody’s ever had a book named after a wine, or a wine named after a book,” Johnson said. “I wanted both to be experienced as one.”

The bottle bears the name of his epic, “The Rose and the Silver Bell.” Its deep crimson mirrors the intensity of the poem, while its finish lingers, like a kiss that “lasts for all of time,” as one of Johnson’s verses puts it.

Uncorked owner Jeff Bonafede, who sells the wine at his Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach stores, described it as a “classic, well-balanced Cabernet.”

“It has an elegant, smooth, and long finish; but not as long as his poem,” Bonafede said.

When he isn’t coaching fighters at Black House MMA in Redondo Beach, Johnson is delivering wine, reading aloud at small gatherings, or simply dreaming up his next project. He knows he may never fully escape the image of a romantic from another age, and he’s fine with that.

“There is hope,” Johnson said. “You have to be vulnerable, and yes, you’re going to get hurt. But you keep going. Love is worth the risk.”

For Johnson, the poet-warrior with a wrestler’s grit and a dreamer’s heart, love isn’t just something to write about. It’s something to pour into words, into bottles, and into the lives of anyone willing to believe that romance never goes out of style. Pen